Rafael Vivanco

The Climb

Winemaking at Bodegas Vivanco is an exercise in continuity as much as control. With Rafael Vivanco in the post, the work is about daily calibration: shaping wines with precision while keeping them aligned to the house’s identity. In Briones, where La Rioja’s vine culture is part of the ground underfoot, the job asks for technical discipline and a clear read on place.

Today

Across white and red Rioja, the work moves between different expressions of the region with a practical hand. Rafael Vivanco describes the cellar approach plainly: “I combine innovation and I'm using mostly French oak.” That puts the method in clear terms — measured change, with French oak carrying much of the structural load, and no attempt to disguise the wine’s shape under excess treatment. The same logic carries back to the vineyard. “All the Vivanco wines come from our own vineyards, so the idea was to experiment and try to find the best way suited to each of those different grape varieties to bring diversity of Rioja in our Vivanco wines.” The emphasis is on matching variety to site and using experiment as a tool, not a slogan: different grapes, different needs, different expressions within the same estate.

Signature

Rafael's signature wines include Vivanco Blanco 2024, Vivanco Crianza 2022, and Vivanco Reserva 2019. Read together, they show a cellar working across range rather than repetition: the white for freshness and clarity, the crianza for a middle register, and the reserva for deeper layering. All carry the same family name, but each sits in a different part of the estate’s vocabulary.

In Their Words “All the Vivanco wines come from our own vineyards, so the idea was to experiment and try to find the best way suited to each of those different grape varieties to bring diversity of Rioja in our Vivanco wines.” “I combine innovation and I'm using mostly French oak.”