The town of Quel sits in the Cidacos river valley, between the Sierra Yerga and Sierra la Hez mountain ranges, at the heart of Rioja Oriental. Here in the Barrio de Bodegas wineries have existed since the 18th century, with ancient winemaking caves at the base of the sheer sandstone cliffs, where grapes were gravity-fed from the vineyards above.
This has been the home of the Pérez Cuevas family (who established and own Bodegas Ontañón) for generations, and the new Queirón winery is the fulfilment of Gabriel's dream.
Established at the start of the new Rioja classification system allowing wines to be labelled according to their origin, their portfolio highlights the winery's heritage, and family's long relationship, with the town of Quel.

The Tempranillo and Graciano grapes are selected from high altitude vineyards. The Tempranillo vines in La Pasada vineyard grow at 790m altitude, surrounded by oak and pine trees, and the Sierra Yerga and Sierra de la Hez mountains. Here poor sandy soils mix with iron-rich clay. The Graciano vines grow in several small plots at El Pozo - planted in stony sand and clay soils at 650m.

After hand-harvesting the grapes were macerated for 5 days below 5ºC, prior to fermentation. The resulting wine spends 24 months in new oak barrels of extra-fine grain - 70% French and 30% American - with varying levels of toast. Plus a further 36 months in bottle in their underground cellar before release.

Lamb cutlets, albondingas (meatballs) and black pudding. Perhaps not all at once!