Rioja Focus: The Magic of Sierra Cantabria

“El Mágico is one of those rare vineyards planted in the spirit of pre-phylloxera viticulture,” Marcos Eguren, the co-owner and winemaker of Sierra Cantabria, said with a reflective, almost protective tone when I visited the estate earlier this month. It is clear he feels a particular bond with the site, and it’s easy to see why.

The vineyard itself is small, just 1.18 hectares, planted in 1904 on sandy soils with a high proportion of calcium carbonate and limestone subsoil, on a terrace in the Bardallo lieu-dit, or "paraje" in San Vicente de la Sonsierra. The vines are now more than 120 years old, gnarled and deeply rooted in poor soils. Yet their thick, resilient canes suggest careful, consistent work over generations. The traditional planting density, at 1.7 by 1.7 meters, only allows for tilling by mules, a practice that has preserved the structure of the soils, avoiding compaction over the vineyard’s lifetime.

“It was planted by an employee and friend of my grandfather, Jesus Olarte, in 1904. For many years, we picked only the tempranillo for some of our top wines,” Eguren explained. Since 2010, however, the estate has chosen to vinify the entire vineyard as a single wine.

One of the defining features of El Mágico is its diverse planting, with tempranillo, garnacha, monastrell, petit bouschet, graciano, mazuelo and alicante bouschet, alongside other unidentified varieties on the red side, while the whites include viura, garnacha blanca, malvasia, turruntes and calagraño. Before phylloxera, such co-plantations were common. Sometimes they followed a logic; often they reflected what was available, or the need to ensure yield.

The vineyard is now farmed biodynamically, using sheep compost, and is tilled three times a year with mules. Harvest is done in a single pass, except for the garnacha, which ripens later and is not always fully through veraison at the time of picking. The fruit is destemmed by hand while the garnacha ferments with about 30 percent whole clusters. Fermentation takes place in tank, with occasional delestage and daily pump-overs for around 21 days, before the wine is aged for about 16 months in 225- and 500-liter French oak barrels.

The resulting wine sits outside the expected aromatic profile of traditional Rioja. While there is a subtle spice from the oak, it is seamlessly integrated. Aromatically, the wine tends toward floral, red-fruited notes, rather than the cedary, dark-cherry character often associated with tempranillo. In that sense, it reflects a broader shift in Rioja, where vineyards once absorbed into larger blends are increasingly bottled on their own, revealing a more complex and fragmented landscape.

The first vintage, 2010, set the tone. All varieties, including garnacha, were harvested together at the end of October, producing a concentrated but balanced wine, shaped by a cool summer and a dry harvest. The 2011, from a warmer and more uneven year, shows cassis, balsamic notes and underbrush, with a slightly more evolved profile that still holds together.

2012 was an extremely dry year, with a very warm summer that brought hydric stress, though early September rains helped stabilize the vintage. The wine leans toward darker fruit, with a more integrated, compact profile. Neither 2013 nor 2014 was bottled, as they were not considered to meet the estate’s standards.

The 2015 came from another warm year, which began with snowfall and a rainy April before turning hot through the summer. The wine is riper, with more cassis and firmer tannins. The 2016, by contrast, stands out. A dry summer followed by a cool, rainy September produced wines that are more floral, with a tender expression of red fruit and a sense of balance. It was also the first year in which the garnacha was harvested separately.

Among the most compelling vintages in the tasting were 2016, 2018 and 2021 – all from cooler years that seem to have suited the vineyard. 2021, which Eguren said was a “miracle vintage,” followed a rainy autumn and a cold winter, marked by heavy snowfall, before a dry summer. September brought cooler temperatures and some rain, allowing for a long, even ripening. The wine is precise, with chalky tannins and a finely etched structure, showing red fruit with a subtle underbrush note. The 2018 is more restrained, with a softer, more fluid tannin profile, shaped by a cool, wet growing season.

El Mágico belongs to a small but growing group of vineyards in Rioja that are being rediscovered and bottled on their own. For decades, sites like this were lost into larger crianza and reserva blends. Now, they are emerging as individual expressions – not following Rioja’s traditional aromatic profile but instead offering a subtle, more layered expression with more florality and red fruit. These characteristics reflect the diverse patchwork found across the region’s vineyards, not only in terms of varieties, but also altitude, orientation, soils and the microclimates they create.

– Jacobo García Andrade, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. You can sort the wines by vintage and score. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.