Labastida · Rioja Alavesa
Área Pequeña
Brothers Koldo and Joseba García Quintana make single-parcel wines from their family's old vines in Labastida, Rioja Alavesa — farmed ecologically, picked by hand and fermented with wild yeasts.
In Labastida, both García and Quintana are names long tied to the vines. And, like most growing families in the village, theirs traditionally grew grapes for other people: the fruit was picked, weighed and sold on to bodegas in the area, and the wine that came of it carried someone else's name.
In 2018 the brothers Koldo and Joseba García Quintana took over the family’s small vineyard holding with one clear aim: to give each of their parcels the value it deserved. They describe the plan in three words — reinforcing, developing, orienting. Reinforcing their relationship with their soils and landscape. Developing an ecological way of farming. And orienting their grapes towards bodegas that understand and value the work.
Then, as they put it, because it couldn’t be any other way, they started making wine from the plots with the most complex soils and the greatest potential — each one separately.
Los Llanos, and the first vintage
The first was Los Llanos. In 2020 their friends at Bodegas Tierra gave them the chance to make wine from it for the first time: a single vineyard beneath the Sierra de Toloño, planted in 1920 on clay-limestone with sandy topsoil, with Tempranillo, Garnacha and Viura growing side by side as old Rioja vineyards often do. It was the first step towards the small range they make today, and it is still the wine that best explains them.
“Work today without waiting for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be another today.” Área Pequeña’s motto
Labastida
Labastida sits between the Sierra de Toloño and the Ebro valley, at the western edge of Rioja Alavesa. It was first recorded as Bastida in 1242, and it still has the look of a fortified medieval town: arched gateways, baroque mansions and old cellars tunnelled beneath the streets. Today it is home to about 1,500 people, and vineyards shape both its economy and its identity.
For visitors, the brothers say, Labastida is history, heritage and wine in one place. For them it is the origin of everything they do.
Subsierra
Área Pequeña is one of nine family wineries in Subsierra, an association of growers and winemakers from Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Alta founded in 2024. Their vines and cellars all shelter beneath the Sierra de Cantabria on the left bank of the Ebro — hence the name — and they share a commitment to sustainable farming and to wines that taste of where they come from.
In the glass
The wines
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Red · Tempranillo & GarnachaGarcía Quintana
The family name on the label, and a selection of their oldest vines chosen to say what Labastida means to them. 60% Tempranillo, 40% Garnacha; wild-yeast ferment in steel, then steel and 500-litre French oak. Fresh red fruit over a floral background.
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Red · single vineyard, planted 1920Los Llanos
One parcel under the Sierra de Toloño — 80% Tempranillo with Garnacha and Viura planted alongside. Sixteen months in foudre and 500-litre barrels, then five months together in a concrete egg. Unfined, unfiltered.
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Red · single vineyard at 640 metresGarnacha
Garnacha from one high, sandy parcel rich in limestone. Aged in 500-litre French oak and bottled without fining or filtration. White flowers and spice; fine, polished and fresh.
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White · single-vineyard ViuraMakarralde
Viura from shallow, sandy limestone at the foot of the Toloño. Pressed straight from the crate, fermented in 500-litre French oak and kept ten months on its lees. Nuts, ripe fruit, a silky texture and a citrus finish.
Photographs from Área Pequeña
From Una Copa