With a long winemaking tradition, several members of the San Pedro family work their own vineyards in the village of Laguardia at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria mountains. Javier San Pedro was the first to make the leap from the cosechero tradition (the local wine producers who used to sell their wines in bulk) to bottling his own wines with the launch of Bodegas Vallobera together with his then wife Ana Ortega in 1990. His brother Carlos is behind Pujanza and his son Javier makes his own wines since 2013.
Javier San Pedro owns 109Ha of vines in Rioja Alavesa and tends an additional 80Ha, most of them owned by friends and family.
Vallobera handles around 2m kilos of grapes a year. The style of the wines favour fruit over oak as is traditional in Rioja Alavesa. Reds are 100% Tempranillo and are aged in French oak barrels. With 65% of the wines sold abroad, Vallobera has built a reputation for good-value wines.
The flagship red is Vallobera Crianza (600,000 bottles, about €8 in Spain), a seamless, easy-to-drink wine. Their carbonic maceration (400,000 bottles, €6) red is very popular among locals as well as in northern Spain. The premium range includes Finca Vallobera (90,000 bottles, €15) and Terrán de Vallobera (7,000 bottles, €30), a consistent, terroir-driven red Tempranillo grown at high elevation. Terrán and Vallobera Colección Familiar Reserva (3,000 bottles, €33) are only made in the best vintages.
El marido de mi amiga (My Friend's Husband, 100,000 bottles, €7 in Spain) is a semi-sweet white intended for young people who are starting to enjoy wine, whereas the dry Caudalía (€11.5), launched in the 2000s, was one of the brands that tried to give more prominence to Rioja whites. The latest addition to the range is a rosé: Yoanna (€7.50) is a blend of Tempranillo, Viura and Sauvignon Blanc that has been named after the producers' daughter.
