The Vivanco family set out to create a project for all wine lovers, and a way to share their own passion for the Culture of Wine, called Dinastia Vivanco.
The Vivanco family have been involved in making and selling wine since 1915. Since then, 4 generations of winemakers have increased their knowledge of the vineyards, the regions and the climates of Rioja. They also bought vineyards throughout the region so they can take advantage of the best each area had to offer – from the ideal climates for Tempranillo in Rioja Alta around Briones and Haro, to high altitude vineyards in Rioja Baja around Tudelilla.
But this story is not just about vineyards and bottles of wine.
The Dinastia Vivanco Winery does make wines that are great expressions of Rioja, and each of its individual varieties. These are wines that take advantage of all the most modern techniques, but they are used to make traditional Rioja wines. You can read about the range of Joven, Crianza and Reserva, as well as the new Limited Production wines here.
The Dinastia Vivanco Museum of the Culture of Wine covers every aspect of wine culture; vineyard, winery, archaeology and art, as well as the every day actions of opening, serving and consuming wine. This is a museum for every wine lover, whatever level of knowledge they might have. There are videos, interactive displays and lots of fun things to learn about – from a single bottle capable of holding 27 litres of wine to erotic corkscrews! For the expert there are ancient drinking vessels, hundreds of live vines from all over the world to check out and compare and ancient texts on wine pre-dating even the printing press. Click here for more information on the museum.
The Dinastia Vivanco Foundation for the Culture of Wine promotes the Culture of Wine through publications, bursaries and research. Like the wine itself, the Culture of WIne is something to be shared and as such the Foundation publishes books on wine like Wine of the Cinema, Wine of the Pharaohs (even the ancient Egyptians had wine), Wine in Literature and more. They also sponsor research by academics and enthusiasts, and are taking the lead in an excavation of an 11th Century winery buried in a vineyard in Rioja.
The Dinastia Vivanco project is for everyone to share.
150,000 people a year come to the museum and over 500,000 bottles of Dinastia Vivanco wine are consumed every year in most parts of the world.
The family believes that the time has come to “Give back to wine, what wine has given to us”, so I’d be very interested to know if you have your own experiences of Dinastia Vivanco you are willing to share.
