Getting to know Marcos Eguren, Sierra Cantabria’s Technical Director

As the fourth generation of a family dedicated to the world of wine in Rioja since 1870, it seems that everything was set out for his professional career. However, this winemaker and owner of Viñedos y Bodegas Sierra Cantabria, together with his brother Miguel Ángel, has been the architect of a revolution that shook Rioja wine in the 1990s and has spread to other world renowned Spanish wine regions like Toro and Castilla-La Mancha. Named “Winemaker of the Year” by wine guru Tim Atkin, he now has a collection of single-plot wines that are a pure reflection of the terroir. As he would say himself these are “wines that are made great in the vineyard”.

Let’s learn a little more about Marcos Eguren, winemaker and technical director at Bodegas Sierra Cantabria.

- The fourth generation of a winemaking legacy like your family’s, did you ever consider working in an industry other than wine? What is it about the vineyard that draws you in?
When I was a kid, I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. What was clear to my father was that if I had 5 minutes free, he would send me to work in the vineyard or the winery. I am the fourth generation of a winemaking family that has been selling its own wine to the end customer. However, many generations before that were winemakers too.
I was born above the winery and the vineyard is in my DNA. So after finishing high school at a tough boarding school, which had taken away my desire to study, my father insisted that I should study, so I decided to study oenology at “La Escuela de la Vid de Madrid”. A whole new world opened up to me. I discovered all the emotions that could be brought out by what I had seen and done all my life as an everyday thing. It was a time that I remember with great fondness because besides having a great time, it was these things that got me deeply hooked on wine.

- Of everyone in your family, who has had the most positive influence on your everyday life? And outside of them, could you tell us about some of your mentors and how you have used their teachings in your work?
At home, my father has been my biggest influence. I started working the vineyard and making wine with him. He always told us to be open to the world and to be interested in learning about wine regions other than our own. By discovering other places, you gain cultural richness and a broader perspective of wine.

On the other hand, in the Escuela de la Vid, I met great teachers who taught me to reflect on and go deeper in every step of making wine. One of them was Luis Hidalgo, who wrote some of the most important works on Spanish enology and viticulture, he was one of my great mentors. From then I set myself the goal of dignifying carbonic maceration. A type of winemaking that had been done in Rioja for centuries, but without the rigour and quality it deserved.

- In your professional career you have always worked with your brother Miguel Ángel and it seems like you have done quite well. You make the perfect team where you complement each other’s strengths and skills in an efficient and balanced way. You can do things your brother can’t and vise versa?
My brother and I are absolutely complementary. The truth is that we have been working together for a long time. He studied agricultural engineering and then did an MBA focussed on business management and when, in 1988, my father professionally separated from his siblings, we had to start from scratch. I worked in production, my brother Miguel in management and my brother-in-law Jesús in the commercial department, and we started our own project with great enthusiasm. At the beginning I was the visible head, but after a few years, when the project went in a good direction, we spread the work out naturally between us without even having to talk about it. I worked in production and Miguel in management, control and development.

- Each of your projects is a reflection of a landscape, a job and a people and, a small sample is enough to get people excited. This hard work has now been recognised with the title of “winemaker of the year” by the prestigious British reviewer Tim Atkin in his ‘Rioja Special Report 2023’ What does this title mean to you? Have you noticed any changes since earning this title?
I haven’t noticed any changes. But I am extremely grateful. Atkin is a courageous person, who dared to give a classification to the Grand Cru Classe de Bordeaux and he has my full respect. Receiving such recognition, like the one Wine Enthusiast also gave me, is always a pleasure. But the truth is that I am from a small town and, sometimes, these recognitions feel a bit big to me. You have to enjoy them, but not believe it, because there are really very good winemakers out there today.

- A tireless explorer of vineyards in different wine regions of Spain, you have been described by friends and critics as a vineyard collector. What does a vineyard have to do to win your heart? Is it a guarantee of great wines?
I always say that wine is a world of emotions, so for a vineyard to make me fall in love with it, it has to convey emotion. When I arrived in Toro and discovered ungrafted vineyards, it was very exciting. Standing in front of a vine that is more than 100 years old and that creates grapes makes your hair stand on end. Nature is impressive and, you don't know why, but it conveys emotions. Of course then come the technical aspects that will bring the quality, but with nature you never know, it can always surprise you. The secret to the value of a grape variety is how its purity comes through in the wine.

- Your first success was to improve the quality of carbonic maceration reds with your Sierra Cantabria Murmurón wine. Do you think that since then there has been an improvement in the quality of Rioja wines? In your opinion, how are the new generations of vignerons in Rioja?
When I finished my studies, I left obsessed with the idea of dignifying carbonic maceration. This type of winemaking was just coming into fashion in Beaujolais (France) but had been used in Rioja for centuries. However, it was done in an unskilled manner. At that time everyone was tied to the vine and thought nothing of maceration. By giving it more prominence, you avoid defects and intensify the optimal results of carbonic maceration. The freshness, fruitiness and vitality of a young wine that is very much our own. Today the wines have unquestionably improved.
The new generations are very well prepared, they are making waves and I'm sure they are going to do incredible things. If there is one thing that young people have, it is the desire to innovate. They are looking for something different to stand out from the rest. Although I am still a classic and I think the best wines are still those made in the traditional way, I am expecting great things from these new generations.

- Then you made the leap to producing great crianza reds, one of the distinguishing features of Rioja wines. What do you think of the classification of Rioja wines according to their aging? Is it a distinguishing feature of the DOCa. that should be preserved or does it limit the character of the wine itself?
I have always been quite critical on this issue. The reality is that this classification doesn’t say anything about quality, it only tells you numbers. In other words, if I have a crianza that I haven’t sold and I leave it longer, can it become a reserva? This makes no sense, because in the end it is the same wine with different aging times. The barrel must be a common feature that links all the components that create the wine: the fruit, the soil, the climate, the people, but it cannot be the identifying feature of the wine. Contrary to what people might think, a new barrel will always have less influence on the wine than an old one. The used one has about 10 litres of wine embedded in the wood, which are unprotected and can affect the new wine with oxidations, odours or other defects.

- A benchmark of wines from the DOCa. Rioja, you have said more than once that you want to turn Rioja into a little Burgundy where they focus on plots of land. Do you think the future of the denomination lies in this system?
It’s not that I want to turn Rioja into Burgundy. It already is. They have an infinity of soils, climates, orientations, etc. that make them unique. What needs to be done is to put more value on these things. That is to say, to really believe in them. When I travelled to Burgundy, a whole world opened up to me. I thought, this is what we have to do in Rioja: Single-plot wines. However, this concept was too revolutionary in Spain. To say that we wanted to capture the expression of the vineyard in the wine sounded like double Dutch. Even the then president of the DOCa. Rioja wrote an article called “Vinos de pago o de pega” in which he defended Rioja as one big vineyard where each winery marked its identity and where it made no sense to differentiate by plots. The “Single Vineyard” classification is directly linked to a plot, it only classifies the age or production, but never talks about the intrinsic quality of the wine. For a wine to be a great wine, it must prove itself over many years. It is not a question of numbers, but of facts.

- Outside Rioja you have also tried your luck and have managed to capture the essence of other regions perfectly. What is it about Teso La Monja that has made it one of the legends of Spanish wine?
What it has is very simple: a vineyard that is completely unique. Today there are great vineyards, but there are none like Teso La Monja. Purity, magic, strength and unique expressiveness. A unique grape that relies on minimal intervention in the winery in order to preserve and not alter this unique identity.

- We know that you are attentive to every one of the wines made in your wineries from beginning to end. San Vicente, El Puntido, La Nieta, Amancio, El Bosque, Alabaster, Victorino... Could you tell us which one is your favourite? Is it the same one that has given you the most headaches or, on the contrary, one where production has been all plain sailing?
Every moment has a perfect wine. For example, with my wife we usually open a San Vicente, a wine that has marked the beginnings of the company and that bears the name of our patron saint and that of all winegrowers. On the other hand, with my friends I always go for Sierra Cantabria Colección Privada because it is jovial, cheerful and everyone likes it. At home, however, the one we drink most is Sierra Cantabria Murmurón, my father’s favourite. This wine takes you directly to the winemaker’s favourite moment: the grape harvest. This last one is the one that has given me the most headaches because it was a challenge for me in the early days, as I said before, when I wanted to dignify carbonic maceration.

- With so many projects on the go, you must need some down time. What do you spend your free time doing? Do you have a hobby that allows you to escape from your worries?
I like sports a lot. The whole family enjoys skiing. It allows us to travel together, enjoy the snow, the landscape, the gastronomy and share good experiences without any stress. Lately, I’ve also taken up mountain biking. Getting lost in the wonderful landscapes that we have in San Vicente de la Sonsierra is priceless.

- Finally, could you tell us the name of a wine that has recently won you over and why?
I have said before that wine is a world of emotions linked to the moment you are in and the people you are with. That’s why my friends’ wines are my great weakness. Wines from colleagues like Álvaro Palacios and Juan Carlos López de Lacalle are all about emotion.