Meet Victor, the Young King of Ri-oj-an Roll

Q&A

I managed to catch up with Victor to talk about his achievements over the past decade, why their experimental wines are as important as their core stuff and what his vision holds for the next decade.

Since you took the helm in 2010, what was your vision for the Manzanos family business at that time and has it altered much since then?

“My vision has always been to create and consolidate our leadership in the industry and be an organisation recognised for being passionate about self-improvement through a competitive team that is excited about managing our client’s experience.”

He added, “It has never changed, I am happy to hire people that can make a living out of the profits that our brand generates. We are a close team that treats each other as family.”

As a young team, you must have encountered many hurdles along the way. How did you overcome them?

Victor is unequivocal when he says, “By working harder. Yes, I know what you are referring to and yes, this business is very conservative, and being a really young leader can be daunting. I heard a lot of comments but we just kept working and working, possibly harder.”

Rioja is not typically known for being dynamic, especially with one of the strictest appellation controlling bodies in the world. Trying new approaches therefore requires patience, courage and a little tenacity, all qualities that Victor and his leadership team possess in abundance.

Today you’re a major ‘Top 10’ producer in the DOCa Rioja but how are you able to find the balance between volume and quality?

“Quality is a sine qua non, our top priority and something that our clients know that is in our DNA. We cannot offer what we cannot guarantee. We only produce from our owned or controlled vineyard and our technical team manages the whole elaboration process to meet our client’s needs.

We do not have big volumes, in fact, we have quite small productions for each brand, but what we have is different wineries with different vineyards, each with its own terroir. We acquired some of these and we have kept their own identity.”

Victor sums it up by saying, “So if you think of what Manzanos collectively owns can be considered as volume, once you get into the detail, you will find small and very different elaboration styles and wines that we produce in small quantities.”

How important is it to be able to create innovative, artisanal wines like the Singular Vineyard wines and other experimental wines alongside your major brands?

“Really important. It’s what keeps it interesting. One cannot keep the leadership in the industry without innovating. I think innovation is part of our everyday work.”

In addition to the single vineyard project, Victor and his Head Winemaker Borja Ripa are currently trialling a White Tempranillo with extended skin contact and an orange wine too.

He concludes, “We want to be ahead of future trends that we are working on right now.”

Your wines sell extremely well in the UK on-trade, what are the key characteristics in the wines that help to sustain this?

“In the UK, I think you want to keep it classic. I find UK customers really like that very classic Rioja style. If the wine is easy to drink, aged in good oak and coming from the best fruit, it is a winner.

Having a lot of our own vineyards is what makes it possible for us to maintain this style year after year.”

When I last saw you, you were beginning an ambitious eno-tourism project in Haro, the historical wine town of the region. How is that coming along?

“Actually this coming 22^nd of April, our winery Bodegas Manzanos Haro is opening its doors! This will be a major thing in Haro, the capital of the Rioja wine region.

Of course, we are not doing all the plans we originally had for this place (hotel and so on), but we have been doing a good renovation to the oldest winery of Haro and the Rioja region. Plus, this winery is the only one located right in the heart of Haro, so a lot of tourists are looking forward to visiting it!

I invite all of our UK customers to come this first summer. It’s literally just an hour away from Bilbao airport!”

It’s clearly been a tough trading decade but you’ve still grown your family’s company from a turnover of €1.3m to over €40m. What do you hope to achieve by 2030?

“Our approach now is really simple: keep doing what we are doing but improving every day. We want to consolidate and make our brand reach more homes. We want people to enjoy a bit more life and celebrate every day for whatever reason.

We are here to enjoy and wine is for sure a facilitator!”.

We’re with you 100% on that one.

Finally, which wine/s are you most proud of and why?

“My favourite wines are those of my client, meaning that if they make them happy, I’m happy. It’s a rewarding feeling that we only experience when we put all our passion and effort into something and then we see people enjoying it. This is my best feeling.”

He adds, “I know there are different tastes and that we are all different, even the same person in different moments can prefer different wines so I am just happy offering people what they want to enjoy.”

A huge thank you to Victor from us all at Inn Express, for taking the time out of his hectic schedule to chat with us.

For more details about the fantastic Manzanos range that we stock, see here.

The title of the piece is not intended to be misleading and bears no relevance to the small, progressive collective of Spanish winemakers known as 'Rioja ’n Roll’.