A century of DOCa Rioja: “If it ain't broke, why fix it?”

Brigitte Jurczyk, 20.05.2025

María José López de Heredia is the fourth generation to run the almost 150-year-old Viña Tondonia winery in the famous Rioja wine region. In this interview, she explains what the DOCa centennial means to her, why Rioja has always changed – and why she still sticks to the old methods.

Up in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula, Rioja is Spain's most famous and renowned wine-growing region, home to the nations most elegant wines. In 2025, the Rioja DOCa is celebrating a hundred years under its own protected designation of origin: Denominación de Origen Calificada – or DOCa for short. In the Ebro Valley, around 14,000 vintners working 66,797 hectares of vineyards for 600 wineries produce wines of exceptional quality under this label.

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A century of DOCa Rioja: “If it ain't broke, why fix it?”