Meet the winemaker – Javier Murúa of Bodegas Muriel

Meet the winemaker – Javier Murúa of Bodegas Muriel

Bodegas Muriel was set up by José Murúa in 1926 and is today run by his son Julián and grandson Javier. We caught up with Javier to find out more.

Do you remember when & how you first began working with Averys?

I would think around 15 years already, time passes by fast…

Can you tell us a little about the history & winemaking philosophy at Bodegas Muriel?

My grandfather began making wines in Elciego at the beginning of the 20^th century and supplying the restaurants in the Vasc Country. There has been quite an evolution since then and our range of products, as well as our markets have expanded a lot. We like the wine diversity, same as consumer diversity. But we feel each wine has its origin and purpose. We are very committed with the roots, and respectful with the traditional wine styles but we also consider consumer profiles which is why our range is quite wide. We also try minimum intervention in the vineyards and winemaking.

You may be best known for your Riojas but you also own a number of other wineries around Spain, hence our new Conde de Cron Albariño. Can you tell us more about this wine?

Rioja is where we are born and where our business began but being immersed in wine we are aware of diversity in all aspects of wine. Albariño in Rias Baixas is a very defined wine, quite unique in the world and with an incredible connection to Spanish gastronomy. Also it has great aromatic potential, with good weight and crispness.

Our customers probably known you as the man behind our ever-popular Conde de Cron Tinto & Blanco. What was the idea behind these wines?

The main ideas behind Conde de Cron are quality, consistency and value. We want to give customers an affordable wine which is reliable as their house wine.

Comments

10 wines that tell the Averys story - Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay,

6. Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay Next up in our ‘10 wines that tell the Averys story’ is Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay, the wine that put Australian Chardonnay on the world wine map. It’s hard to believe that fifty years ago, you couldn’t buy a bottle of Australian Chardonnay – even in Australia – it simply didn’t exist. The first commercially released Australian Chardonnay was Tyrrell’s Vat 47 1971. The story goes that Murray Tyrrell jumped the fence of the Penfolds HVD Pokolbin vineyard in the middle of the night to steal vine cuttings of Chardonnay (he’d already asked politely but as they’d refused, this was his only other option!) These cuttings reputedly went on to become the basis for Vat 47. Whether this is true or not is debatable but it certainly makes a good story! Since then, Tyrrell’s has become an Australian wine legend and that’s thanks in no small part to our very own John Avery. “The connection with the Avery family went back into the 1950s and John played...

10 wines that tell the Avery Story No 5.

5. Penfolds Grange The fifth of our ‘10 wines that tell the Averys story’ is Australia’s iconic Penfolds Grange, known as ‘Penfolds Grange Hermitage’ until the 1989 vintage. It was 1965 when a young John Avery arrived in Australia for the very first time. So rare was it for a wine merchant from the UK to visit Australia back then that he was greeted at the airport by journalists from the Sydney Morning Herald and Sydney Daily Telegraph keen to find out why he was visiting Australia and get his views on Australian wine. “ I’ve come to Australia to taste your wines as I haven’t had a good one yet.” His reply may have not been the most diplomatic but Aussie wine producers rushed to change his mind including Max Lake (Lake’s Folly), Brian McWilliam (McWilliams), Richard Hill-Smith (Yalumba) and Max Schubert (Penfolds). He toured Australia in a 1938 Rolls Royce and discovered that in fact, there were lots of exciting wines being made. So much so, that he wrote a...

Meet the winemaker – Laurent Saint Pasteur of Château Cissac

Meet the winemaker – Laurent Saint Pasteur of Château Cissac The Vialard family have owned Cissac since Louis Vialard inherited it in 1940 and today it’s run by 5 th generation Marie Vialard with the help of winemaker Laurent Saint Pasteur. Do you remember when and how you first began working with Averys? We don’t remember exactly but from the 70s without any doubt and almost certainly even before. Your wines have a very large and loyal following within Averys and the UK as a whole. What do you think has made them so successful? The fact that Mr Louis Vialard was the first producer selling directly his wines to wine merchants in the UK just after the 2 nd World War and organised many tastings and events across the country. We have then followed this work and are strongly committed to always increasing the quality of the wine. Also, the fact that the wine is only sold through traditional merchants and we always do our best to offer a fair and more or less steady price. W...

Search This Blog

Averys of Bristol