La Rioja Alta

The two gran reserva wines of the house are called 890 and 904, and they are not codes: they are dates with the first digit removed. On 10 July 1890, five Basque and Riojan growers set up the Sociedad Vinícola de la Rioja Alta in the Barrio de la Estación in Haro, which the following year became La Rioja Alta. And in 1904 Alfredo Ardanza merged his own winery into the company.

The five founders were Daniel-Alfredo Ardanza y Sánchez, Saturnina García Cid y Gárete, Dionisio del Prado y Lablanca, Felipe Puig de la Bellacasa y Herrán, and Mariano Lacorte Tapia. One of them was a woman, which in 1890 was not common. The Ardanza name, which appears both in that list and in the merger, ended up on the house's best-known label, Viña Ardanza.

The winery has its own cooperage: it makes its American oak barrels itself.

The 904 is 90% Tempranillo from vines over sixty years old in Briñas, Labastida and Villalba, and 10% Graciano from the Montecillo vineyard, in Fuenmayor. It is picked by hand into crates that arrive at the winery refrigerated, sorted on a table, and both fermentations start on their own. It ages four years in those own barrels, averaging four and a half years old, with racking by the traditional method every six months.