Obituary: Marcos Eguizábal Ramírez

Marcos Eguizábal Ramírez, the owner of the Paternina winery, has died aged 90.

Despite his advancing years, Eguizábal continued to make a significant contribution to the direction and running of his historic Rioja winery up until his death last month.

The widower leaves five sons and daughters, fourteen grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. The winery will now be run by his son, CEO Carlos Eguizábal, alongside his sisters Mercedes Eguizabal, Rosa Eguizábal and Gema Eguizabal.

Marcos Eguizábal showed a lifelong dedication to wine from his native Rioja. Though he initially trained as a teacher, he sold Rioja in his spare time and his dream was to one day own a Rioja winery.

It was only later in life, at the age of 65 in 1984, when he was able to buy Paternina, which had been first founded by Federico Paternina in 1896 and had since fallen on hard times.

Had it not been for his intervention, Paternina might have faded altogether, but once he bought it he quickly developed plans to restore the winery to its former glory.

Equizábal led Paternina to develop a new generation of wines more suited to the modern wine-drinking tastes and in the early 1990s he renovated the existing winery and built a state-of-the-art facility at Haro, installing modern winemaking and bottling equipment capable of processing 12,000 bottles per hour.

The new facility became one of the largest and most modern winemaking facilities in Europe at that time.

By the mid-1990s, Paternina had succeeded in restoring both the high quality of its wines as well as its brand image.

The company, now managed by Eguizábal’s family, began to diversify its portfolio. In 1994, the company acquired Bodegas Internacionales, based in Jerez, which included a number of traditional sherry brands, such as Marqués de Mérito, Díez Hermanos, Bertola, and José Pemartín y Cía.

These were merged, creating Paternina’s Sherry Division. The company began producing fortified wines under the Jerez-Xerès-Sherry y Manzanilla de Sanlúcar de Barrameda appellation.

In 1999, Paternina extended its winemaking operations into the Ribera del Duero region, buying up its first vineyards there and establishing a new wine label, Marques de Valparaiso.

The company then invested over €600 million in the creation of a winery complex in Quintana del Pidio, which was completed in 2001. At the same time, Paternina bought more vineyards in the Ribera del Duero appellation region.

By 2004, the company had acquired some 40 hectares of vineyards as the company was determined to achieve self-sufficiency in order to gain tighter control over the quality of its wines, with plans to increase its vineyard holdings to at least 100 hectares in the new century.

2004 saw the release of the company’s acclaimed 1994 vintage. The wine sported a new label as Federico Paternina moved with fresh confidence into its second century.

Paternina today is looking to build on the legacy left by Marcos Eguizábal Ramírez – to increase global awareness and demand for this iconic Rioja brand, while adapting to the new necessities of the market and not forgetting its history and tradition.

Alan Lodge, 14.09.2009