Contrary to the desire of several Alavese wineries to leave the Rioja Designation of Origin, the Rioja wine Designation of Origin Regulatory Council launched two routes: the use of the Basque Government’s authorization to create a Rioja Origin Mark, albeit provisional, and the requirement of exclusivity for wineries operating under the Rioja Sor brand.

It got the first point, even at the moment. On 14 April the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country agreed to the provisional suspension of the creation of the brand Vineyards of Álava. Two are the important reasons for not creating your own home brand: Baga, which causes "great confusion" for the consumer, "because two wines from the same geographical area could be offered with two protected brands of origin", and Biga, which "damages the prestige" of La Rioja, which would also be "irreversible" according to the court, or at least "difficult to resolve". The court argued, inter alia, that the name of Rioja is almost 100 years old. At the request of the promoters of Viña Alavesa, the Basque Government did not appeal.

The second point, the most recent, is that of exclusivity. The governing board of the Rioja Designation of Origin decided last September, when the Álava Vineyards brand had not yet been created, to impose a harsh condition on all grape producers: if a producer sells the grapes to a winery that is marketed under the La Rioja brand, it would not be possible to sell it to a winery of another origin brand for at least one year – one wine season – but to more wineries within. And vice versa: Selling the Álava Vineyards to a brand winery could not sell to the wineries of La Rioja for a year.

This measure has been approved by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture.

La Rioja, refuge of 570 wineries

The Rioja Wine Designation called "declaration of war" the transfer by several vineyards of the Rioja Alavesa of a prestigious origin mark and its own path. Its main driver has been ABRA (Asociación de Vinos de Rioja Alavesa), which claimed that the brand La Rioja is so large, that "good and not so good wine" is also sold under the same brand. Apart from this, several wineries in Alavesas wanted to offer a more "specialized" wine, without complying with the high orders of the great denomination.

Pending the last European promise, the Basque Government, in exercising its powers, authorised in October the placing on the market of the brand Alavesa Vineyards of Álava. The next wine season would be the first of the split if it had not been suspended by the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country.

From Logroño (La Rioja), it is said that the split would damage the Rioja Sor brand and its prestige, and the "declaration of war" is made enthusiastically. Exclusivity is the intervention that strains the market for wine and adrenal grapes. In fact, to 570 wineries that are part of the Rioja Designation of Origin, 14,139 grape producers sell raw material (activity data of 2022). In total, under the brand La Rioja, 1,331,203 barrels were marketed in 2022, more than 250 million liters. 343 million units in bottles.

It is a denomination of origin that moves a lot of money, with almost 100 years of experience, and the point is that if a vineyard producer does not sell to a winery of the brand La Rioja, it can sell it to the neighbor or the next, 570 wineries. It is not clear how many wineries would want to leave La Rioja, because it has not yet been clarified whether the new designation of origin advances or not, the future is yet to be clarified, and the wineries have not wanted to talk during the process, because it is dangerous to get wet. However, taking as a reference the data provided by the brand Rioja Sor, of the 570 wineries located in Álava, eighteen are located in Navarra and the remaining 544 in the community of Riojana.

Now it will be the winegrower who decides, and the idea of Rioja was to put it in that tincture: It could be sold to the wineries under the name of Álava Vineyards or to one of the hundreds existing in La Rioja.