The winery is located in the municipality of Villabuena de Alava in the Spanish Rioja sub-region of
Rioja Alavesa (Basque Country). The family estate dates back to 1928, and was founded in its current form in 1970 by Luis Cañas and his wife Ángeles. Since 1989, the winery has been run by his son Juan Luis Cañas, who introduced the most modern winemaking technologies in 1994. In 2001, the company was certified according to ISO 9002 and in 2004 according to the BRC protocol (British Retail Consortium Global Standard-Food). The winery's own vineyards cover 110 hectares of vines, and grapes from a further 200 hectares are supplied by winegrowers controlled by the winery. The vineyards consist of 815 plots in the municipalities of Baños de Ebro, Leza, Navaridas, Samaniego and Villabuena, located in three climatic zones at an altitude of between 400 and 550 metres. The main grape variety is the main Rioja variety, Tempranillo. About a third of the vines are older, between 60 and 80 years old. The vineyards are cultivated in an environmentally friendly way; there is no artificial
irrigation
For the best growths, a manual control and selection of each grape takes place before processing. These are fermented in French oak barrels with a total volume of 15,000 litres. For the rest, this is done in steel tanks. The young wines are vinified by means of
carbonic maceration, for the older qualities such as Reserva and Crianza the stems are always removed. Maturation takes place in 5,500 barrique barrels made of 70% French and 30% American oak with an average age of two to three years. Rioja wines are produced in various qualities. In 1995, as a tribute to Ángeles Cañas, the brand "Amaren" was founded, under which special qualities are marketed. Since 2009, it has been a separate winery "Bodega Amaren" with a total of 52 hectares of vineyards. The wines are exported worldwide to many countries on four continents. In the
Ribera del Duero area (Castile-León), another winery called Dominio de Cair is operated.
