Raquel Pérez Cuevas elected first female president of Rioja DOCa
Fortunate to have been born in the great city of Liverpool and to fall into the world of wine. More than 20 years later I'm Boutinot's marketing manager for much of Europe (mostly Italy and Spain) and more than content with my compact family, including 3 cats (sadly just the 11 legs) and a 1969 'Dark Star' (no, not a wine!)
Raquel has been the CEO of Bodegas Ontañón Familia since 2010.
From the village of Quel in Rioja Oriental, and the daughter of Gabriel Pérez Cuevas who founded Bodegas Ontañón, she is a 4th generation winemaker who studied oenology at the Universidad de La Rioja.
Whilst her brother Rubén is head winemaker, Raquel has been involved in her family’s winery since the beginning, gaining extensive business experience. She has also headed up the development of her family’s new estates in Ribera del Duero and Rueda.
Her appointment comes as DOCa Rioja, the first Designation of Origin in Spain and one of the most prestigious internationally, celebrates its 100th anniversary. Significantly, she is the first woman to hold the position.
It’s an honour to be the first female president of the Regulatory Council – although I won’t be the only one… female presence in the world of wine is becoming more important every day, with more and more qualified women.
As reported in Decanter, ‘During her four-year term as president, Pérez Cuevas will answer to more than 13,000 growers and nearly 600 wineries registered in the Rioja designation of origin. She’ll be tasked with leading Rioja through a tumultuous period. Overproduction and a decline in sales have caused both grape and bottle prices to plummet in the past several vintages, and many growers and producers fear a lack of generational continuity as fewer young people join the wine industry’. In her first speech as president she said:
It’s important for me to be able to continue counting on all of you in this new era, where I would like to see dialogue, involvement, debate, unity – which is not the same as uniformity – and loyalty to the appellation that has made us who we are, so that Rioja continues to occupy the place it deserves in the world of wine.
You can read more about this story on Decanter.com
Boutinot have worked with Ontañón for over 20 years and are proud to represent Bodegas Ontañón and Queiron, along with the family’s Rippa Dorii wines from Rueda and Ribera del Duero.
Everyone at Boutinot would like to congratulate Raquel Pérez Cuevas on her recent election!
