Óscar Tobía, founder of Bodegas Tobía in Rioja, dies
The San Asensio-born winemaker founded Bodegas Tobía in 1994 and, according to the winery, made Spain's first barrel-fermented rosé, Alma Tobía, in 1996.
Óscar Tobía, the winemaker who founded Bodegas Tobía in Rioja in 1994, has died, the La Rioja news site NueveCuatroUno and the trade magazine Excelencias Gourmet reported on Sunday 18 October 2026. Neither outlet gave his age or the cause of death.
According to NueveCuatroUno, Tobía was a native of San Asensio and had spent more than three decades on the project that carried his surname. Excelencias Gourmet described him as one of the most innovative figures in Rioja wine and said his wines reached more than 30 countries.
The winery's website states that Óscar Tobía trained as an agricultural engineer and completed a master's degree in viticulture and oenology before founding Bodegas Tobía in 1994 on the family property in San Asensio. The Tobía family, the site says, counts four generations of grape growers.
Óscar Tobía and the barrel-fermented rosé
In an interview published by NueveCuatroUno in September 2025, Tobía said his first wines in 1994 included a barrel-fermented white that "got people talking". Two years later the winery released Alma Tobía 1996, which Bodegas Tobía describes as the first barrel-fermented rosé made in Spain.
Excelencias Gourmet reported that Tobía received the internationalisation award of the Chamber of Commerce of La Rioja in 2002. Since 2010, according to the winery, Bodegas Tobía has worked from larger premises in Cuzcurrita de Río Tirón, in Rioja Alta, a move it attributes to the need for space and to demand in its export markets.
Aged whites and a first gran reserva
Tobía argued publicly for long-aged white Rioja. "Rioja is unbeatable in great white reservas," he told NueveCuatroUno in 2025, adding that the regulatory council should promote the category more. In the same interview he said the range had included no young wine since 2019 and that reds still made up almost 70 per cent of the volume the winery sold.
The most recent addition, according to that interview and to Excelencias Gourmet, was the winery's first white gran reserva, from the 2016 vintage, released after eight years in barrel and bottle. "Making it takes time, the most important ingredient," Tobía said. AMUSE. has recently covered white Rioja through Marqués de Cáceres' award for Spain's best white wine and the region's earliest grape harvest on record.
NueveCuatroUno reported that the wake was being held on Sunday 18 October at the Mémora-Pastrana funeral home in Logroño, and that a funeral mass would take place in San Asensio on Monday afternoon, at a time still to be confirmed. Excelencias Gourmet noted that his death follows that of Benjamín Romeo, founder of Bodega Contador, in August, and listed Tobía, Óscar Tobía and Alma Tobía as the brands he leaves behind.
