Where is the workshop? Very close to the Yáñez wine shop in Doctor Horno 18, in a small
space with a wooden floor, large windows and a beautiful kitchen. A space to investigate, to
receive friends and to exhibit.
What is the workshop? It is the realisation of an old dream of Ciriaco's, to have a space where
to paint, receive friends, cook and taste our dishes, attend the customers we advise, taste and
develop our wines, and those we decide to integrate into the selection of the winery. It is the
headquarters of the brotherhood of the mester de vinatería and of our biodynamic project "a
road to heaven". A place to share.
How was it born? With the design of the interior designer Carlos Sancho we decided that the
space should be white, functional and variable. Suitable for cooking and offering a dinner, as
well as for reflecting, programming a tasting course, a cooking course, developing Ciriaco's
coaching work and, of course, there should be space for painting. The collaboration of our
sponsors has been fundamental to achieve this: Office Hogar, Salvarani, Kitchenaid, Franke,
Mármol compac, Bra, the Yáñez wine shop, bodega pirineos, Yáñez wine company, etc.
Why was the workshop born? In the Yanez wine shop we have always had a small space
attached to the shop where we held tastings and meetings, the hojarasca, the first room for
paired tastings, the humble... In this space we have all the comforts and new projection
technology that we could not even imagine at the time. The workshop was born out of the
desire to study and share confidences with wine and gastronomy as protagonists.
When does the workshop open?
The workshop is always busy in some of its activities. If you would like to come and try the
gastronomic proposal, reserve the workshop table for the date you need. The minimum group
size is six people. The activities are advertised on our website and in the monthly newsletter.
What is the workshop for?
To discover things about wine, gastronomy and ourselves. To learn and to spread the word.
How much does the gastronomic proposal cost?
The price is invariable, always 36 euros vat included. So that there are no surprises, everything
is included.
Where can I book? At ciriacoyanez@gmail.com, on our telephone number 976214855, or at
our wine shop in madre sacramento 16 in Zaragoza.
What do you eat?
Every week everything changes and evolves. During the week Ciriaco develops the ideas that
interest him, the results we like the most are the ones we propose. There are usually about ten
dishes, including starters, main courses, ante-desserts and desserts. Plus cocktails. And four or
six wines are tasted, depending on the pairings.
How is the service?
Fun, relaxed and eager for everyone to enjoy a new experience. Everyone sees how Ciriaco
cooks and prepares the dishes, as he is the one who brings them to the tables. Communication
is assured. There is only one service per day... or none at all. It starts at 9 p.m. and ends at
midnight, Cinderella's carriage and home, or a night out... it's up to you.
How would you describe the workshop kitchen?
In the workshop there are many things, painting, expression, discussion, reflection? The other
day Ciriaco told us: "if I were to give a name to this food, I would say that it is the food of
feelings". The food of feelings... it's beautiful, don't you think?
Why are they, including the wines?
One of the ideas that encourages us is to create dishes so that our wines, the ones we make,
the ones we select or simply the ones we like, can express themselves. Wine is fundamental to
our culinary experience.
By including them we prevent the proposal from being distorted. We want anyone to be able
to come.
How much does the proposal cost?
The workshop table costs 36 euros vat included, for groups of a minimum of six people.
Why does the proposal change every week?
Ciriaco's work is evolutionary. It is not the creation of new concepts but rather the exploration
of little-trodden paths, of dishes that tell a story... Ciriaco has been making a dish, foie, for
twenty-six years. And every week it is different. Sometimes he goes a long way forward,
sometimes he goes backwards in search of concepts that he has not fully developed. It is not a
cuisine of revolution for the sake of revolution, but of loving evolution with a dish, with a
concept... It is not difficult to evolve, but it is difficult to innovate. We also document the new
dishes with the presentations of the moment and it is curious to see how the presentation
changes at the same time as the chef's paintings change.
Do they make a lot of mistakes?
Ummm , yes, we throw a lot of things away. It is also true that Ciriaco almost always sees the
final result with his imagination before the equipment and it is fun, because if the product is
expensive he warns us from the start to think it through, if it is affordable he lets us make
mistakes, although then we have to clean it all up.
There are restaurants that have a workshop, you are a workshop without a restaurant, is that a
contradiction in terms?
We are not a restaurant, that is part of our philosophy, we don't want to depend on turnover
to survive, nor do we want the day-to-day hustle and bustle of a catering establishment to
prevent us from spending a day to come up with an idea. The idea is to have a studio space
and from time to time, preferably on Fridays or Saturdays, to see live and direct if what we do
is to our liking. The members of the brotherhood of the mester de vinateria are good eaters
and extraordinary friends. When they eat, we know if we have made the right choice. We also
advise restaurants and wineries. It is our way of growing and becoming better professionals,
we owe it to our customers, both in the wine shop and in the restaurants.
What would you say the workshop is like?
The workshop is a space for sharing, a space in search of harmony and balance. A space that
projects itself forward lightly and very respectful of everything that surpasses us.
Where do you shop? Now the world is small, everything is very close. Even so, the most
important thing is the organic vegetable garden that supplies us with almost everything and
which is run by our father. The markets close to the workshop are fundamental to avoid
contamination, the new ecological markets that are organised in Zaragoza, long or short trips,
and people who call us to offer us curious things. If something is strange, some trader will
think it is ideal for us, it will end up on our worktop.
Is there any influence in your kitchen?
Thousands! Ciriaco is a fan of Adriá. In the workshop we have all the books published by El
Bullí, the TV programmes... Total fan. He's almost a Bullí freak, that's all I can say. Also, Arzak,
Subijana, Santamaría, Roca, Ruscalleda, Arola, Aduriz and the master Luis Iciar... In the library
we have hundreds of volumes on cooking, art... so that when we can't think of anything, we
can open a book and from there the sky is the limit. It can be an illustration, a painting, a
building, a dish... whatever. Sometimes we have prepared lists of products but it's not our
thing, we need more alcohol to light the fuse.
Can you explain to me... I don't understand this definition of that food of feelings!
You see, Ciriaco develops the dishes from ideas, visions, feelings, memories... A fish eaten in
the Mecong delta led us to our version of elephant fish. Another fish eaten at dawn in a
pinnace on the Niger River led us to our grilled fish, a green mango picked in the Dogon
country led us to our grilled mango with chicken confit. A green pineapple picked by our father
led to our pine nut caviar. A salmon sashimi in Kyoto led to our fake salmon sashimi with
smoked air. A yak penis soup led us to our criadillas with truffled eggs.... How to pin those
inasibles on a plate? That's the aim.
What do you think of Asian cuisine?
We love it. Ciriaco has travelled all over Asia several times and he is an admirer of Thailand,
Vietnam, China, Macao, Hong Kong, Japan... In our developments there is always something
that reminds us of the Orient, even if it is only the aesthetics.
How do you define the food you make?
Ciriaco has already commented that he would like to feel this cuisine as the cuisine of feelings,
of harmony, of balance, of sharing.
Do you make a technological cuisine? If it is a workshop, that would be the right thing to do?
No, we are not interested in technology for the sake of it. We are looking for balance, if a
technique is necessary and we have access to it, that's fine, but it's not the objective in itself.
It's just something else that helps us to express the feeling of the dish, its story.
What trajectory can chef Ciriaco showcase?
Well, he doesn't really exhibit any. Childhood and adolescence watching his father cook in the
humble corner, the first paired tasting room, the hojarasca, the humble, and always the Yáñez
wine shop of course... Ciriaco is not a chef, he is simply someone curious, with a good palate, a
good taste memory and who loves to learn, to experiment. He is not someone who can pull
out his CV and impress, because that CV is limited to being a shopkeeper. He is simply a
creative person who applies his working method to the kitchen. When he was young, he was a
total Bullinian, and he still is in the way he approaches the concept. Then, with oriental
influences, he returned to traditional cooking and now he simply wants to tell stories, to
express feelings. Ciriaco doesn't like to be called a chef, he believes that a chef is a leader who
generates a positive vibe in the kitchen that makes the dishes come out full of magic. We look
for feeling, welcoming and sharing. Student suits Ciriaco more than chef. He is more of a
student than a teacher.
How are the dishes presented?
In many different ways, some are presented as authentic painted pictures, others are served in
cocktail glasses or crystal glasses. Some are presented on trays for diners to serve themselves,
others are skewered on skewers, soup spoons... It's all very eclectic. The idea is not to be
imprisoned by a specific way of doing things. The truffled potatoes come out on a platter, they
look beautiful... the cheeks on a plate with the sweet potato purée and the sauce painted
around them. The salmorejo three textures in a cocktail glass, the ribs confit on a simple tray
to eat with your hands, the truffle ravioli in a soup spoon, as well as the false caviars, the steak
is served on a plate with potato charcoal... Each story has a different rhythm and a different
form. Poetry is not the same as essays or novels. Here it is the same.
Who serves?
Ciriaco himself prepares the dishes and brings them to the workshop table. Bear in mind that
he's usually with only a few people so he can tell the story. The idea is that there is no
distance, within courtesy of course.
How do you think?
You'll see, we've already talked about it many times, but of the methods of creation:
association, adaptation, deconstruction, Ciriaco and all of us are left with inspiration. It is
perhaps the most elusive but also the most beautiful because the starting point can be any
magical moment, any feeling. Ciriaco has dishes like our version of fish and chips, which is a lot
of fun, that's adaptation. Dishes like the Provençal ribs with truffled potatoes that are from
association, minimalism like the truffle with balsamic vinegar... but it is in the inspiration
where the feelings come out, the sole with Iberian jowl, the foie with minitatin... Inspiration is
our deepest source, imagining a result and jumping to achieve it.
What do you intend to do in the workshop?
It's simple, to share and enjoy with friends the food and what it suggests to us, the stories that
have created it, the feelings it provokes, the feelings it awakens.
What is your kitchen physically like?
Carlos Sancho, our great friend and interior designer with a special knowledge of the
philosophy and aesthetics that Ciriaco defends, not in vain he is one of the art collectors who
treasures more pieces of Ciriaco, made a first drawing, Ciriaco made him a gin and tonic, he
made another one for himself and when dawn came they had drawn an immaculate kitchen.
The best support was chosen: the new compac marble surface, the induction cooker from
Kitchenaid, their new ovens, the steam column, the cold equipment and the design of franke's
wells... Then Ciriaco told us that he wanted to use cast aluminium as a material and we went
to see BRA products... so it was a very natural thing. We were looking for the best, what best
suited the philosophy that Ciriaco wanted to express. Everything was done in six hours, but of
course, with the combined experience of both of us and hundreds of kitchens seen, used, felt.
After seeing the finished workshop and using the design Ciriaco tells us many times how happy
he is with the marble worktop so beautiful that it looks like a painting, with the kitchenaid
induction hob that allows us to adjust the temperature with total precision, with the cast
aluminium... Sometimes you manage to capture a lifetime of observation in an instant. Our
kitchen is born in an instant with the experience of twenty years. With the feeling of a lifetime
of experiences and the complicity between Carlos and Ciriaco.
The workshop team?
Ciriaco is in the workshop and the rest of us come and go. We get together to eat, to share
new creations. We get together when we have ideas to tell or crazy things to try to capture.
Ciriaco, Carlos, Beatriz, Javier with his contributions, María, Antonio with his timely comments,
don José who brings us all the vegetables from the garden and his stories of kitchens and
friends... All the people from kitcheaind who always bring new technologies for us to
experiment with, the bra team with the latest pieces they have created... A team that is a
family, with the desire to share with friends.
How do you prepare the desserts?
We almost always have an ante-dessert and three desserts. We love the sweet world and we
always approach dessert as a complex dish with different textures and temperatures. For
example, in coconut rice pudding and cinnamon orange crisp we have: coconut rice pudding,
coconut milk + pineapple + yoghurt, coconut ice cream, orange crisp with hot cinnamon
caramel, served in a cocktail glass, and we spray coconut flavouring on top. We also like the
pastries, such as the mango and olive muffins from Calanda.
the workshop and the Yáñez wine shop
We are dedicated to bringing imaginations from the world of ideas to the real world.
Year 1920 Great-grandfather Ciriaco starts his first grape harvest.
Year 1953 VINATERÍA YÁÑEZ is born in Madre Sacramento 16, Zaragoza, selling wine in bulk.
Year 1976 Grandfather José opens the old restaurant HUMILDE RINCÓN in Madre Sacramento
16. The link with gastronomy, food and wine pairings, haute cuisine, from then to nowadays.
1984 Ciriaco joins the company. The wine shop begins to stock the best wines in the world. EL
TALLER YÁÑEZ is born to create its own wines under the guidance of our still young Ciriaco
Yáñez. Today, the Workshop has led 86 wine projects around the world, 36 of which have been
consolidated. Always with the aim of learning and enjoying and making enjoyable wines. We
make wines as we like them to be: character, enthusiasm, terroir, personality. For the labels
we use Ciriaco's paintings that we think express the personality of the wines.
1985 Our Ciriaco publishes his first book "Mis platos, flores, vinos y música escogidos" (My
selected dishes, flowers, wines and music). To date, he has published 33 books on food and
wine, travels, novels and poetry,
The MARIDADAS YÁÑEZ TASTING ROOM was founded in 1986 in madre sacramento 16 with
the idea of disseminating and publicising the ways and means of wine tasting and its
relationship with gastronomy. Courses, Workshops...
1987 and following years La Vinatería Yáñez gives away 10,000 free tastings to spread the
culture of wine. These were very interesting years in which the winery made a great effort to
make wine, culture, gastronomy and the illusions of the Workshop and the Yáñez Winery
known. 10,000 free tastings were given, shared and enjoyed with 10,000 Zaragozans Year 1987
the brotherhood of the Mester de Vinatería was born, an initiative in which wine and food
lovers met under the roof of the Yáñez workshop to enjoy, get to know, taste, taste, learn to
cook, learn to taste and in short share a space, an idea, a philosophy, a desire to live.
1988 saw the birth of the Yáñez organic vegetable garden to supply the restaurant, the tasting
room and the family with seasonal produce.
1989 saw the birth of our first virtual wine shop. We spent a lot of money at that time and it
never worked, among other things because the internet was very slow and it was very difficult,
we didn't know how to position it and it was a real disaster, but we were at the forefront of
innovation, our first virtual shop.
In 1990 our magazine El lagar y la almazara is born. Our collaboration with television begins,
the programme En la cocina con Ciriaco is born, the programme El rincón del vino is born.
Collaboration with the radio station SER, Hola Zaragoza, is born. Ciriaco publishes some articles
in the Heraldo de Aragón, we meet some very interesting people who enrich us deeply, we
collaborate and we see other points of view about wine and communication. It was fun.
1991 the Tasting Room moves to Madre Sacramento 18. A beautiful place with a basement
that will give us a lot of play in the future and with the kitchen in sight, a space without
distances in which to share gastronomy and wines, in which to share friendship and in which to
enjoy everything that we are creating at that moment, helping to outline the enogastronomic
culture of our street, of our city.
1992 In the old tasting room at 18 Madre Sacramento Street there was a cellar, where the
Yáñez wine bank was born, some holes created to deposit wines that were used up in the
tastings or in the Humble Restaurant.
1996 The gastronomic consultancy is born. The idea is to try to learn at the same time as we
collaborate with different establishments to find out how and in what way gastronomic
concepts evolve, both for us and for our collaborators. A gastronomic consultancy based on
feedback, what we contribute and what they contribute to us. In gastronomic consultancy we
only collaborate with projects with which we feel identified, with which we can communicate
and communicate and with which we share values and objectives.
1988 The embryo of the reference library was born. And more than 3,000 volumes accompany
and illustrate our work.
1999 The Yáñez workshop reached maturity. The projects have been creating great wines and
we decide that from the year 2000, in the new millennium, we will decide that our shelves in
the wine shop will only contain products that we imagine and make on our own, with
colleagues, with partners, wines that we feel identified with. Wines, distillates, beers,
gastronomy and art. This is our objective for the future millennium
Year 2000 Our Ciriaco surprises us, he decides to make a research trip around the world. There
will be 48 countries, at different times, over the next 2 years. Both the world of wine and the
world of gastronomy of Taller Yáñez, the world of experiences, empathy and enjoyment will be
enriched forever.
In 2001 our grandfather José retires and in his honour, in the same space of the old humble
corner, the Humble Gastronomic Workshop is born to investigate about enogastronomy.
During these years we will research on bread, on his old dishes and we will redefine them and
put them in jars so that people can take them away, so that customers can enjoy them, so that
his friends who ate his dishes at the Humble's table can take them home and eat them at
home. At the moment there are 30 pâtés, almost 60 different dishes and almost 100 breads of
different traditions. The breads are eaten at the tastings, the best being the roasted truffle
bread.
Year 2002 The first solo exhibition of our Ciriaco. Large formats, recycled materials are the
supports of the painting collected in the street until today, from a ceramic of 6x6 centimetres
to a mural of 16 metres by 3 metres high built with the boards of the old wine shop in Madre
Sacramento 16. We link the old and the new.
In 2003 the cheese workshop was born to recover the tradition of our great-grandfather Felipe
of making cheese. We make cheeses and mature them: We consume them at tastings
In 2004 the Taller Yáñez Destilados Nobles was born with the idea of understanding the world
of distillates. Today we have six hundred and ninety-three distillates full of soul and reflection.
In 2005 the Experimentation Workshop was born just around the corner, at Doctor Horno 18.
A space with the kitchen integrated into the room, with no distances, no escape. 40 m2 full of
technology from the main houses that collaborate with the Workshop, a Workshop of
experimentation designed by the Zaragozan company Office Hogar. Undoubtedly, a point and
followed in the trajectory of experimentation of our Workshop. The best electrical appliances,
the best techniques in a beautiful space full of heart.
In 2010 Taller Yáñez cerveza Única was born with the idea of getting to know the world of
beer. Today we have 160 different small batch beers, from barrel-aged beers to beers brewed
with all possible types of cereals and their combinations. We brew in small 30-litre barrels,
always with new recipes, an unfathomable world.
In 2012 Yáñez Almacenista is born to channel the elaborations in which we collaborate as
ideologists, and which we carry out in collaboration with other companies.
Year 2015 EL TALLER Y LA VINATERÍA moves to madre sacramento 11 with the idea of having a
space where to show our imaginations, illusions, ideas. A space designed by our main artist,
our not so young Ciriaco Yáñez. Today we continue searching and fighting for creative
freedom, we try to unite wine, gastronomy, spirits and beers. We unite them in our tastings, at
our table. And we keep thinking about going out of our comfort zone, investigating, doing new
things and offering them to you here.
In 2016 Almacenista is born, a project to make design wines in different areas that we cannot
reach physically but we can reach philosophically. We order the wines and we identify them as
Almacenista, wines a bit different, with our own personality, ciriaquiles wines.
Year 2017 The gastronomic workshop continues its research. Now on vinegar, salt, chocolate,
confectionery, etc.
Year 2018 we open a new Yáñez Amazon Store. We celebrate our sixty-fifth anniversary at
Madre Sacramento 11, in Zaragoza, Spain. And a new stage begins in which we unite tradition,
work, effort; we look to the future in the confidence of being, serving, imagining, doing. We
open our new shop in collaboration with Amazon and the desire to serve, to tell our little
story, to imagine and dream. Yáñez in Madre Sacramento11, Zaragoza, Spain. Yáñez from
imagination to the real world. We open with the desire to improve every day.
Year 2019 The Yáñez wine workshop updates the concept of old wines and offers them in bulk,
as always.
Year 2020 The Yáñez workshop without alcohol. For people who can't or don't want to drink
alcohol the Taller Yáñez without alcohol... So we have been researching and preparing lots of
things. Wines, beers, distillates. The same quality with the same enthusiasm but no alcohol.
Year 2020 The Yáñez workshop soft drinks. One of the fun things we do is to imagine things
and harmonise them with what we are already doing. For vermouth we were thinking of a
siphon and for gins we were thinking of tonics, for vodkas we were thinking of something
different, a lime soda and for rums a different cola. For brandies, brandies or cocktails many
things. El Taller Yáñez soft drinks, different to combine with our Taller Yáñez.
Year 2020 El Taller Yáñez cider. A natural evolution of brewing, ciders have been in our sights
for a long time, and now we finally have 7 new ciders, made from organic apples picked by
ourselves and fermented in our brewery. Ice cider, sour cider, sweet cider and sparkling cider.
Year 2020 Explosion of the Yáñez wine workshop projects. France, Italy, Germany, Portugal,
Chile and Spain, lots of Spain.
Year 2021 a year dedicated to the digitalisation of our workshop. Bibliographic collection,
activities, history...