2010 José Ramírez "Vino Studio" No. 52 CD/PD

This 2010 José Ramírez "Vino Studio" No. 52 is a classical guitar with a cedar top and padauk back and sides – from the limited-edition "Serie del Vino", with a back of coral and wine-barrel oak.

Made Under Amalia Ramírez

For more than fifty years, guitars from the José Ramírez workshop have been in the hands of countless professionals, from Segovia to Sting, from Sabicas to Chet Atkins and from Christopher Parkening to Lee Ritenour. This is a guitar of the Amalia Ramírez years, made in the Calle de la Paz workshop that she has directed since 2000.

The "Serie del Vino"

The limited-edition "Vino" line celebrates the shared and storied history of Spanish guitars and Spanish wine. The Vino Studio has a cedar soundboard, coral (padauk) sides and a three-piece back of alternating strips of coral and oak – the oak used for wine barrels. The rosette is a mosaic of grapes, repeated on the tie block of the bridge.

Wine and Guitars

The Vino guitars bring together two pillars of Spanish culture that give pleasure to the senses – touch, sight, taste, smell and hearing – a tribute to an art history deeply rooted in Spanish life. The "Serie del Vino – Guitarra de Estudio" label is dated 2010, numbered 52 and stamped "Calidad Ramírez" – "Diseñada, Revisada y Certificada por Ramírez".

For the story of the workshop, read The Ramírez Family: Masters of the Guitar and The José Ramírez Dynasty; for some interesting fact-checking, see José Ramírez: myths and facts.

The José Ramírez Workshop of Madrid

Founded in Madrid in 1882 by José Ramírez I, the Ramírez workshop has produced guitars for more than a century and through five generations of the family. José Ramírez III (1922–1995) took over as maestro in 1957 and developed the Ramírez concert guitar we know today – large in body, with a long string length and a cedar or spruce top, with great power, sustain, sweetness and balance across the entire register. He popularized western red cedar as a soundboard wood, and from the 1960s Andrés Segovia played José Ramírez guitars to the end of his days.

Ramírez Craftsmen and the Next Generations

From the 1960s to the 1990s the workshop trained many of the most talented guitarreros of the day, among them Paulino Bernabé and Manuel Contreras. In 1995 the shop moved from Calle Concepción Jerónima 2 to Calle de la Paz 8, and since the death of José Ramírez IV in June 2000 the business has been directed by his sister, Amalia Ramírez, who inspects every guitar during and after construction.

The Workshop Under Amalia Ramírez

Under Amalia Ramírez the workshop has kept the classic concert guitar at the heart of its range – the "1a" (first class) in the "Tradicional" design, its model code written by hand on the label: C650 for a cedar top with Indian rosewood, "-A" for a spruce (abeto) top, "-P" for CSA rosewood (palosanto) and "-AP" for both, with F656 and F656-A for the cedar and spruce flamencos. Around it she has built a wider family of models: the "Centenario" and "Elite", made with the workshop's most precious woods; the reissued "SP" and "2a"; the "Auditorio", "Antigua" and "Guitarra del Tiempo"; anniversary series such as the "125 Años" and "130 Años"; replicas of historic guitars, from the 1912 Manuel Ramírez played by Segovia to the 1913 "Guitarra de Tablao" of José Ramírez I; and the studio lines NE, R and FL. The concert guitars carry the Calle de la Paz 8 label, signed by Amalia Ramírez with her star signature and numbered with a letter-and-number code (Centenario and Elite have numbers of their own), while the studio guitars have an orange "Guitarras de Estudio" label, "Diseñada, Revisada y Certificada por Ramírez", with the red "Calidad Ramírez" stamp.