(Wine-Searcher) - Prominent Rioja bodegas admit that the region's appellation system needs more emphasis on terroir, as Artadi quits the DOC.

Rioja bodega Artadi's controversial decision to leave the Rioja DOC has been cautiously applauded by some fellow producers.

From the 2014 vintage all Artadi wines, including the celebrated Viña el Pisón, one of Spain's most expensive wines, will be labeled simply as Vino de Mesa, and will not carry the Rioja name or official back label stamp.

"That is definitely our decision," owner Juan Carlos de la Calle told Wine Searcher. "There are two concepts – village wines and single vineyard wines. We want to produce wines that are close to the terroir."

Some of Rioja's most senior producers agree with the sentiment, if not the method of carrying it out.

Vicente Cebrian, owner of Marques de Murrieta, told Wine Searcher, "we need to improve and evolve but not destroy the system. Before leaving it there are steps we can take to evolve it."

Cebrian, whose single-vineyard Castillo Ygay is internationally acclaimed, believes the current system of a Reserva and Gran Reserva hierarchy based on barrel and bottle age, not quality, is not relevant for a modern wine region of Rioja's status. It should move to a Burgundian system of premier and grand cru vineyards, he says.

A village classification is not "the key thing" but "a two-tier system would be great for the market, with different qualities of grape from different areas, and different prices."

The current system is unfair, Cebrian says, because all producers are lumped together in one vast area encompassing vineyards of differing quality. "It’s not fair that I have the same back label as all the others."

Another renowned producer, Telmo Rodriguez, shares de la Calle's view that a village classification is the way forward . "We have to talk about specifics," he said.

The problem with Rioja, both winemakers say, is that, like Champagne, 80 percent of producers do not own their vineyards, and blend grapes from Rioja’s three sub-regions, Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Alta and Rioja Baja, so "wine is not related to the real territory," Rodriguez said.

With wines from Rioja Alavesa, like Altos de Lanzaga from the village of Lanziego de Álava, and the Las Beatas from a 1.9ha (4.7-acre) vineyard, Rodriguez is trying to demonstrate the excellence of single vineyard sites.

"This is how we learn what Rioja is capable of, what each village means. The only classification that would work would be villages," he said.

Others agree. Julian Chivite of the eponymous Navarra producer, which also makes wine in Rioja, told Wine Searcher, "there is a movement towards single-vineyard wines. A new classification of village wines is something that will evolve."