You know Rioja. The sweet scented, smooth tasting, seductive Spanish red wine. But do you know that there is another Rioja? Next year Rioja celebrates 100 years as a regulated, quality wine region.
Contributing wine editor David Harker explains why there has never been a better time to discover the diversity of wines from this small strip of Northern Spain.
Rioja has much to offer the curious visitor. Pretty hill top villages punctuate a dramatic landscape of snow covered mountains and river valleys. There are tapas trails, museums and modern architecture. And of course wine.
Classic Rioja is made to a reliable recipe. First you take a large dollop of Tempranillo. Next a glug of Garnacha – for its sweet fruit and body. Season with a splash of spicy Mazuelo, then add structure and tannin with a twist of Graciano. Finally age the wine in a small oak cask for a few years and allow to rest in bottle before serving.
Each wine maker will add his personality to the classic recipe but the simple proposition remains the same. A Spanish red wine, based on Tempranillo, usually blended and with the signature characteristic of oak ageing. This is the Rioja brand. Well understood, reliable and good value.
This classic style of Rioja emerged over one hundred and fifty years ago. Encouraged by the introduction of the railway and influenced by French wine making techniques, family wine makers and Basque industrialists invested in new bodegas huddled around the railway station in Haro.
Wander around the Barrio de la Estación today and you can almost throw a blanket over the traditional Bodegas of López de Heredia, La Rioja Alta and Muga.
A century on and the historic region of Rioja must respond to the modern day threat of climate change. Climate change causes volatile weather patterns, extreme weather events and a warmer planet. Vintages are earlier, grapes ripen unevenly, they gain too much sugar, lose acidity and the threat of drought looms.
Relief from this natural threat could lie in the diversity of Rioja’s natural landscape. Rioja is only eighty miles long and twenty miles wide. It’s a small region with the geographical diversity of a small country.
At Rioja’s heart is the Ebro river. In the west, on the left bank of the Ebro, is Rioja Alavesa protected by the cloud capped Cantabrian Mountains. From here look across the Ebro valley and Rioja Alta to the Sierra de la Demanda in the south. To the east is Rioja Oriental. A landscape of big skies, summer scorched sweeping plains and the windswept heights of the Sierra de Yerga. Into the broad plain of the Ebro valley flow seven smaller rivers. Each with varying altitudes, a mosaic of soil types and a treasury of old vines.
Rioja has one of largest areas of old vineyards in the world. These venerable vines, some over one hundred years old, were once scorned for their low yields. Today they are treasured. Old vines are drought resistant and produce grapes that are slow ripening and naturally high in acidity. Exactly the attributes needed to produce quality wines in a hot climate.
A new wave of wine makers is making exciting wines from these old vines. Often working in lesser known villages, in less prestigious areas, these are winemakers for whom the future of Rioja lies in its past. Rediscovering indigenous varieties and experimenting with ageing wines in large oak barrels and clay amphorae.
Like their grandfathers before them, the leaders of this new wave have an intimate involvement with the land. Working with small plots on a scale closer to gardening than farming. Making the most of what nature provides. Behind each wine is a personal story. This is artisanal wine making, handmade and foot trod.
Winemakers such as stout, ruddy cheeked Professor Juan Carlos Sancha who is rescuing native varieties from extinction in the cool upper reaches of the Najerilla Valley. The shy, talented Carlos Mazo crafting graceful Garnacha wines in Rioja Oriental. A region once dismissed as only suitable for producing large volumes of make-weight grapes for blending. Urbane architect Javier Arizcuren, works ancient family vineyards at altitude in the Sierra de Yerga. He then makes his wines in an urban winery in the back streets of Logroño. Diminutive José Luis Ruiz Bañares, practicing traditional wine making in San Vicente De La Sonsierra (see A Portrait of Itu).
This is another Rioja. An edgy, modern Rioja in tune with contemporary concerns and respectful of its heritage. And there is yet another Rioja. The success of Rioja may rest on the reputation of its red wines but these are exciting times for white and rosé wines too.
Oak aged Rioja whites made from the Viura grape have long been appreciated by aficionados. Today’s winemakers, with modern wine making techniques and a palate of nine white grape varieties, can create fresh, attractive whites for the growing white wine market.
If Rioja whites have a small but dedicated following then Rioja rosé is truly niche. Rosé currently accounts for a tiny percentage of wine production in Rioja but is attracting the admiration of critics. In The Rosé Wine Report 2023, renowned rosé expert Elizabeth Gaby MW picked Rioja as the stand out region. Of the top 25 rosés one in three were from Rioja, including the top wine. Rioja is a region of talented, exciting, engagingly humble winemakers. A region blessed by nature and celebrated in history. Whatever your Rioja; still or sparkling, red, white or rosé, oak aged or new wave, raise another glass and salud to another one hundred years.
