Twelve years ago, a visit to Rioja, Spain’s best-known red wine region, found many winemakers frustrated by their apparent inability to crack the American market. They put much of the blame on rules that insisted they make their wines exclusively from local grapes, principally tempranillo and garnacha, which is called grenache here and in France. The Riojans looked enviously toward Miguel Torres in the Penedes, near Barcelona, and to Piero Antinori in Italy, both of them moving beyond local varieties to make exciting wines from cabernet sauvignon, the noble grape of Bordeaux and California.
On a recent return trip, it was obvious that things had changed. Business was booming, there was little if any talk of cabernet, and it was easy to sense a renewed pride in the traditional Riojan grapes. Sense it and taste it.
Many wines still spend too much time in oak barrels; many still lack the backbone and body that cabernet imparts. But many are beautifully structured and much less oaky than they used to be.
Bodegas are what the Spanish call large wineries like La Rioja Alta, CVNE, Lopez de Heredia and Muga, all in Haro, and Montecillo in Fuenmayor. All turn out full-bodied, inky-dark wines with solid tannic structure, far from the flabby, cherry-colored, vanilla-tasting varieties.
Since Spain is still the principal market for Rioja wines, the Rioja bodegas make immense amounts of wine at the lower end of the price range. Bodegas Campo Viejo, in Logrono, resembles nothing more than the Gallo winery in Modesto, Calif. Within its massive walls are some 50,000 oak barrels and 10 million aging bottles of wine, give or take a million or two.
While there is little discussion of other Spanish wine regions among the Rioja winemakers, it’s difficult to believe they have not been influenced by the rapid rise of houses like Ribera del Duero in the Castilla-Leon region and others in Priorato (where some of the most successful winemakers are from Rioja), Navarra and even newly emerging areas like Toro. Almost without exception, these regions produce red wines that are both rich and elegant, and they do it almost entirely with the tempranillo grape. Tempranillo goes by other names in other regions, but it is essentially the same grape everywhere it grows in Spain.
Why have Rioja wines improved? At a conference on tempranillo this year, winemakers and enologists pointed to various factors, including two that would surprise no one from other wine regions: lower yields in the vineyards, and less time in oak barrels. To grow twice as much an acre as one’s neighbor is a worthy accomplishment–unless you’re growing wine grapes. Lower yields in the vineyard mean more tannin and more intense flavors in each grape. Costs go up sharply, but so does quality.
Traditional Rioja wines aged for exceptionally long periods. Cheap commercial wines in Spain can be bottled and sold anytime after fermentation, like Beaujolais nouveau.
One step up are crianza wines, which must age a year in wood. Reservas must spend three years in wood and another year in the bottle before they can be released. Gran reservas, the top of the line, must age in wood for five years and in the bottle for two more.
But many of the bodegas go well beyond the rules. In 1988, I remember tasting Rioja Alta’s 1975 Gran Reserva 904. It had spent 10 months fermenting (some wineries do it in three or four days), seven years in American oak barrels and four aging in bottle. An impressive wine? Yes, but not as impressive as the concentrated 1995 Torremuga Reserve from Muga which spent about three years in oak–American first, then French–and about a year in bottle before it was released.
The Rioja winemakers rate both 1994 and 1995 as excellent, their highest praise, giving the edge to 1994, which some claim to be the best Rioja vintage in 20 years.
Rioja wines were once among the world’s best wine bargains. They are still reasonable compared with the top Bordeaux and cult wines from California, but the best of them will sell for $25 to $60.
Even so, the budget-minded can find some good buys in the $15 to $20 range. Two examples are Remelluri’s 1995 Rioja, which is a bit oaky but has concentration and good fruit, and Rioja Alta’s 1995 Alberdi, which is a little more restrained where oak is concerned and offers good rich flavors in a lighter-boded wine.
Probably the most controversial Rioja winery is Bodegas Martinez Bujanda, producer of the popular Conde de Valdemar wines, which closely resemble–in style, not taste–Beaujolais made by the carbonic maceration technique. Even when very young, they exhibit deep purple color and almost overwhelming fresh fruit flavors. These are Rioja wines that have little in common with the others but are attractive on their own terms. There is a crianza and a crianza reserva. The wood is a bit less obvious in the reserva.
Traditionalists hate these wines. If you haven’t decided whether you are among them, there are older Riojas around to help you. Though the astonishing number of old Riojas that used to be in shops are all gone, it’s still possible to find good ones from the 1980s, at about $80 a bottle.
Do wines from Rioja age well? At a tasting there in April, we began with 1995’s and went back to a 1906 Federico Paternina. Quality was all over the lot, but some very old wines, including a Marques de Riscal 1920, a Montecillo 1934 and a couple of 1948s, one from Montecillo and a Vina Real from CVNE, were in fine condition. Of course, old wines are like old cars: fun to show off but not much for everyday driving.
