Aging Rioja: Asimov in the Times

WINE TALK
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Neal - of those, the 87 is probably the best vintage as the 84 and 85 aren’t considered particularly good vintages. However, that’s where the producer really matters. With LdH I’d certainly give them a try and most likely you’ll have some pretty good wines. If you like them they can be real bargains. I bought some of their 2002 a few years ago just because it seemed so good, particularly given the general pan of the vintage, and I’m confident that it’s going to be fine and even better in a few years. So producer really matters in this case and you have one of the few who excelled in those years. Of the group, I’d probably drink the 84 first.

As to decanting for sediment, that’s not really too necessary. These aren’t like Bordeaux or Napa Cab - they’ve been sitting in cask and racked a number of times. I have a few friends who think that’s why there’s always a slightly oxidized note to them, but I think that’s just from the cask aging more than the racking. In any case, there should be very little sediment to worry about. A little VA and bottle funk to blow off and then enjoy at your leisure. Last bottle I had from the 80s, I can’t remember the vintage offhand but I know it wasn’t the 81 or 82, and it was drinking fine over the course of an evening. Cheers!

Ramon - as far as the economic rationale, from what I’ve been told, the best return is the GR, at least from those producers who adhere to the designations. They wouldn’t use the same grapes - the best only go to the GR and perhaps the reserva, whereas the lesser, younger, or otherwise somehow not as desirable grapes go into the crianza. Don’t forget that no matter how many years you have the wine in cask, to be GR it also has to have 3 years in bottle. So some producers only do reserva and GR and sell off the other grapes. You would think that for cash flow they’d want to release some crianza, but that has to be 2 years old and apparently it’s more logical to dump the grapes rather than keep them. If the grapes are good enough for reserva, the extra year pays for itself.

I would assume, not having surveyed every producer, that the above doesn’t apply to everyone - the big guys can do all three levels and then some and they do. But the smaller and newer producers will often do reserva and GR and then will call their other wine something else so they can sell before the minimal 2 year period. Those are the wines that can be, as you suggest, good values, sometimes really good values.

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Thanks very much Greg. Always a source for good information on Rioja; I appreciate the education

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Thanks Greg, stuff there I did not know about. Any thoughts on recent vintages of Monte Real??

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Neal,
Thanks for the link; there are so many wine treasures to be discovered in Spain, especially Rioja; love exploring Spanish wines, and especially those with some age.

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Greg, is the Vina Herminia Excelsus one of those wines that doesn’t fit designation due to length of aging? It ended up on WS top 100 list and decently priced

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Bob - they changed their winemaking a little in recent vintages. I kind of wish they hadn’t. They were one of the most reliable and underappreciated wines of the region IMHO. They’re still good though so we’ll have to see.

In any case the better vintages recently would be the 2004 and 2005 and 2009 and 2010. Lots of promise for 2012 as well, and even 2011.

Of the four, the 2004 and 2010 are usually considered ‘better’ than the 2005 and 2009 but I’m not sure I agree. The 2009 vintage was really hot, even more so than the 2003 vintage. However, there was a cold and late spring and then rain at the end, so it’s not the same as 2003 by a long shot. Problem is that they also got some hail with the rain. But Rioja Alta, which is where Monte Real is, kind of missed that and grapes from that region were really good. It’s a really enjoyable vintage for me, as is 2005. A lot depends on what you like and of course, the differences are pretty subtle anyway.

Will the vintage differences matter long-term? Good question. Some people will give a definite answer but those people are probably clairvoyant and I’m not so I have to say that I honestly don’t know. Rioja’s been kind of hot lately,

As far as the Excelsus - yes it’s exactly one of those wines. It doesn’t spend a year in oak, so it can’t be a crianza in Rioja, although in most of Spain it might qualify because you only need 6 months in oak, so depending on when it’s released, it would be a crianza elsewhere. That bodega is a mix of old and new - it was started in the 1880s but was more recently acquired by and folded into a larger group that also owns Lustau, the sherry producer. So they’re not as locked into tradition and they’ll experiment. I believe that their vines are in Rioja Baja, which is the warmest area in Rioja and it may be why they have so much Garnacha in that wine - it likes the heat and even Muga gets their Garnacha from Rioja Baja. Also I think that Herminia has an Australian winemaker now, or at least he was consulting, so the Garnacha has another champion. And finally, Tom Matthews, (who has really progressed by leaps and bounds over the past 15 years), seems to love Garnacha from Spain so it’s no surprise that it made the WS list.

None of that is particularly good or bad, it’s just the way it is. There’s a lot of change in Rioja right now. Grapes like Graciano, that was championed by Jesus Madrazo for years, have suddenly become almost hip, and people are looking around for old and forgotten grapes. They’re questioning the need for the long aging, making vineyard-designated wines and monovarietal wines, and in general experimenting and trying things that haven’t been done for years. Imagine if people in Bordeaux were to try looking at grapes that were grown two centuries ago rather than exclusively Cab and Merlot? All in all I think it’s a good thing that Rioja isn’t sitting still. The Herminia and LdH are good examples of what happens when old meets new.

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Thanks for your insights Greg. I hasten to add that there are some older vintages of Monte Real in certain stores in London (UK) so I am keen to return and see whats around…plus Musar!!

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An amazing price! My local guy has it for $45.

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PXL_20210612_013102996.jpg
Over the last couple of nights I’ve been having a glass of the 2011 Vina Herminia ‘Reserva’ [Rioja] with grilled chicken, roast potatoes, and a Romaine salad. I would not consider this an amazing wine but its a solid citizen, in a vintage mostly ignored by the US market. 14% abv, showing a dark ruby/purple robe, despite a decade of age. I was reluctant to buy any 2011’s, mostly focusing on 2010, but the Penin Guide was enthusiastic on the 2011 Reserva, and they are an authority on the region, even if it seems like they are biased toward bigger framed wines, so I picked one up to try as I never tasted their various bottlings before. Although Herminia are in the Rioja Baja area – which tends to be Mediterranean in style, and favorable for garnacha – this Rioja has a tempranillo heavy blend according to the label (85%) with other grapes filing out the mix. It gets the usual wood elevage, and bottle aging, prior to sale. For my tastes, it has high acidity on the palate still, although not at the LdH levels. The nose shows mostly resolved oak, celery salt, and zesty red berry fruit on the palate - somewhat at odds with the dark hued color. Tannins are still there, but not the driving force anymore, and the dill is mostly soaked up, but there is still that Rioja calling card. It’s a traditional reserva, that I would look to taste again, but in a bigger, fatter vintage. Herminia doesn’t offer a Gran Reserva, so I’m assuming their best estate grapes and efforts go into this. Price points are on the mass market side, 10 Euros in Spain and maybe $18 in the US. I’d slot it into the B grade. The new label is modern and restrained at the same time; the cork (not pictured) was shorter than DOC peers, and soaked halfway through.