For me, the 2000’s, but I’m likely an outlier.
Generally oak treatment & aging costs the producer money & time, which gets baked into the end price of the wine, so usually the lowest priced Rioja will have less of those flavors. If you don’t want the vanilla etc. look below the crianza, reserva, gran reserva levels. It might be called different things by different producers - tinto, tempranillo, joven, cosecha etc. One issue might be that this level may not get exported much; usually it makes more economic sense to ship higher value bottlings. So what is produced may not actually be available stateside
I don’t know the unwooded category well; generally if I’m having something that was tank / concrete vatted it’s more likely to be a Cotes du Rhone or something.
That is helpful information. I am not averse to oak but too much is not my speed. Kinda of like classic vs modern barolo making. I am for sure a fan of the former.
I suggest the Crianza’s. They do not see as much New oak. If a little oak is OK for you, these might satisfy.
I’m not going against your personal taste.
My understanding and based on visits in local wienries: No other old world wine region is into traditional oak aging than Rioja, such that it is their classic wine-making style.
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It’s hard and getting harder.
Back in the 1600s, it was called the poor man’s claret in London. Most wine was made by big landowners to whom the small farmers brought their grapes. Later, in the 1800s Murrietta and Riscal brought techniques from Bordeaux, creating a modern style that Americans now call “traditional”. Eventually they settled on an aging regime that a lot of people are familiar with. For red wines, Crianza gets at least a year in wood and a year in bottle. Whites only need six months in wood. Reserva supposedly uses better quality grapes and gets a year in oak and at least two years in bottle. Whites only need six months in wood. And Gran Reserva needs two years in wood and three in the bottle. Most people age them much longer but the key is that no matter how long in wood, like ten or twenty years, they still need three in the bottle.
In the late 1800s phylloxera hit and a lot of French wine makers came over. That improved the quality of a lot of wines and a number of wineries were located around the train station in Haro. Then people figured out that grafting onto American rootstock would allow wine making to continue and the French packed up and went home, leaving the Spanish to deal with their problems. Now remember that Spain itself is fairly arid other than the north Atlantic region, and they were frequently at odds with France, so they needed barrels. They found lots of wood in their colonies in the Americas, so that’s what they used for their wines. Nobody, French or Spanish, was using oak as a flavoring device. That’s a modern concept. Wood was used for its mechanical properties only.
Those wineries around Haro, as well as a few others, are the “classic” Rioja bodegas that people now get all hot and bothered about. But for years they were pretty much ignored. Lopez de Heredia couldn’t sell their wine. Now they have all these old vintages and people have turned them into a kind of cult winery.
After a few wars and economic depressions, Spain settled into its own wine tradition. They would leave the wines in oak for ages and slowly get around to drinking them and most were considered tired and boring. If you read some of the British critics from the 1960s and 70s, they aren’t big on a lot of the Rioja wines.
Traditionally Tempranillo was the main grape for reds and smaller amounts of Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Graciano would be added. And that means really small amounts. I think the acreage of Graciano was less than 2% of the entire region, although there may be more now. They can also use Monastel and Maturana Tinta, but I don’t know who does. But almost all of the reds were blends. In addition, since Rioja Baja was the warmest part, the bodegas would get their Garnacha from there and their Tempranillo from somewhere like Rioja Alta or Rioja Alavesa. Tempranillo didn’t have sufficient sugar or acidity, so Garnacha provided the sugar and Graciano the acidity. Thus, many of the wines were sourced from various parts of the region.
And then the estate concept came up.
After Franco, Spain rejoined the larger wine world and began to feel more competitive on the world market. LdH had planted its vineyards in the early 1900s and those became the basis of its wines and remain so today. CVNE had a few great vineyards that they used for their Viña Real Gran Reserva. But then they decided to go one step further and in 1978 decided to use the chateau approach to make an estate wine. They called it Viñedos del Contino. Later they went a step further and made a single-vineyard wine called Viña del Olivo. They also, uniquely, did a monovarietal bottling of Graciano.
And more wine makers started to feel constrained by the old rules. So a lot of them rebelled. They started experimenting with new barrels, with French oak, with different aging regimes. Some of them felt that the standard aging regime was too limiting. And it is weird in a way. If a crianza is your lowest tier, why would you put your worst wines into oak for a year and then keep them in bottle for a year? It’s a dumb convention if you think about it, but the restaurants in Spain like to have crianza on their lists and fortunately, people don’t use their “worst” grapes. In fact, I’ve had crianzas that are over twenty years old and they were great.
Consequently smaller bodegas popped up and they’d make something called Seleccionada, Viñas Viejas, Roble, Joven, etc. Those didn’t have rules attached and they offered more freedom to the wine maker.
A lot of people started making wine and outsiders came into the area. Right next to Tondonia is Roda, run by a completely different mind set. So for a while people were banging on about “modern” vs “traditional”. But Tondonia was modern when they started, although people don’t like to think about that today. And what people consider “traditional” is a heavy hand with oak. It’s impossible to taste the wines of Muga or especially La Rioja Alta and not notice the oak. It’s been made that way for over a hundred years, so it’s not like someone decided to “over oak” the wine recently.
The key is that there’s a lot of really good wine made in the region these days and some of it ages exceptionally well.
In addition there are changes that were recently made to the winemaking regs, allowing different grapes. Today there are people making monovarietal Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Tempranillo. Cab was never allowed, even though it was probably there before Garnacha, but it’s considered a French grape, whereas the others originated in Spain. So you find it in “experimental” bottlings, like some made by Riscal.
My suggestion is just try a few. Try some of the centenary bodegas and some of the modern ones. There’s a lot of good wine there.
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Exhaustive history; thank you!
I actually have a magnum of a varietal labeled Mazuelo from Rioja. I hope its better than the leathery carignans from the Midi I sometimes trip over.
Agreed, though I would say the same thing about a lot of categories if you’re generally talking about $20-$50 wines vs. more expensive California and French (specifically Bordeaux) wines. Chianti Classico (and CC Riserva), plenty of sub $50 Brunello & Barolo, and Cru Beaujolais all fit comfortably alongside Rioja Reserva in this regard.
Even when you get to more expensive wine ($60-$100), these “other” categories still usually outperform $100+ Cali wines. For example, Muga’s Prado Enea Rioja Reserva sits at about around $65-$75, and is better (or at least more consistent) than any $100 California wine I can think of (though I must admit, I haven’t drank many expensive California wines in recent years simply due to this perception on my part). And there are any number of Barolos and Brunellos for $65-ish that are also terrific.
Arv - which Mazuelo? There aren’t a lot of them but I’ve seen a few recently.
interesting to see less love for LRA than I expected. 904 is one of the wines that I feel like still offers pretty good price for what I view as a world class wine. IMO in general the classified Riojas that see oak just need a ton of time to integrate it.
Man I love the value Rioja brings, in particular for aged wines (red and white, thank you very much Lopez de Heredia).
This prompted me to look up my “average vintage” by region in CT - which is both an indication of what I buy/drink AND also what’s being released - my California avg is 2017 (lots of Dirty & Rowdy), Burgundy is 2014, Rioja is 2002! (and that even includes a few of the 2016 CUNE Monopole Clasico, but also some LdH going back to the 80’s). The Tondonia Reserva in particular is something I feel compelled to buy (and thrilled to buy) every vintage, and the fact that 2008 is the most recent release makes me downright giddy.
Did you go to Rekondo?
No, sadly. I was pretty much there for work, and was joined by a friend who prefers to keep things more budget friendly.
I love the 904 and buy it in most years too. The only reason I mentioned Prado Enea rather than LRA 904 as an example of a wine that consistently deliver over more expensive Cali wines is that the American Oak in LRA 904 is off putting to many, and there are a lot of folks who would disagree that the “dill” flavor of American oak can ever be “integrated.” I also don’t tend to age the LRA that long…Not that they CAN’T age (I don’t have any experience with that), but I’m finding the '04s are really in a great spot right now, and with respect to any wine that is “drinking great”, I’d rather enjoy it than take a chance to see what the future will bring. I plan to move to the next vintage within the next few years.
I do think that Rioja presents some real values. I must say, though, that catching a rioja reserva with the big dill note is a killer for me, and when it’s there and prevalent, I’d rather pour it out than drink it.
I love the 904 and buy it in most years too.
At $50 in Minneapolis can’t beat the QPR on this wine. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
The 2010 Castillo Clavijo ‘Gran Reserva’ [Rioja] was a delight on a couple of drizzly nights, featuring delicate light red berry fruit, with medium body, modest 13% abv, and a blend that is 70% tempranillo with the balance a mix of garnacha/mazuelo/graciano. Current releases are much more tempranillo heavy, and omit the garnacha. Upon opening it has a profile that shows pine, resin, fir tree needles but those morph into a more delightful, balanced GR with some air. If one likes traditional Rioja e.g. the coconut/olive of US wood, this shows that, and other attributes like bright balsalmic acidity. This bodega has some 500 growers feeding their winery, but this bottling is selected from a small set of old vine hand harvested plots. It’s very good for the money, and I would repurchase in solar vintages. It was closed with an old school cork, and the wire cage. On my card, I’d slot this into the A- zone and think it still has upside, despite it’s relatively low price, and contracted grapes.
For a commercial wine, I think this would please the WB / AFWE palate. It’s NOT in the Jorge Ordonez mold.
Wineberserkers should team up with PBS and Ken Burns. There’s such concentration of fascinating knowledge here.