What’s the appeal of Rioja?

Rioja is many things: a place, a brand, the birthplace of the Spanish language, a moderately unpronounceable word to non-Spanish speakers, the home of glorious wines. It’s also a wine region that’s still poorly understood.

My affection for Rioja runs deep. But my relationship with the region almost never happened. I first visited in 1998, when I won a scholarship for my WSET Diploma from the producer Freixenet, who generously sponsored a self-drive trip from Bilbao to Barcelona.

The trip itself proved to be influential in my subsequent work with Spanish wines, but it could not have started any worse.

The plane to Bilbao was late landing, I lost my way driving across the city and by the time I arrived at the bodega on a Sunday evening, everyone had gone home. A total waste of time, apart from the views of the lovely countryside as I drove into Rioja.

Disconsolate, I went to my hotel, where I received a chilly welcome. What I didn’t know then was that this particular hotel only ever gave chilly welcomes. As it was convenient and there were few hotels to choose from in the area, I stayed there regularly over the following 20 years and the reception was always the same.

Definitely not a good advertisement for Rioja, nor for its wines and gastronomy. (Fortunately the ownership has now changed and with it the welcome.)

Leaving the hotel the next morning for Navarra I scraped the hire car turning out of the garage into the narrow street. Famous though the DOCa might be, I was only too glad to leave Rioja behind.

To be sure, things could only get better. When I took those WSET exams I had learned simply that there were three main sub-regions in Rioja and that Tempranillo was the grape. How far from the truth was that simple message!

People and places

There are so many ways to explain the varied appeal of Rioja. The wines are exceptionally approachable. They are all the more accessible because they have escaped the snobbery that overshadows Bordeaux (even if that means they have a lower profile with collectors at auction).

The best have remarkable longevity. Rioja has a lovely elegance, although Rioja too had its Parker moment [in the 1990s], with intense expression and new oak. Today, it is moving from the rigidity of reservas and gran reservas to far more diverse approaches with clearer expressions of soil.

Part of terroir is the human factor, and Rioja for me is all about the people. There’s the winemaker with the golden retriever; the architect/winemaker; the towering cousins who would make great basketball players; the husband who makes rosé wine; the master chocolatier who uses Tempranillo Blanco in his chocolate; the academic; and the Masters of Wine proving there’s more to MWs than textbook knowledge. (Bárbara Palacios; Javier Arizcuren; the Muga family; José Luis Ripa (Ripa Rosado); Juan Angel Rodrigálvarez at Kankel; Juan Carlos Sancha; Sam Harrop MW and Andreas Kubach MW at Bideona, and Almudena Alberca MW at (until recently) Entrecanales Domecq & Hijos, respectively.)

It’s a privilege as a wine writer to be able to walk their vineyards and taste their wines (and chocolates). While visiting people like this in Rioja is the ideal, today many producers will travel to talk about their wines.

When I started studying, the only person you’d meet outside Rioja was the export director, but owners of smaller bodegas are their own export department and winemaker, and you’ll frequently find them giving masterclasses and hosting dinners all over the world.

To sum up, the joy of Rioja today is that it is not homogeneous. White, rosé, traditional-method sparkling, red, orange and sweet; wines made from pre-phylloxera vines; and wines made in concrete, amphorae, oak or all three. Each style is influenced by the mountain ranges, the climate, the elevation – with politics and history playing their part, too.

There’s a happy ending to my first disastrous Rioja trip. The winery I missed was Contino. I finally returned to that singular estate – which is now run by the multi-talented mountain cyclist Jorge Navascués – in 2012 and had a great meeting with Jesús Madrazo. It’s also important to note that for visitors to the region there are now a number of fine hotels and good places to eat.

What’s in my glass this month

Almost 10 years ago, eight winemakers got together to form the delightfully named Rioja ’n’ Roll. They gave a brilliant perspective of a new generation at work, and nearly all of them feature in these pages. At Sierra de Toloño, R ’n’ R member Sandra Bravo works with old vines at altitude, farming biodynamically. Her Nahikun Blanco 2021 (£26.95 Ultracomida) is a complex blend of four white varieties and is full of wild herbs and white flowers, with an underlying minerality.

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