Classic red wines to pair with lamb

Here are six key grape varieties behind some of the most popular red wine styles to pair with lamb:

• Pinot Noir
• Tempranillo
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Syrah / Shiraz
• Grenache
• Sangiovese

Cabernet Sauvignon-driven red wines are commonly considered a classic match with roast lamb served medium or ‘well done’, bringing a sumptuous balance of cassis fruit, tannic structure and acidity to the table.

There’s also something alluring about a comforting lamb stew on a cold, wintry evening with a bottle of hearty red. Alternatively, young lamb served pink might take you into Pinot Noir territory.

Choosing a wine to drink with lamb

Food and wine pairing can divide the room, of course. This is a highly subjective pursuit, and even wines from well-known grape varieties and regions will vary in character according to winemakers’ decisions.

Caveats aside, it’s useful to consider the intensity and make-up of the dish.

‘Lamb has quite a delicate texture, but is also quite rich and fatty,’ said master sommelier Kathrine Larsen-Robert MS, head of wine for Europe at members’ club 67 Pall Mall.

‘As such, pairing with a wine which has nice acid structure is important. Depending on the cut of lamb, and thus how full in flavour it is, I would go for a wine which is light to medium in body.’

Wine with slow-cooked lamb shoulder

Larsen-Robert said some Pinot Noir wines at the riper end of the fruit spectrum pair well with the richness of slow-cooked lamb shoulder.

‘With a slow-cooked roast lamb shoulder, I would go for something with lots of acidity to cut through the rich sauce, but also with lots of fruit sweetness. This could be a Pinot Noir from New Zealand, for example.’

Speaking to Decanter in 2024, Larsen-Robert added: ‘I really like Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir, from a young vintage such as 2018 – great sweetness and fruit concentration, [and] great acidity to cut through the juicy texture and richness of the lamb.’

Decanter experts have also previously recommended Grenache blends, such as those of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, with a slow-roast shoulder of older lamb. If you have them in the cellar, wines with a few years of bottle age may sing alongside the meat’s gamey character.

Herbaceous notes of ‘garrigue’ on some Syrah / Shiraz or Grenache wines, from southern France to South Australia and California, may add extra depth to a dish with lots of Mediterrean herbs, like thyme, rosemary and sage, too.

Wine with a rack of lamb and lamb chops  

‘A rack of lamb is a more muscley, firmer cut, but it also has a fuller flavour because it is close to the bone,’ said Larsen-Robert.

‘Thus, I would pair with something fuller in structure and flavour, such as a Pauillac [from Bordeaux’s Left Bank].’

Individual lamb chops can offer a rich, fatty cut that is also full in flavour by virtue of being close to the bone, Larsen-Robert said.

‘I would go for a juicy wine with strong tannic structure, but that also possesses good fruit purity and freshness, such as Barolo or Barbaresco.’

‘You could also choose a more traditional style of Brunello [di Montalcino] without too much oak or extraction.’ Examples include ‘a Sesti from 2015 – a vintage showing good evolution now but which also has nice fruit concentration’.

A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2021 found that fatty molecules known as lipids, found in various foods including meat and cheese, interact with tannins to reduce the sensation of astringency on the palate.

Rioja with lamb: perfect harmony

Rioja is often lauded as a great match for lamb. This Spanish wine region is known for grilled lamb cooked over an open fire made from vine cuttings.

‘It’s extraordinarily good – the meat is young and tender and harmonises perfectly with the local Tempranillo-based wines,’ wrote food and wine expert Fiona Beckett in this Decanter article on pairing Rioja with food.

Tempranillo is also a driving force behind the great red wines of Ribera del Duero, where it’s also known as Tinto Fino.

‘Lechazo asado (suckling lamb roasted in a clay dish in a wood-fired oven) pairs well with hearty crianzas and reservas from Ribera del Duero,’ wrote Noah Chichester in his food and wine lover’s guide to the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

Vega Sicilia and Pingus are two Spanish wine icons here, but there are plenty of other producers to watch.

Cabernet Sauvignon with roast lamb served medium to well-done

Roast lamb served medium to well-done will be richer in flavour and not quite as tender. Cabernet Sauvignon is often considered a strong choice, with many wines delivering bright fruit, tannic structure and a backbone of acidity.

In Bordeaux, Frédéric Braud, chef at Château d’Issan in Bordeaux’s Margaux appellation, previously recommended the estate’s 2010-vintage grand vin with a slow-cooked roast leg of lamb.

Some ‘second wines’ from the top-rated 2016 vintage at Médoc grand cru classé estates have entered their drinking windows, while the Cru Bourgeois classification can be a source of great-value options.

Good Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blends are found across the globe. Regions to look for include:

• Hawke’s Bay – New Zealand
• California – USA
• Coonawarra & Margaret River – Australia
• Stellenbosch – South Africa
• Argentina and Chile – South America

Syrah / Shiraz wines are also good options for roast lamb. Some wines will offer a touch of pepper spice in the glass that can also work beautifully with the texture of the meat.

Decanter recently revisited the highly regarded 2015 vintage in the Northern Rhône, a Syrah heartland. Not only does the vintage deserve the hype, but many wines are ‘opening up and drinking well already,’ wrote Rhône correspondent Matt Walls.

Alternative wines to pair with lamb dishes

There are plenty of other potential pairings across the wine world, and discovering new styles is all part of the fun.

Decanter's regional editor for Italy, James Button, recently reviewed this good-value Nero di Troia red wine from Puglia. 'Mid-weight, textural and with some grippy tannins, it's a perfect match for beef or lamb,' he wrote.

Rosé wines with lamb

Some fuller-bodied rosé wines can work well with lamb dishes, depending on the ingredients accompanying the meat.

Food and wine expert Fiona Beckett explored this concept with chef Michel Roux Jr’s recipe for spiced lamb shoulder, recently featured in Decanter’s perfect pairing series.

Gastronomic rosé Champagnes are also an option for the table. ‘Pink Champagne is versatile when it comes to food pairing,’ wrote Natalie Earl, Decanter’s regional editor for France. ‘Richer styles can stand up to bigger flavours and richer foods.’

Five offbeat wine and lamb pairings to try this weekend

By Fiona Beckett | As featured in Decanter magazine April 2026 issue

• Vintage rosé Champagne or English sparkling rosé with rack of lamb, served pink
• Assyrtiko or Greco di Tufo white wine with grilled lamb marinated in garlic and herbs
• Crianza or Reserva Rioja with Rogan Josh lamb curry
• Orange wine with slow-cooked lamb with Middle Eastern spices
• Tavel rosé with grilled lamb

See the full pairing suggestions, and read more about uncommon wine and lamb combinations, in Fiona Beckett's article: Offbeat wines to pair with lamb.

Best wine with lamb: Bottles tasted by our experts

The following wines cover a range of price-points and have been tasted by Decanter’s experts.

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Those of us who work in and with Spanish wine go on, passionately and relentlessly, about how exciting the Spanish wine scene is, how it has evolved dramatically in the last two decades and how it is home to some of the world’s (often overlooked) standout producers – those now crafting the present and future classics.

This relentlessness is driven by an ever renewed sense of wonder: discovering Spanish wine is an ongoing journey, punctuated by reliable favourites and offbeat surprises, never predictable and always enjoyable.

The country’s history, geology and topography have given rise to terroir diversity and viticultural singularity – amplified by equally diverse, vibrant communities of growers and winemakers.

The urge to convert those who roam the world unaware of Spain’s wine riches stems from the fact that we too once lived in darkness. Until a bottle, visit or encounter opened our eyes and palates – forever changing, in many cases, personal and professional trajectories.

Some found themselves living in Spain, either temporarily or permanently, and building businesses and families on Spanish soil. Others have become leading voices in Spanish wine production, trade and education.

We asked Decanter contributors, Decanter World Wine Awards judges, winemakers, buyers and restaurateurs about that one pivotal bottle that marked a ‘before and after’ in their personal Spanish wine journeys, and to which they return for delicious nostalgia.

Think of it as their Proustian wine madeleine moment, imbued with Spanish hedonism. Here’s how and why they fell in love with Spain, its wines and its people.

Peter Sisseck

Founder-winemaker of Dominio de Pingus, Ribera del Duero, and others

Seduced by old-vine Tempranillo

When I arrived in Ribera del Duero, more than 35 years ago, the region was still a sleeping giant. What first captivated me was the raw, untamed energy of its old-vine Tempranillo: dark fruit, firm tannins, a freshness born of altitude and limestone soils. It was not a polished wine, but it carried an honesty and depth that felt timeless, as if the landscape itself had been poured into the glass.

Over the decades I’ve witnessed the region grow and refine itself, yet that first sense of wonder remains unchanged. Each time I taste those vineyards again, I’m reminded why I fell in love with Spain. I’ve had several memorable tastings and encounters since. I still remember the first time I met Alejandro Fernández [of Tinto Pesquera]. I’d been living in Spain for a few years and had just released the first vintage of Hacienda Monasterio (in the west of the region).

He came to see me and said: ‘I’ve just tasted your wine! It’s not very good… but at least you didn’t try to copy me, like everyone else. So I just want to give you a good piece of advice: Tempranillo expresses itself better in American oak.’ (Hacienda Monasterio has always used exclusively French oak.) I still remember the happiness it gave me. I never followed his advice, but we became great friends until he sadly passed away a few years ago.

Richard Bigg

Founder of London restaurant group Camino and Bar Rioja

An Andalusían initiation

My first trip to Spain was in 1984: a road trip all the way south to Málaga. Andalusía in the heat of summer was exhilarating. While there I discovered Sherry properly; first trying small ice-cold glasses of fino and manzanilla alongside almonds, jamón and montaditos (bread-and-topping tapas), branching out into the myriad other styles – and all from just three grape varieties.

It was mind-blowing how these delicious, high-quality and extraordinarily unique wines could be such amazing value. And Sherry is surely the most versatile category of all when it comes to food matching. I’ve been back to Jerez and the surrounding regions countless times and even had a house inland for many years.

Most recently I was extremely lucky to be invited by González Byass to the week-long Feria de Jerez festival – spectacular!

Norrel Robertson MW

Owner & winemaker, El Escocés Volante, Aragón

Iconic Rioja gateway

The first Spanish wine I fell for was the 1964 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial Tinto from Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta. I discovered it in the 1990s while working at Oddbins and bought six bottles. They didn’t last long. Aged for 23 years before release, it sums up all the greatness of classic aged Rioja where the winery – and time – does the hard yards and lets the drinker bathe in the resulting glory.

Even now, decades later, it remains a benchmark in my mind. Some years ago, we were lucky enough to have a bottle of the 1925 vintage. It was remarkable – surprisingly youthful, fresh and vibrant. Spain has many treasures – I’m a huge fan of Jerez – but for me, Castillo Ygay was the gateway.

Beth Willard

Madrid-based wine consultant, communicator and judge; DWWA Co-Chair

A maritime attack on the senses

Txakolí may not receive the praise of Rioja, Ribera del Duero or even Rías Baixas, but it is the style and region that inexorably lured me into Spanish wine. I was living in Bordeaux and one weekend drove down to San Sebastián, just over the border on Spain’s northern coast.

It was at once a coup de coeur and a wild attack on all my senses: the delicious pintxo snacks, the noise of the bars packed like a tin of the wonderful anchovies they were serving, and the drama of the long pour from vertiginous height of the Basque Country’s local wine.

A country that can produce a wine with such a unique identity, anchored in its local gastronomy and intrinsic to its culture, this is for me. This is Spain!

Sarah Jane Evans MW

Awarded wine journalist, author and consultant with a particular focus on Spain and Sherry

Branded by the Marco de Jerez

My Spanish wine madeleine, the one that takes me straight back to a place with a feeling of joy, is – you guessed it – Sherry. In my gap year in the country, and subsequently as a student at Cambridge, I discovered finos. Later I plunged into the glorious explosion of oxidative styles. And now there are the ‘albariza’ table wines, also made from the Palomino Fino variety.

I first got to know the Marco de Jerez region through its brand names (notably Garvey’s San Patricio and Domecq’s La Ina). Later I made the connection with smaller names and, crucially, the people behind the wines. I have gone on to drink my way across the map of Spain’s vineyards, but there’s a special space in my heart for Sherry country and its people.

Fintan Kerr

Barcelona-based wine writer, educator, judge and guide

Captured by Priorat, by way of Ribera del Duero

The first wine that really made me sit up and pay attention to this beautiful country came via an informal wine tasting in Barcelona. The rich, layered Tempranillo of Tomas Postigo, livened by the acidity that comes with the high elevations of Ribera del Duero, was an immediate gateway to what has been a very happy 10 years, thus far, dedicated to Spanish wine!

The majesty and beauty of Priorat immediately captured my heart in a way that hasn’t been replicated since. The rolling slopes of schist and slate, the subtle aromas of dried herbs and earth on the air, the incredible views across the undulating valleys and, of course, the stunning, concentrated and deeply terroir-specific wines of the region.

Exploring Clos Mogador with the iconic René Barbier Sr was an experience I’ll never forget, and I’ve been a fan of the estate ever since.

Pierre Mansour

Director of wine at The Wine Society; DWWA joint Regional Chair for Spain

Like so many, my first step into Spanish wine was through Rioja, but my true love affair with Spain began with Garnacha. In the 2000s, I was given Spain to buy for The Wine Society, and as I explored, I was bowled over by the quality and variety produced from this underrated grape.

What struck me most was the common thread running through the best Garnachas I tasted: a younger generation of winemakers, obsessed with creating wines that truly reflected their place. I adored their purity and subtlety – understated, honest expressions that, to me, symbolised the wonderful Spanish people behind them. And the absolute standout was the Sanz family in Navarra.

They had just founded Viña Zorzal, approaching old vineyards with fresh eyes and crafting wines with a beautifully low intervention touch.

Manu Michelini

Winemaker in Rioja and Bierzo, native of Uco Valley, Argentina

Beginning of a quest for excellence

The wine that first shaped my fascination with Spanish wine was Bodegas Forjas del Salnés, María Luisa Lázaro, a Rías Baixas Albariño with extended ageing only released in exceptional vintages.

Its minerality and freshness opened my eyes to the incredible diversity of Spanish wine, leaving an indelible imprint. Another landmark wine was a 1964 Viña Real Rioja. It moved me deeply and led me to embark on the quest to recreate those great 20th-century wines that represent the essence of Rioja Alavesa.

Noah Chichester

New York-based wine writer and educator specialising in Galician wine

Blown away by a surprise classic

I had barely started drinking wine when we took a family vacation to New Hampshire. There, at the state-run liquor stores – much cheaper than our home state of New York – my parents bought a mixed case to bring home with us.

Among the bottles was a Marqués de Cáceres, Gran Reserva Rioja 2010. We opened it up at Thanksgiving. My world up to this point had been limited to $12 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon or brand-name American wine and, simply put, my mind was blown. How could a wine taste like this? Leather, tobacco, coffee (or was it chocolate?), spiced plums…

A few years later, I would go on to live in Spain, and drink a lot more Rioja. And even though I now write about (and drink a lot of) Galician wine, sometimes I still think about the first bottle that made it clear Spanish wine had something special.

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The second Thursday in November marks International Tempranillo Day, a well-deserved accolade for this versatile and popular grape.

Tempranillo is thought to have originated in the neighbouring regions of Rioja and Navarra in northern Spain.

It can make good-value, fruit-forward and approachable wines. Of a Decanter panel tasting of value Spanish Tempranillo earlier this year, judge Andy Howard MW commented: ‘From virtually no other country could mature, expressive and well-made wines be found at values even vaguely comparable to these.’

But it’s also a mainstay in some very high-end, ageworthy examples. Its thick skins often translate to wines with deep colour, and young wines may have notes of red fruit (think: an abundance of strawberries), developing notes of vanilla, liquorice and tobacco with oak ageing.

Tempranillo grows widely throughout Spain but perhaps most famously in Ribera del Duero (where it is known as Tinto Fino) and Rioja. In Ribera del Duero, home to Spanish icon Vega Sicilia, many producers vinify it as a single varietal wine, whereas in Rioja it is more likely to be blended with Garnacha, Mazuelo, Graciano and Viura.

It’s also an important player in Navarra, Toro (as Tinta de Toro) and Valdepeňas (as Cencibel). In other regions around Spain it also answers to Tinta Madrid, Tinta del País and Ull de Llebre.

Tempranillo is also a variety which can be found in Portugal (as Aragonez and Tinta Roriz), southern France, Mendoza in Argentina, as well as California and Washington State in the US.

In terms of food matching, its versatility lends itself to many dishes. Decanter contributor Fiona Beckett recently commented that inexpensive Tempranillo would be a good pairing for ‘sausage and mash, shepherd’s (and cottage) pie, even mince on toast’.

‘Older vintages, which might be regarded as more of a treat, are great to bring out with a Sunday roast or a pot roast or pheasant casserole, making the best of the last of the season’s game,’ Beckett added.

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López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia, Rioja

First vintage: 1913

Among the world’s most recognisable vineyard names, López de Heredia’s Viña Tondonia has become a brand in its own right.

Its Reserva is treasured as one of Spain’s most accessible icons, both stylistically and budget-wise, consistently delivering power and poise, drinkability and staying power, quality and value.

See below for a must-try vintage of López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia

The exceptional vintages, which after more time in barrel become Gran Reservas, on the other hand, command significantly higher prices in both the primary and secondary markets. Likewise, Tondonia’s white and rosé iterations are among Spain’s most collectible – and unique – wines of both categories.

Now in the capable hands of fourth-generation María José López de Heredia, the winery is determinedly committed to tradition and heritage.

‘We are obsessed with not changing our style,’ she says. ‘It’s not only what our customers want but also what we believe in. We want our wines to reflect our land and region, Rioja Alta, as well as the history that brought us to the present. We are faithful to both our viticultural and oenological traditions.’

Founder Rafael López de Heredia built the eponymous winery in Haro in 1877 and, after nearly three decades as a bulk wine trader, began the establishment of the vineyards that now provide the only source of fruit to Bodegas López de Heredia’s wines: Tondonia, Bosconia, Cubillo and Gravonia.

Replanted between 1901 and 1907 after being decimated by phylloxera, Tondonia covers just over 100ha on the right bank of a meander of the Ebro in Rioja Alavesa.

Tempranillo makes up the majority of plantings, with smaller percentages of Garnacha, Graciano, Mazuelo (Cariñena), Viura and Malvasía. ‘Every vintage is a challenge. Quality is a goal that can never be seen as achieved. Experience can give us confidence but the character [of the wines] is built every day,’ says María José.

‘All generations have had to work hard, with constancy, inquisitiveness, conviction and a deep understanding of nature.’

Constancy is indeed what first comes to mind when thinking of Viña Tondonia and its wines, which have a strong character but soft edges, are comforting but never boring, unapologetic yet unassuming – just what you expect an icon to be.

The wine to try before you die

López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia Reserva, Rioja, 2012 – 94pts

£27.50 (ib)-£56 Widely available via UK independents US$55-$72 Widely available

70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 10% Graciano and Mazuelo, bottled in January 2022, having matured in 225L American oak barrels for six years.

All you can expect from a classical Viña Tondonia with its focused intensity and muscular yet very elegant tannins. At once assertive and silky, with juicy red and blue fruit gliding over the palate while being pleasantly pulled back by an energetic, iodine verve.

Subtle, hovering, brooding notes of tobacco, mocha and wet forest floor.

Drink: 2025-2040 Alcohol: 13%

Spanish Icons: López de Heredia, Viña Tondionia

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Andy Howard MW, Eugenio Egorov and David Williams tasted 110 wines, with 32 Highly Recommended

Value Spanish Tempranillo: Panel tasting scores

110 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 0

Highly recommended 32

Recommended 71

Commended 7

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release still dry red wines of any Spanish classification (DOCa, DO, Vino de la Tierra, Vino de España) made from minimum 85% Tempranillo (or any accepted synonym, such as Tinta de Toro, Tinta del Pais, Tinto Fino). Maximum price €12 in the domestic market, £15 in the UK

Although this tasting didn’t result in any Outstanding awards, these Tempranillo-dominant wines retailing at £15 or less put on a good show. The judges were surprised and delighted to taste so many elegant, mature and great-value wines.

Of 110 wines tasted, 32 (29%) were awarded 90 points or more (Silver medal equivalent), with a highest score of 94pts. A further 71 wines were Recommended.

In total, 93.6% were Highly recommended or Recommended – a strong result given the price constraints.

Scroll down to see notes and scores of the top-scoring wines from our value Spanish Tempranillo tasting

Wines perpetually punching above their weight

Considering the price of the wines, David Williams was impressed: ‘“Value” in the title of a tasting can lower expectations. But this line-up genuinely represented excellent value.’

Andy Howard MW agreed: ‘From virtually no other country could mature, expressive and well-made wines be found at values even vaguely comparable to these.’

Eugenio Egorov felt that ‘the wines exhibited a vibrant, expressive style, with a reduced reliance on oak allowing the underlying fruit to shine through, resulting in wines that were more elegant, with a strong sense of identity’.

Howard summed up the panel’s views: ‘We saw very well-made wines that expressed both the grape variety and their region, many at their peak, yet many still with a long life ahead.’

Rioja proved to be both the largest entry and highest performing DO with 24 (almost 36%) wines out of a total of 67 being awarded 90pts or more. In terms of vintages, 2021 was the strongest performer, displaying the quality of this highly rated, cooler year.

There’s no hurry to drink most of these wines, while the amazing ability of Rioja to age was demonstrated by the two 2015-vintage wines tasted.

Both scored 92pts, with the judges giving drinking windows up to 2034 – a remarkable testament to the ability of these modestly priced wines to age.

See all the wines from the value Spanish Tempranillo tasting

What to eat with value Tempranillo, by Fiona Beckett

Although the tasting is headlined Tempranillo, we’re mainly talking inexpensive Rioja here, and the good news is it’s a hugely versatile wine, not least with the simple, inexpensive meals we all tend to make at this time of year.

Think sausage and mash, shepherd’s (and cottage) pie, even mince on toast.

Tempranillo is also surprisingly good with meat dishes that have a touch of spice, especially lamb curries such as rogan josh, or a tagine. On the veggie front, anything based on beans should work.

Inexpensive Tempranillo is a good wine to choose in a tapas bar or for a tapas spread at home. And a great glass with a late-night nibble of cheese – especially sheep’s cheese such as Manchego.

Older vintages, which might be regarded as more of a treat, are great to bring out with a Sunday roast or a pot roast or pheasant casserole, making the best of the last of the season’s game.

Value Spanish Tempranillo panel tasting scores

Wines were tasted blind

The judges

Andy Howard MW is a Decanter contributing editor and DWWA Regional Chair. A retail wine buyer for more than 30 years, he now runs his own consultancy Vinetrades, focusing on wine education, judging, investment and sourcing

Eugenio Egorov is head sommelier at AA five-star The Stafford in London. Born in Ukraine, he began his hospitality career in restaurants in Italy and Florida, USA, before moving to London in 2014, where he rose through the ranks as a sommelier at the likes of 45 Park Lane and The Dorchester

David Williams is wine correspondent for The Observer, a regular contributor to Decanter on all things Spanish, and a widely published wine writer, author and competition judge

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La Rioja Alta, Gran Reserva 890, Rioja

First vintage: 1890

The Gran Reserva 890 remains La Rioja Alta’s flagship and most symbolic wine, produced only in vintages deemed of sufficient quality, from selected plots of bush-trained vines in Rioja Alta, aged no less than 50 years.

The wine flew under the radar of collectors and investors until recently.

Scroll down for one vintage of Gran Reserva 890 all wine lovers should try

’A few years ago we started seeing it in auctions, private collections and in vertical listings of top restaurants,’ says Guillermo de Aranzabal, president of La Rioja Alta.

Ageworthiness, powerful classicism and scarcity (as an example, between 2005 and 2015, only four vintages – 2005, 2010, 2011 and 2015 – were produced) are among the reasons that collectors and investors finally caught up with it.

The wine’s name is a nod to the producer’s origins: the Sociedad Vinícola de La Rioja Alta was founded in 1890 as a partnership between five families from Rioja and the Basque Country.

The first wine produced by the company, released that same year, was the Reserva 1890, precursor of today’s Gran Reserva 890 (the first digit was dropped during the 1890s to avoid confusion with the vintage).

Since then, La Rioja Alta has grown to become a prominent wine group, with four wineries in Rioja, Rías Baixas and Ribera del Duero, producing exclusively from its own 800ha of vineyards.

The style of 890 remains very much its own, marked by the signature influence of American oak, imparted by barrels produced at La Rioja Alta’s in-house cooperage from outdoor-aged wood.

Still, there have been slight adjustments. ‘We’ve replaced the last two rackings [done every six months] with top-ups, to avoid excessive oxidation and release the wines fresher and a little less evolved,’ explains Aranzabal. ‘We’ve also reduced the time in barriques from eight to six years.’

But he’s quick to clarify that, when producing wines such as 890, the work requires ‘the differentiation between fashions and trends – the former are transient, while the latter endure’. So, he says: ‘If a wine ages for a total of 15 years in the winery, you need to avoid following fads and be mindfully aware of trends.’

This stance, and the uncompromising style of 890, is somewhat courageous, definitely against the zeitgeist, making one feel the privilege of tasting a slice of history. Even sceptics of American oak (and traditional Rioja) will appreciate the confident ability shown by 890.

The wine to try before you die

La Rioja Alta, Gran Reserva 890, Rioja, 2010 – 95pts

£170-£200 Widely available via UK agent Hallgarten Wines / US$230-$300 Widely available

Tempranillo with 2% Mazuelo (Cariñena) and 3% Graciano fermented separately, with the best batches selected and left to rest in American oak barrels, 20% new, for six years; the best 236 barrels were bottled, unfiltered, in March 2017.

True to itself – and the character of the 2010 vintage – this combines lovely fruit purity, sweet spiciness and elegant smokiness. Plum, red cherries and redcurrant jam are infused with vanilla, toasted coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa nibs. Powdery, firm tannins widen the mid-palate, but there’s lovely focus and sharp linearity throughout.

Drink: 2025-2045 Alcohol: 14%

Spanish Icons: La Rioja Alta, Gran Reserva 890

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Dominio de Pingus, Pingus, Ribera del Duero

First vintage: 1995

‘It’s almost a damnation to produce a wine that becomes an icon from day one,’ says Peter Sisseck when describing the attention and pressure that fell upon him with the release of Pingus’ first vintage.

It all started with few expectations and a lot of wonder; the Danish winemaker was working at Hacienda Monasterio and felt Ribera del Duero, with its wealth of old vines, deserved a true ‘vineyard wine’.

See below for one recommended vintage of Peter Sisseck’s Pingus to try

‘It came quite naturally to me: to make a wine from old vines, at a friend’s garage, without much technique, very artisanal. There was a lot of innocence about it and no [long-term] projects, or business plans.’

However, he still needed to sell the wine. He took it to friends in Bordeaux (where he worked before joining Monasterio) and it was offered, en primeur, through the La Place system; it sold out in days and was received enthusiastically by leading critics.

‘It ended up in the right hands and the right market,’ Sisseck says, adding that it filled a gap for a terroir-driven Ribera, for which there was clearly an appetite. Indeed, Pingus’ success has arguably underpinned an ongoing transformation in the region, a reappreciation of its vineyard stock and renewed confidence among producers.

Pingus – produced from 4.2ha of old Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) vines – gave birth to Dominio de Pingus. The winery, which was finished in 2004, now houses the production of the flagship wine alongside two younger siblings: Flor de Pingus (‘our village wine’) and Psi (in partnership with local growers, part of an effort to save old vines that are at risk of abandonment).

According to Sisseck, this all forms part of an ongoing journey. About the wine itself, he says: ‘I haven’t changed anything; and I’ve changed everything. I don’t stick to a recipe. If anything, we are more and more precise (in winemaking and viticulture), because we need to respond to challenging conditions.’

And it’s precision, along with a distinctively framed depth, that makes Pingus a chapter of its own in the long history of Ribera del Duero.

The wine to try before you die

Dominio de Pingus, Pingus, Ribera del Duero, 2018 – 98pts

£642 (ib)-£925 Berry Bros & Rudd, Brunswick, Corney & Barrow, Crop & Vine, Farr Vintners, Harrods, Ideal Wine Co, Latimer Vintners, VinQuinn US$1,300-$1,400 Benchmark, Jungle Jim’s, Naples Fine Wine, Sunfish Cellars

100% Tempranillo, aged for 22-24 months in second-use 225L and 500L French oak barrels, with a portion in 2,500L vats.

Impressive depth and focus, with dense bramble, plum, black olive and mulberry at the core. The firm, well-honed tannins have a distinct earthy bite of liquorice root, perfectly offset by refreshing thyme, oregano and macerated sage.

An elegant veil of sweet spice and toast adds depth of field, keeping the finish in focus with lingering freshness and vibrancy. Organic.

Drink: 2025-2045 Alcohol: 14.5%

Spanish Icons: Dominio de Pingus, Pingus

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Muga, Prado Enea Gran Reserva, Rioja

First vintage: 1969

Only produced in exceptional vintages, Prado Enea uses a selection of the best and later-harvested grapes from Muga’s plots on the northwestern edge of Rioja Alta, at around 500m-600m.

Its ageworthiness and laidback classicism have made it – vintage variation notwithstanding – one of the safest and best-valued options among investment-worthy Spanish wines. It strikes an interesting balance between classical and more modern Rioja, and this makes it a good entry point, both stylistically and budget-wise, for budding collectors.

Winemaker Manuel Muga explains that the age of the vines, in tandem with climate change, will further limit the quantity of Prado Enea produced in the future, adding that ‘the most important [thing] is that quality will always prevail over quantity’.

Scroll down for a must-try recommendation of Prado Enea

Prado Enea is also a symbol of the continuity and evolution of Bodegas Muga, which was founded in 1932 in the centre of Haro by Isaac Muga and Aurora Caño. Second-generation Manuel, Isabel and Isaac took the helm in 1969, following their father’s passing.

The siblings moved the winery’s headquarters to sprawling stone barracks – built in 1862 and purchased by Muga in 1967 – in the historical Barrio de la Estación, in Haro’s outskirts. Formerly owned by Dionisio de Prado, the building was known locally as Prado Enea (a Basque influenced designation akin to ‘the house of Prado’).

The family decided to pay homage to this heritage by thus naming its new Gran Reserva.

‘Although we will never lose the essence of Prado Enea, we are aware of the need to adapt,’ Manuel explains. In recent years, freshness and elegance have gained more prominence, without sacrificing depth and complexity.

‘This challenge [to adapt], extends to the winery team, which has been able to combine oenological tradition with the technical innovations that improve the wine’s quality without changing its identity. Evolution is not just a product of [the conditions of each] vintage, but also of the team’s ability to learn and adapt without losing sight of what makes us unique.’

The wine to try before you die

Muga, Prado Enea Gran Reserva, Rioja, 2005 – 94pts

£55 (ib)-£90 Berry Bros & Rudd, Bordeaux Index, Burnett & Herbert, Crop & Vine, Fine & Rare, Lay & Wheeler, Seckford, Vintage Drinks US$180-$245 Maison Mura, The Spanish Table, Total Wine & More

80% Tempranillo with Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano, picked late then native-yeast fermented in 10,000L oak vats with no temperature control; the wine was aged in 16,000L oak vats for 12 months, then a minimum of 36 months in oak casks and a minimum of 36 months in the bottle.

Showing beautiful, balanced development two decades on, with enduring vibrancy on the palate and a mineral quality to the tannic framework.The juicy blueberry, bramble and mulberry fruit is heavily but elegantly cloaked in tobacco leaves, dried rose petals, mushrooms, black olives and chestnuts.

Fragrant wet soil notes lift the nuances of mountain herbs, and it has a very long finish with lingering sweet spice and poached plums.

Drink: 2025-2027 Alcohol: 13.5%

Spanish Icons: Muga, Prado Enea Gran Reserva

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Vega Sicilia, Unico, Ribera del Duero

First vintage: 1915

The fact that Vega Sicila became, in 2024, the first Spanish winery to lead Liv-ex’s Power 100 ranking is mostly due to the enduring and increasing investment appeal of its flagship wine, Unico (Spanish for ‘unique’).

With origins dating back to 1864, Vega Sicilia was founded by Don Eloy Lecanda y Chaves, who brought cuttings from Bordeaux to add to the local Tinto Fino (Tempranillo).

The blending of the indigenous and imported grapes has since become the estate’s signature.

Scroll down for the vintage of Vega Sicilia Unico to try before you die

Vega Sicilia affirmed its reputation as one of the first Spanish fine wine producers in the early 20th century, under the ownership of Antonio Herrero. The Alvarez family purchased the estate in 1982 – the same year DO Ribera del Duero was created – and a new phase of expansion and brand-building began.

Gonzalo Iturriaga, technical director at Tempos Vega Sicilia (the umbrella under which the Ribera del Duero-based group manages its projects in Spain and beyond), points out that Unico, like all of Vega Sicilia’s wines, is released when it’s ready to drink – which explains why vintage releases don’t follow chronological order.

The masterful delivery of drinkability married to power, upon release, makes Unico stand out among its peers. Iturriaga has overseen production of all the group’s wines since 2015, following the departure of Xavier Ausàs. The latter, in turn, replaced the renowned Mariano Garcia, who produced his first vintage at Vega Sicilia in 1968.

That only three winemakers have overseen the production of Unico over more than half a century helps to explain both the consistency of the wine and strength of the brand.

‘When one arrives at a place like [Vega Sicilia], it’s important to be very respectful of the history, philosophy and style of the wine… We are lucky to work in a winery where we don’t need to follow trends and can remain faithful to our style.’

Although Unico remains a blend of Tinto Fino with a lesser, varying percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon, aged for at least 10 years, there have been stylistic changes.

‘In the last couple of decades, we’ve reduced the impact of wood – ageing more in foudres and less in barrique – in search of better textural definition and greater complexity,’ Iturria explains. The best, it seems, may be yet to come.

The wine to try before you die

Vega Sicilia, Unico, Ribera del Duero 2014 – 97pts

£258.33 (ib)-£453 Berry Bros & Rudd, Burnett & Herbert, Christopher Keiller, Corney & Barrow, Farr Vintners, Hic, Humble Grape, Ideal Wine Co, KWM, Laithwaites, Millésima, Petersham Cellar, Roberson, Tanners, The Oxford Wine Co, Waud Wines US$600-$700 Widely available

94% Tempranillo and 6 % Cabernet Sauvignon grown at 700m-900m; bottled in June 2020 following maturation in two stages, first in 225L French and American oak barrels, then in 22,000L wooden vats. Showing appealing roundness and approachability, with soft, ripe strawberry, red cherry and plum lined with black pepper and nutmeg.

No rush to drink it though, as there’s great vividness to the fruit, with a refreshing acid streak and assertive, sculpted tannins. Seductive floral and herbal nuances – violets and dried oregano – hover and linger.

Drink: 2025-2050 Alcohol: 14%

Spanish Icons: Vega Sicilia, Unico

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It’s impossible to will, or proclaim, the creation of an icon. Any Hollywood talent agent worth their salt will tell you as much. And yet, when achieved, icon status is undisputable.

So what does the process of becoming an icon entail? What makes the 10 Spanish wines we’ve chosen worthy of the description? The answer is never straightforward. Producers themselves acknowledge that there is, despite their recognised efforts and focus on quality, an element of serendipity made of fortunate encounters and of the sometimes baffling flux of history.

Still, luck and historical relevance need to be met by a combination of winemaking excellence, expert viticulture and privileged terroirs. The 10 icons of Spanish wine highlighted in the coming pages share two common denominators: individuality and consistency of style and quality.

These allow them to remain firmly above fleeting fashions, standing out not just as benchmark examples of their regions but also as symbols of rigour, professionalism and strength of character.

They are faithful to their time and place but, above all, to themselves.

Scroll down for a great modern vintage of CVNE Imperial Gran Reserva

Most importantly, however, these are incredible tasting experiences that demonstrate Spain’s increasing strength as a source of fine wine – of icons old and new. Some of them command exorbitant prices – but it’s worth pooling with a group of friends to try a bottle at least once. You won’t regret it.

The robustness of this list, and the fact that other names – such as Dominio del Aguila’s Canta la Perdiz from Ribera del Duero or Terroir Al Límit’s Les Manyes Priorat – would have been included, space allowing, shows how the last 150 years have been punctuated by chapters of outstanding evolution in the narrative of Spanish winemaking.

Perhaps inevitably heavy on Rioja ‘first growths’, this line-up nevertheless reflects evolution and change. The emergence of Priorat in the 1990s and the rediscovery of Gredos (and Garnacha) in the 2010s have questioned the attributes of modern classics – and it’s this self-questioning that makes Spain such an enduring source of wine discovery and fascination.

Spanish Icons: CVNE, Imperial Gran Reserva, Rioja

First vintage: 1917

I don’t know if Imperial is our best wine, but it represents our soul,’ says Víctor Urrutia Ybarra, CEO of CVNE.

‘It was the first “great wine” of Rioja. Until Imperial came around, Rioja estates – including ourselves – mostly produced one wine, with a focus on quantity. In my opinion, Imperial was the first wine produced with excellence in mind, capturing the essence of Rioja Alta.’

More than 100 years after its first vintage, Imperial endures as a symbol of classical modern Rioja – and of the prestige of CVNE, founded in 1879 in Haro by brothers Eusebio and Raimundo Real de Asúa, of whom Urrutia is a direct descendant.

The fruit used to produce Imperial – in selected vintages only – hails from 42ha of estate-owned plots in the villages of Villalba, Briones and Torremontalbo planted with Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo (Cariñena) and Garnacha.

Vinification takes place in a dedicated winery within CVNE’s compound in Haro, with each plot fermented separately in French oak foudres. Barrel ageing takes place in the atmospheric Eiffel cellar, designed by the French engineer and built in 1909.

When discussing the wine’s evolution, Urrutia says: ‘Imperial hasn’t changed much. The only significant adjustment might be the use of oak: we now use exclusively French oak, while 100 years ago we used American oak. But overall, we don’t seek changes.’

Having staged multiple extensive vertical tastings, Urritia says that, for him, the best examples of Imperial are from the 1940s and ’50s. ‘Our goal is to produce a [Imperial] wine like the 1947, ’52 or ’59… with incredible acidity and a lot of structure,’ he says. ‘Our future is in our past.’

The wine to try before you die

CVNE, Imperial Gran Reserva, Rioja 2017 – 96pts

£40 (ib)-£65 Burnett & Herbert, Cuchet & Co, Davy’s, Falcon Vintners, Farr Vintners, Honest Grapes, Primitus, The Wine Society, VinQuinn, Vintage Cellars US$90-$106 Binny’s, Gillette Ridge, Station Plaza, Total Wine & More, W&J Wine, Yiannis

85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo, fermented in small oak vats with malolactic in concrete, then aged in new and second-use oak barrels, 70% French plus American. A bit coiled upon opening, this opens slowly in the glass, revealing beautiful nuance, fragrant herbal details and savoury complexity underneath the brooding restraint.

Top notes of vanilla, charred oak, camphor and preserved cherry. Fresh and exact on the palate, with dark chocolate and coffee beans lining the muscular tannins. Very long finish, supported by a firm acid backbone.

Drink: 2025-2045 Alcohol: 14%

Spanish Icons: CVNE, Imperial Gran Reserva

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The man behind the creation and consolidation of some of Spain’s most recognisable wines could have perhaps enjoyed an easy, early retirement, resting on the laurels earned during his long and successful tenure at Tempos Vega Sicilia (TVS).

However, in 2015, Xavier Ausàs decided to leave the group owned by the Álvarez family to embark on a personal journey.

Since then, Ausàs has been busily but calmly exploring his winemaking skillset at the helm of his eponymous project as well as a consultant to wineries in across Spain and beyond.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of Xavier Ausàs’ six vintages of Interpretación

Apprentice turned master

Born in 1968 in Figueres, the Catalonian town most famous for being the birthplace of Salvador Dalí, Ausàs left Spain as a teenager to study viticulture and oenology in France, first at the Lycée Agro-Viticole de Blanquefort (Bordeaux) and then at the Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier.

He joined Vega Sicilia in 1990 and would stay for the next quarter of a century, honing his craft as assistant winemaker to the great Mariano Garcia.

Following Garcias’s retirement, Ausàs was promoted to technical director of TVS in 1998, in what marked the beginning of 17 intense years overseeing the company’s iconic Ribera del Duero winery.

In addition, he helped guide the budding projects in Toro (Pintia, first vintage 2001), Rioja (Macán, in partnership with Benjamin de Rothschild, first vintage 2009), Tokaj (Tokay-Oremus, first vintage 1993) and Ribera del Duero itself (Alión, first vintage 1991).

It was under Ausàs’ technical leadership that the group consolidated its reputation beyond its flagship wine and brand, building a portfolio of enviable character and consistency.

So what prompted the decision to leave his leadership position at the thriving empire to focus on the establishment of his own, modest realm?

‘Life is made of different chapters. And I would have never been able to build a personal project while at Vega Sicilia. I spent 25 years there and was eager to explore other regions, different grape varieties, different wine profiles and different ways of working.’

Shared visions

And exploring he is. Further to the establishment of his own winery in Ribera del Duero, Ausàs is now consulting for an interesting and varied array of producers: Marqués de Vargas in Rioja; Ànima Negra, the maverick Mallorca venture founded by Miquel Àngel Cerdá and Pere Obrador in 1994; Conde de San Cristóbal, Dominio Fournier and Valdubón, all in Ribera del Duero; Finca Río Negro, against the dramatic backdrop of the Sierra Norte natural park in Guadalajara; and Château Grand Boise in Provence.

‘It’s really interesting to explore so many different ways of working and managing an estate. And yet, now matter how different, the goal is always the same: to produce the best possible wine – even if at each project this goal is approached with very different visions and resources.’

While Ausàs recognises that his experience at TVS has given him a particularly good skillset, he highlights how these new experiences are allowing him to flex different management and winemaking muscles.

Interpreting Ribera’s soul

There’s a particular, perhaps unsurprising focus to Ausàs personal project. A counterpoint to the intense multitasking of his previous role at TVS and current, varied consulting gigs.

He produces a single wine (first vintage 2016), Interpretación, at his winery in Quintanilla de Onésimo, on the western edge of Ribera del Duero, using Tinto Fino/Tempranillo fruit from different parcels across the appellation.

While between 60 and 70% of the fruit hails, each vintage, from Ausàs own vineyards in Naval de Roa, the remainder of the blend is sourced from trusted growers with whom he has forged close relationships over the past three decades.

‘I wouldn’t buy fruit from just any grower. These people are like an extended family – I’ve been to their children’s christening and weddings. There’s a mutual; appreciation and trust that is paramount to the work we do.

‘Not least because it gives me the chance to have priority access to their best fruit from the plots I need. The binomial man-terroir is at the centre [of my philosophy].’

As explained by Ausàs for a piece earlier this year on the many changes taking place in Ribera del Duero, different terroirs contribute different aspects to the blend: ‘From Nava de Roa [Ausàs’ own vineyards] I get structure and intense blue fruit; from Gumiel de Mercado, cool red fruit; from Roa de Duero, chalky minerality; and from Moradillo de Roa (where the highest parcels are at 950m of elevation), fresh acidity.’

He uses his recognised blending skills and his deep knowledge of Ribera’s terroirs – the key requirements to the consistency of all of the region’s famous wines – in pursuit of a faithful expression of both vintage and of his own philosophy.

Powerful elegance

By committing to regional blending – as opposed to the terroir specificity being championed by others – Ausàs wants to create a vehicle to, as his wine’s name suggests, convey his personal interpretation of Ribera del Duero while also capturing the essence of each year.

‘The trend nowadays is using own fruit only and producing parcel-specific wines. Our philosophy is the complete opposite,’ Ausàs explains.

‘We intentionally don’t work with our own fruit only. We need different expressions of Tempranillo to make the best wine. We make a multi-parcel wine in order to bring the maximum nuance and complexity to the bottle.’

Ausàs is also wary of trying to make ‘ethereal’ wines in the region: ‘We can’t make a “pseudo-Rioja” or a Burgundy wine in Ribera. Our identity is about powerful elegance – and I remain committed to that.’

This commitment is supported by a deft winemaking approach that juggles intensity and nuance. Albeit unapologetically powerful, Ausàs consistently shows – across the six vintages already released (scroll down for tasting notes) – a poised, fine tannic structure, an assertive acid line and seamless integration of wood and alcohol. ‘The three pillars that build my wine’s foundation are: aromatic purity, freshness and elegant intensity,’ he explains.

Xavier Ausàs – Key facts:

1990: Joins Tempos Vega Sicilia (TVS)

1998: Becomes technical director of TVS

2016: Establishes Ausàs Bodegas y Viñedos in Quintanilla de Onésimo (DO Ribera del Duero) after leaving TVS in 2015

Wines produced: Interpretación, a single-variety Tinto Fino, first released in 2016. It is a blend of fruit from Ausàs own vineyards in Nava de Roa, as well as trusted growers in Gumiel de Mercado, Roa de Duero, and Moradillo de Roa

Knowledge and enjoyment

Is climate change threatening his ability to deliver this? ‘Not really. We’re now able to achieve ideal maturation more easily – especially in our own vineyards whose cool soils lead to later, slower ripening. But there’s a much higher risk of frosts. So viticulture and harvest date are more important than ever.’

Yet again, his experience and technical ability come into play. Not least in the 2024 harvest: ‘It could’ve been a disaster but we managed it very well. Making the right decisions [on harvest date] is crucial – a two-day delay might mean either heaven [optimum maturity] or hell [complete loss of crop].’

It is apparent, when speaking to Ausàs, that, empowered by the experience at one of the wine world’s most complex wine jobs, he is now relaxing into this new chapter – and having fun.

There’s a sense of both confidence and curiosity that somehow comes through in the wines. Ausàs personal project is an interesting addition to Ribera del Duero, bridging modern classicism and maverick curiosity – a useful reference point for both flagship producers and ‘new kids on the block’.

‘Don’t overlook the essence of Ribera,’ Ausàs says. And don’t ask the lazy man to do the busy man’s job.

Xavier Ausàs Interpretaciòn – all released vintages scored and tasted:

Wines in order of release, with latest release shown first. 

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The motivation for this piece was, at the outset, to document the evolution of the exciting projects that, over the last 20 years, have been carving out an ‘alternative’ face of Ribera del Duero. It quickly became apparent that the real story concerned the efforts of the producers behind these projects to save the region from socio-economic decline.

Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, Spanish people fled rural areas, creating what became known as España vacía (‘empty Spain’): large swathes of the country’s interior suffering from continued depopulation, and a decline in access to public services and infrastructure as a result.

Old vineyards and wineries were left behind, and with them, a winemaking tradition yielding wines that were restrained, fresh and pleasantly rustic. The exodus created opportunities for cooperatives and other big players to consolidate their presence. In Castilla y León in the country’s northwest, a bold new style of Ribera del Duero wines emerged, to great commercial success.

Seven modern examples of Ribera del Duero listed below

Back to the soil

Pablo Arranz and Andrea Sanz (pictured below) of Magna Vides in La Aguilera, north of Madrid, explain that they wanted to return and ‘fill the gap created by our parents’ generation’, while also preserving the heritage left by their grandparents: ‘Not only the vineyards we inherited, but also the magical memories – images, smells – of how they made the wines.’

Similar feelings motivated Jorge Monzón of nearby Dominio del Aguila to return to Ribera following education in Madrid, Bordeaux and (crucially) Burgundy: ‘I wanted to drink from the source, before industrial winemaking became dominant.’

For these small projects that emerged at the dawn of the 21st century, a stylistic departure from the modern, muscular style of Ribera del Duero was as much a choice as an inevitability.

Working mainly with old field blends (Arranz and Sanz have so far identified 20 varieties in their Aguilera vineyards), their wines are inherently different to the Tinto Fino-dominant wines that consumers know as Ribera del Duero today. In 2023, the flagship Tinto Fino (Tempranillo by its local name) represented 97.4% of the region’s production, according to annual data from the region’s consejo regulador.

Picking dates

‘Many people ask why I don’t make an Albillo [Mayor],’ says Germán Blanco of Quinta Milú. ‘I tell them that I can’t. Otherwise my reds won’t be as good. These white grapes add an element that is part of the wines’ identity.’

Colour is not the only factor at play in field blends: with all grapes harvested at the same time, the different maturation points of co-planted varieties means that some are picked before or after phenolic maturity is fully achieved.

What’s more, many of these producers are not afraid to harvest Tinto Fino itself at lower potential alcohol than most of their market-leading counterparts would consider desirable or acceptable.

Monzón even suggests that the accepted idea of technical maturity might be misleading – an issue also raised by Terry Kandylis, prominent London-based sommelier and co-founder of Bendito Destino in Canalejas de Peñafiel.

Says Monzón: ‘We have to question how the indicators associated with so-called phenolic ripeness are interpreted, as well as the [vineyard] practices that had been introduced – aggressive green prunings for example – that focused on [obtaining maximum] colour and alcohol. I am guided, above all, by aromatic maturity.’

On the shoulders of giants

The identity of these small projects is rooted in tradition and place. This has given producers the confidence to highlight the geographical diversity and complexity that had perhaps been overlooked by the brand-led regional blends.

However, the idea that specific terroirs and restraint are an essential part of Ribera’s identity is not unanimously embraced. Xavier Ausàs spent 25 years at Vega Sicilia, 17 as technical director (he left in 2015), creating regional blends to perfection.

He says Ribera’s identity is ‘powerful elegance – we shouldn’t shy away from it’.

Still, Ausàs’ blending acumen relies on a deep understanding of Ribera’s many terroirs. Now at the helm of his own eponymous project, he explains: ‘From Nava de Roa I get structure and intense blue fruit; from Gumiel de Mercado, cool red fruit; from Roa de Duero, chalky minerality; and from Moradillo de Roa (where the highest parcels are at 950m elevation), fresh acidity.’

For Ribera del Duero’s most prized names – Vega Sicilia, Pingus, Pago de los Capellanes – it was a fundamental understanding of the region’s terroirs that enabled them to forge the modern style that catapulted Ribera onto the global fine-wine stage.

A line can be drawn between their commercial success and the emergence of, and excitement around, newer, smaller, off-piste projects – some of which, like Dominio del Aguila, now have their own cult following.

Structual poise

There is a feeling of creative shift and hopeful renewal in the air in Ribera as producers, large and small, explore intra-regional diversity with more confidence. This enables them to differentiate themselves, while challenging each other, stylistically as well as philosophically.

‘There are a number of exciting projects changing the face of Ribera del Duero,’ explains Sergio Avila of Cruz de Alba in Quintanilla de Onésimo. ‘The wines produced across the region are very different now from what they were 10 years ago – there’s more freshness and less intervention. There’s obviously a response to changing tastes and market demands.’

This evolution has no doubt been catalysed by the success that new names have achieved in export markets – such as Dominio del Aguila and Quinta Milú in the UK.

There is something more than simple quality that makes all these wines distinctive. It’s a strength of character and structural poise that relies, as Ausàs puts it, ‘on definition rather than hormones’. The weight of the ‘power in the elegance’ might be different, but there’s a shared quest for detail, focus and underlying freshness.

Taking the heat

Climate change has also been a catalyst for the region’s evolution and soul-searching. ‘Sustainability and precision viticulture are no longer a fashion; they’re a necessity,’ says Avila, who pioneered biodynamic farming in the region. Monzón and Blanco echo this sense of urgency, particularly after years of severe drought.

They believe that traditional field blends offer an ideal blueprint for new, climate change-resilient plantings because of the genetic diversity inherent to the vines. Arranz and Sanz are already putting this principle into action by making massal selections – propagating vines by taking cuttings from the best existing ‘mother vines’ on an estate – of their older plots.

The traditional training system is another important variable: ‘Bush-training is naturally much more suited to protecting the grapes from intense sun and heat,’ concludes Blanco. Elevation – Ribera del Duero’s vineyards sit between 720m and about 1,100m – and limestone-rich soils are two other climate change-mitigating factors.

Regardless, wines with higher alcohol are seen as an inevitability. According to these producers, this further justifies the need to rethink the work in the vineyard and, says Blanco, ‘the ever-greater importance of working more gently in the cellar’.

The path ahead

The mid-century rural exodus paved the way for the consolidation of the region’s most established names and the development of modern Ribera del Duero wines.

If their identity is now being questioned by new blood, it is worth noting that the bigger stakeholders – cooperatives and privately owned wineries of a certain scale – have nevertheless been fundamental to the continuity and viability of viticulture in the region.

Ribera’s 26,123ha are split, according to the consejo regulador, into 63,630 individual parcels, with 7,877 growers supplying fruit to only 311 wineries. This granularity can be a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity.

It creates space for experimentation and for younger winemakers to tap into an invaluable pool of older vines (28% of the region’s vineyards are more than 30 years old and 8.2% are more than 80 years old) and historical field blends.

The path to a successful future for Ribera del Duero will rely on producers, large and small, reflecting on the region’s heritage, tackling climate challenges and rebuilding a social infrastructure – schools, hospitals and so forth – that will enable families to thrive here.

In the meantime, an exciting array of new projects is already introducing the region to a younger audience seeking fresher, lower intervention, ready-to-drink wines, building on the success of the bolder styles that have already made Ribera del Duero a household name.

Seven wines that show the present and future of Ribera del Duero

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A few decades from now, young sommeliers may be learning about Benedicto and Moribel, along with Tempranillo, Graciano, and Mazuelo.

Spanish researchers at the Institute of Vine and Wine of Castilla-La Mancha (IVICAM) found the two grape varieties showed promising results where adapting to climate change is concerned.

Tests have suggested Benedicto and Moribel, parent and descendant of Tempranillo respectively, are capable of performing relatively well under conditions of heat stress and drought, said the Regional Institute for Agri-Food Research and Development (IRIAF).

As Spain finds itself afflicted with year after year of heat and extreme weather, the need for the country to find ways of adapting to a changing climate has come into sharp focus — and there have been warnings the situation could worsen.

A recent study warned that about 90% of traditional wine regions in coastal and lowland regions of Spain could be at risk of disappearing by the end of the century because of excessive drought and more frequent heat waves.

Tempranillo is internationally recognised for its contribution to Spain’s great red wines, and it makes up more than 201,000 hectares of Spanish vineyards.

However, in recent decades, climate change has increasingly affected its production. A 2022 article for The Conversation by María Concepción Ramos, of the Universitat de Lleida, and Fernando Martínez de Toda Fernández, of the University of Rioja, said higher temperatures and water stress that Spain is predicted to experience could cause Tempranillo’s flowering, veraison, and harvest to occur more than 10 days earlier than normal in warmer years.

By 2050, even under controlled emissions scenarios, Tempranillo’s growth cycle could be eight to 10 days earlier, they said.

These changes could result in decreased acidity and lower concentrations of key components like anthocyanins, jeopardising the balance and quality of finished wines.

Producers all over Spain are already incorporating strategies to reduce the effects of warming temperatures, such as planting at higher altitudes and changing pruning techniques.

Research is also underway to find alternative clones or even different grape varieties that could help to make grape growing sustainable for future generations.

That’s where the IVICAM comes in. The team of researchers set out to determine which grape varieties were best suited to endure the extreme heat and water shortages that are expected to become increasingly common as Spain grapples with climate change.

Studies of Benedicto, Moribel and Tempranillo, developed in the context of doctoral thesis work by Sergio Serrano Parra, found that Benedicto outclassed Tempranillo in some qualitative analyses, putting it in position to be an outstanding alternative grape for future winemaking, said IRIAF.

As for Moribel, research shows that it has higher acidity than Tempranillo, which may also be key for crafting the balanced wines of tomorrow.

The two grapes performed equally well in the tasting room. Although wines made with Benedicto and Moribel have an aromatic profile similar to that of Tempranillo, researchers found that tasters preferred wines made from Benedicto and Moribel over wines made from Tempranillo, IRIAF added.

It said this suggests Benedicto and Moribel could help winemakers to not only preserve but even improve wines made from Tempranillo in the increasingly harsh conditions of a warming climate.

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Of Rioja’s three sub-zones, Rioja Alavesa is the flyweight. With a total vineyard area of just over 13,000 hectares, it is by far the smallest, around half the size of heavyweights Rioja Alta and Rioja Oriental.

And yet, when it comes to influence, creativity, dynamism and share of Rioja’s – and Spain’s – best bottles, this sub-region punches way above its weight. This has been the case throughout its history. Take, for example, the story of how Rioja first caught global attention as a fine-wine region in the second half of the 19th century.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 10 exciting wines from Rioja Alavesa

A new style

This was a period when Rioja effectively became a surrogate for one of the biggest names in French wine, when vignerons and châteaux owners from Bordeaux, having seen their own vineyards destroyed by phylloxera, took to Rioja as the perfect place to set up shop and replenish their chais and service thirsty drinkers back home.

The Bordelais brought with them expertise and a particular way of doing things: a winemaking recipe that included careful management of the vineyards, clean fermentation tanks, separating stems and skins for fermentation, and, most famously, ageing in 225-litre oak barriques.

That recipe is, of course, the basis of what we think of today as traditional Rioja – a style of sweetly oaked wine that is strongly associated with a particular corner of the region around the town of Haro in the Rioja Alta sub-region.

This is where a cluster of Rioja’s grandest names – its first growths, if you like – were first established in the years after the railway arrived in Haro in 1863: CVNE, La Rioja Alta, R López de Heredia.

But if Haro’s Barrio de la Estación became the epicentre of what was then the new – now the traditional – style, it was, in fact, an Alavesa producer that first showed how well the Bordeaux style could work in Rioja’s very different terroir and conditions.

Even before phylloxera had forced the Bordelais south, the Bordeaux-based Alava native Don Guillermo Hurtado de Amézaga, the Marqués de Riscal, had been asked by the local Alava government to persuade local growers to incorporate Bordeaux methods in their vineyards.

Amézaga sought out the expertise of Jean Pineau, winemaker at Haut-Médoc estate Château Lanessan, first to run a project sponsored by the Alava government, and then, as Pineau struggled to overcome local resistance to his methods, for Amézaga’s own estate in the Alava village of Elciego.

Within a few years of the Marqués de Riscal’s first bottling in 1862, the estate’s Bordeaux-inspired wines were picking up acclaim far beyond the region; by the end of the century, Marqués de Riscal had become the first non-French winery to be awarded the Diplôme d’Honneur at the Bordeaux Exhibition.

Switch in focus

Alavesa’s role as Rioja’s incubator of new ideas has taken on several forms since then. Riscal, again, was the first estate to encase its bottles in the distinctive golden wire mesh, or ‘malla’, as a means of counteracting counterfeiters in the early 1900s.

Then, in the 1980s, Alavesa wineries – among them Remírez de Ganuza, Luis Cañas, Ostatu, Artadi and the CVNE single-estate side project, Contino – played a key role in developing what became known as the ‘modernist’ style.

A conscious attempt to break away from what its practitioners saw as a dogmatic association between quality and greater time in oak, the modernist recipe involved, somewhat ironically, a return to one of the ‘traditions’ established in the late 1800s: the modernists preferred shorter sojourns in French oak, rather than the American oak that had been the predominant material for barrels in the region since the early 20th century.

While some of the wines were undoubtedly guilty of pushing towards a ponderous, thickly concentrated style based on super- or overripe fruit and over-extraction in the winery, the best of the modernists were responsible for forcing a significant switch in focus in Rioja. They believed that the quality of the fruit was every bit as important as what happened to it in the winery.

Rioja Alavesa at a glance

Total vineyard area: 13,178ha (20% of Rioja total vineyard area)

Total production: (2022 vintage) 80,644,931 kg(73,665,032 kg red; 6,979,899kg white)

Average vineyard plot size: 0.52ha

Number of registered wineries: 262

Grape varieties: Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo, Graciano (red); Malvasia, Tempranillo Blanco, Viura (white)

Key villages: Baños de Ebro, Cripán, Elciego, Elvillar, Labastida, Laguardia, Lanciego, Lapuebla de Labarca, Leza, Moreda de Alava, Navaridas, Oyón, Samaniego, Villabuena de Alava, Yécora

Source: Consejo Regulador DOCA Riojs

Back to terroir

It’s a back-to-the-land idea that more recent generations of Alavesa producers have taken still further, with influential names such as Abel Mendoza, Artuke, Bodegas Bhilar and Telmo Rodríguez looking back beyond the modernist and the traditional to what they think of as ‘ancestral’ Rioja – a time of small grower-producers or viñateros and much greater varietal diversity.

It’s a move that’s very much in keeping with trends elsewhere in the wine world, a terroiriste turn that is inspired by Burgundy rather than Bordeaux, and for which Rioja Alavesa, with its patchwork of smaller plots of, in many cases, very old (many have vines of 50 to 100+ years old) vineyards spread across 23 villages, is ideally suited.

This small-producer spirit is part of what makes a visit to Rioja Alavesa wine country feel distinctly different to the rest of Rioja. But the geography is different, too. Most of the best vineyards are planted in terraces on iron-rich clay and limestone soils, and, like many of Spain’s most exciting wine regions, altitude plays a defining role in shaping the character of the wines.

Vineyards follow the slopes into the jagged peaks of the Sierra Cantabria, with vineyards stretching from 400m to 1,200m above sea level. There’s a rugged beauty here, and also a distinctly cooler, Atlantic-influenced climate, which helps give Alavesa wines their trademark definition and nerve, whether the wines are white (easily the best in the region), ageworthy reds, or the local speciality: a carbonically macerated, youthful, fresh style of red that has been given a pulsatingly vivid new lease of life in recent years.

Basque breakaway

Alavesa’s small and often family-owned producers set themselves apart from the bigger bodegas in Rioja. These large companies dominate the region’s regulatory council and have rather different priorities when it comes to setting local winemaking regulations and designing marketing campaigns.

It is worth noting that a number of these bigger Rioja bodegas – located outside Rioja Alavesa – are busy buying vineyards in Alavesa, drawn by the high elevations, the old vine material, and the quality of the fruit.

These differences in winemaking philosophy have been exacerbated by questions of cultural and regional identity and governance. The management of Spanish DOPs falls under the remit of regional governments, except when a DOP extends across more than one region – in which case it is controlled at national level.

This is the case for Rioja, which extends across four regions. Most of Alavesa is part of the Basque country and for a long time the autonomous Basque regional government has been requesting control over those vineyards. A relevant number of Alavesa producers support this request.

The situation is heating up. The Asociación de Bodegas de Rioja Alavesa (ABRA) convened last December for a discussion about whether to take its 100 member wineries out of the official Rioja DOCa, but no vote was held on the issue.

Earlier, in September 2023, the Asociación de Bodegas Familiares de Rioja, which represents around 50 bodegas, resigned from the appellation’s governing body, in protest at what they saw as a failure to promote Rioja as a premium fine wine region while continuing to push a pile-it-oakily-sweetly-and-cheaply-high image.

They also appealed to Spain’s government to be exempt from contributing to generic Spanish wine promotion activities. But it’s important to remember that Alava is the most ancient part of Rioja. Many producers there remain loyal to the Rioja DOCa and some of the most famous bodegas are not in favour of leaving.

Rioja Alavesa: Seven names to know

Abel Mendoza

Early adopters of the now-fashionable viñatero (grower-producer) model in Rioja, Abel Mendoza and his wife Maite Fernández work their 37 plots over 18ha on the left bank of the Ebro around San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Abalos and Labastida.

Organically farmed, those vineyards are unusually diverse in terms of grape variety, with Viura, Malvasía, Garnacha Blanca, Torrontés and Tempranillo Blanco for whites, and Graciano treated as seriously as Tempranillo in wines of precision and silky-textured class.

Artuke

Brothers Arturo and Kike de Miguel have combined their names (Artu + Ke) and their expertise to make Artuke one of the stars of new-wave Rioja from their base in the village of Baños de Ebro.

Their wines – whether the outstanding small-production, single-plot, old-vine, high-altitude numbers such as El Esolladero and La Condenada, or their supremely succulent, sappy, carbonically macerated estate bottling – are unfailingly fresh, compulsively drinkable and intriguing.

Bodegas Bhilar

Run by winemaker David Sampedro and his American wife Melanie Hickman, Bodegas Bhilar is the epitome of the kind of small, terroir-focused Alavesa winery that makes this sub-region so exciting.

Based near the village of Elvillar in the foothills of the Sierra Cantabria, Sampedro and Hickman work the (up to 100-year-old) vines biodynamically for a gorgeously individualistic, expressive range of village, village estate and single-vineyard wines.

Luis Cañas/Amaren

Value is a watchword at this always-reliable, family-run bodega, not least in its crianza and reserva bottlings, which, like all the Cañas wines, have a fresh, ripe fruit-driven style that’s nicely seasoned by new oak and based on impeccable fruit sourced from the family’s 350ha vineyard holdings.

Look out, too, for the small-production Amaren range made by Luis’ grandson, Jon Cañas, from some of the family’s best plots.

Marqués de Riscal

One of the great, grand old names of Rioja, Marqués de Riscal bottled its first wines in 1862 and, perhaps uniquely, its cellars house wines from every vintage of its 162-year existence.

But if history and tradition are important, they are not constraining here: winemaking for the classic and very long-lived reservas and gran reservas has evolved, and Riscal has kept with the times with impressive village and single-plot wines, not to mention building a first-class hotel and museum in a strikingly modern Frank Gehry-designed building in the early 2000s.

Sierra de Tolono

A Rioja native, Sandra Bravo has captured attention and acclaim for her sensitive, gently experimental winemaking approach since starting her Sierra de Toloño label in 2012. Small plots of old vines (up to 80 years old) at high altitudes (up to 700m) are at the heart of Bravo’s artisanal recipe, as are neutral oak, amphorae and concrete, in a range that includes expressive Garnacha and Tempranillo and a luminous field-blend white.

Telmo Rodriguez

One of the most influential Spanish winemakers of the past 30 years, the restless Telmo Rodríguez has interests and fine wines dotted all over the country, but his work back home in Rioja is some of his most accomplished.

He has two projects: Bodegas Lanzaga is based on restored parcels of vines in the villages of Lanciego and Labastida; Remelluri is the family estate founded by his father in the late 1960s. Both showcase the high-definition, terroir-driven Rodríguez style; both are Alavesa essentials.

Williams’ selection of top wines from Rioja Alavesa

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Leaving aside its most traditional meaning as a devotional image of Christ, an icon has come to mean ‘a person or thing serving as a representative symbol’, a symbol that may or may not be worthy of veneration, but certainly merits respect.  I have selected six wines from Rioja that, I feel, meet this criterion. 

The choice was relatively easy, although some very worthy contenders didn’t make the final line-up, including Artadi’s El Pisón, Telmo Rodríguez’s Remelluri and Benjamin Romero’s Contador, as well as several others. I have focused on wines and wineries that lend an historical perspective, and that capture the very best of the notion of tradition in this celebrated DOCa.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 12 wines from six iconic Rioja wineries

My own Damascene moment with Rioja occurred when I first tasted the Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva and discerned a beauty, grace and elegance that differed from anything I had hitherto encountered in Bordeaux or Burgundy. A grace and elegance born out of a very special élevage and very particular terroir.

It comes as no surprise that when asked what makes their respective wines ‘icons’, both María José López de Heredia (Tondonia) and Guillermo de Aranzabal at La Rioja Alta mention ‘grape selection and ageing’. Neither the Tondonia Reserva nor the Rioja Alta 890 are from specific sites; they are blended from the very best vineyards, and then aged extensively – for 96 and 72 months respectively.

Only handed-down know-how and great commercial acumen can inspire such faith in nature’s gift. Rioja is currently going through challenging times, but its icons appear to remain steady.

It is interesting that both Manuel ‘Manu’ Muga and Vicente Cebrián at Ygay cite that the significance of their wines is the result of an evolution into something above and beyond any legislation; Cebrián, for example, is not interested in the viñedo singular label (which Ygay could certainly use) or even in the gran reserva classification. Ygay, for him, has a powerful presence in its own right: unadorned and pure, a symbol of respect and, dare one say it, reverence. A real icon, in other words. The same can be said for all the wines selected here.

CVNE, Imperial Gran Reserva

The flagship of the CVNE group, Imperial was launched in 1920 and named, rather unusually, after its Imperial pint bottlings that were destined for an appreciative British market. The EU subsequently banned the bottle size, but the name remains.

Imperial has access to the very best vineyards in the Rioja Alta region, juxtaposing, for example, sites in villages such as Torremontalbo and Villalba, which combine altitude (the latter’s vines are planted at over 600m) and grape maturity (the Torremontalbo vines are over 40 years old).

The fruit is vinified in Imperial’s beautiful winery in the Barrio de la Estación district of Haro, with the wines aged in a vaulted cellar designed in 1909 by Gustave Eiffel, taking a break from his Parisian exertions. Group CEO Victor Urrutia says: ‘I always like to think about Imperial as quintessential Rioja Alta fine wine, with its naturally high acidity that carries it into longevity… eternity does seem an exaggeration, but the older the better, really.’

Terroir is king, he says, but winemaking is also classically Rioja, with the focus on a blend dominated by Tempranillo (the balancing 15% or so is shared between Graciano and Mazuelo) and extensive ageing both in oak (a minimum of 24 months shared between French and American oak with racking taking place every eight months) and bottle (a minimum of 36 months) before commercial release.

Imperial, to many, is the iconic Rioja. Over to Urrutia again: ‘We only produce Imperial in vintages that we deem excellent. The wine has a velvet quality to it, with a “churchy” nose and firm body, but mild tannin and lowish alcohol.

These qualities are consistent vintage after vintage and go a long way towards explaining the wine’s reputation for very high quality, and its loyal following. Certainly not a big wine in the sense of a tannic, internationally styled jammy red, it defines Spanish elegance. A hug in a glass.’ I’d agree with that.

CVNE, Imperial Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 2004 96pts

CVNE, Imperial Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 2017 94pts

La Rioja Alta, 890 Gran Reserva

Founded in 1890 (the origin of the name of this icon wine), La Rioja Alta the company is probably the most influential in Rioja Alta the place, certainly when it comes to high-quality wines made in the traditional manner.

Five families came together to form the company and now it makes five traditional wines (890, 904, Ardanza, Arana and Alberdi), of which 890 is the flagship. There are more modern styles made these days by the group, which owns three other wineries in Spain (including Torre de Oña in Rioja Alavesa) but it is these famous five that underscore the great reputation of the house.

The 890 blend is made up of Tempranillo (95%), Mazuelo (2%) from vineyards in Briñas, Labastida and Villalba, and a balancing 3% of Graciano from an old-vine plot in Fuenmayor. The best of the best, in other words. The wine is matured for an impressive six years in barrel, including racking by candlelight every six months. It is bottled without fining or filtration and not released for another three to four years, often longer.

I ask Guillermo de Aranzabal, president of La Rioja Alta (one of the nicest men in Rioja, not for want of competition), what it is that makes 890 so special. ‘Our only purpose as winemakers is to give you pleasure. And this Gran Reserva 890 is our best try! Our centennial expertise, our oldest vines, strict selection and many years of ageing… are all concentrated in this wine.’

I often find the 890 quite tight on release (despite its decade of ageing), certainly compared to the excellent 904, but then over time it really comes into its own, offering vast complexity and incalculable pleasure. The current vintage is 2010; before it came 2001, 2004 and 2005. The next to make the cut will be 2015 and 2016. I cannot wait.

La Rioja Alta, 890 Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 2005 96pts

La Rioja Alta, 890 Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 2010 95pts

Marqués de Murrieta, Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial

Ygay differs from other icons in this selection in that its vines are located south of Logroño and therefore away from the famous Barrio de la Estación enclave in Haro, which hosts all our other champions. The eponymous 19th-century marqués, Don Luciano Murrieta, however, makes a good claim to be the man who, alongside fellow conquistadors at Riscal and Vargas, put Rioja on the map.

His aim was to make a wine in the Bordeaux style and to shape it with a distinct Castilian twist, largely courtesy of the generous oak ageing in American wood. Luciano’s successors sold the winery to the Galician Cebrián family in 1983 and it is now the charismatic Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga, the Count of Creixell, to give him his full name, who runs things.

Subtle changes, such as the switch to 100% stainless steel for the fermentation and the lessening of the period in oak, have been taking place behind the fanfare that greeted the full refurbishment of the winery, which was completed in 2021. It’s a building of great splendour, with oak and steel in a dignified stand-off behind the thick stone of the Castillo.

Similar attention to detail informs Ygay the wine. The grapes come from a 30ha plot, La Plana, within the 300ha block farmed by Murrieta. Planted on a plateau at nearly 500m, the soil is dominated by limestone (more so than the Haro vineyards) and the altitude has an appreciable influence on the wine’s style. The quintessential viñedo singular? I ask Cebrián; this is the original single vineyard, surely? ‘Maybe one day,’ he replies, ‘but today it remains Ygay pure and simple. I am even contemplating removing the gran reserva wording on the back label,’ he adds.

When asked to explain why Ygay is an icon, Cebrián is eloquent: ‘It is the embodiment of everything we have learned throughout our history; a unique wine capable of transcending decades; a reflection of the vineyard from which it comes, which, in all, represents the perfect balance between past and future.’ Very well put.

Marques de Murrieta, Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial, Rioja Alta, Spain 2011 95 pts

Marques de Murrieta, Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial, Rioja Alta, Spain 2009 93pts

Muga, Prado Enea Gran Reserva

Prado Enea is perhaps the most modern of our six icons. Does that still make it an icon? Yes, for several reasons, its charismatic personality and sheer quality not least among them. The label dates from 1968 (Muga was founded in 1932) and is only made in the best years, averaging about six releases every decade.

The extended family (all of whom are unusually tall!) are represented by Manuel ‘Manu’ Muga when it comes to describing the significance of this wine. The key to it all is, unsurprisingly, the very special terroir. ‘The vineyards we use for its elaboration come from the surroundings of a village called Sajazarra,’ he explains. ‘It’s a borderline vineyard cultivation area that provides us with grapes of very good quality with a magnificent freshness.

This is due to its altitude (600-700m above sea level), its microclimate characterised by, among other things, its low temperatures, and for having an excellent terroir. And this allows us to elaborate a wine as balanced, fine and complex as Prado Enea.’

A blended wine, then, and one that is dominated by Tempranillo – so far, so Rioja. Ageing takes place in 100% American oak, its staves forged by the in-house cooper, who employs medium-plus levels of toasting, which lends a very particular textural richness that marks out the wine and seems to give it a slightly more ‘modern’ feel. Traditional repeated racking and a lack of filtration underwrite the wine’s distinctive personality, which somehow manages to combine a velvety texture, secondary notes on both nose and palate, and a genuine authority on the finish.

Let’s leave the last words to Manu himself: ‘The style has evolved from a wine with a concept where its profile was more tertiary, with touches of leather and a lighter layer of colour, to a more lively and full-bodied wine with better-quality oak and better-integrated wood, but maintaining the balance, smoothness, freshness and elegance that have become its hallmarks.’

Muga, Prado Enea Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 2001 95pts

Muga, Prado Enea Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 2016 93pts

R López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva

R López de Heredia is the most traditional of all the icons celebrated here. The winery, featuring a distinctive red tower (‘Txori-Toki‘, meaning ‘birdhouse’ in Basque), dates from 1877, and the Tondonia label from 1913. You can also find wines labelled Gravonia, Bosconia and Cubillo, but Tondonia is the flagship, and the gran reserva is only released in the very best years.

Tondonia’s vines sit next to the River Ebro and run over 100ha, the soils primarily alluvial and calcareous. The winery is a forest of wood, with 14,000 225-litre barrels (all sourced in America but seasoned locally) and 70 much larger wooden vats used for fermentation, maceration, blending and storage.

The effect of the wood on the Tempranillo is to tame and nurture oxidative characteristics, to give them their own identity; savoury, truffly, gamey and deeply satisfying. Blending is key, in terms of site selection, together with the addition of small volumes of the supporting varietals, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano. The last two varieties are especially important to add spicy depth and to ensure that the buttressing acidity balances the ship.

When I ask María José López de Heredia (fourth-generation owner) what makes the Tondonia Gran Reserva so special, her reply is typically idiosyncratic. ‘Before the classification of gran reserva existed it was the wine in our family to be “reserved” for very special occasions. It had to meet two key criteria: the wine had to last until the occasion arrived and then it had to be shared happily. Few wines can meet this request.’ The more you think about this simple statement, the more poignant it becomes.

R López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 2001 97pts

R López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva, Rioja Alta, Spain 1995 96pts

Roda, Cirsion

Roda is by far the youngest of the five icons located in the Barrio de la Estación in Haro. It was founded in 1987, its name an amalgam of the surnames of its two entrepreneurial founders, Mario Rotllant and Carmen Daurella. Their dream was to create a very special brand; their quest, not lacking for hubris, to unearth a very particular vinous ‘concept of perfection’.

It was, or so they say, only by chance that they landed upon Rioja Alta as the best place to achieve this ambition. This vision has been carried forward by managing director Agustín Santolaya and his team since he joined in 1992.

Roda farms 125ha, 75ha of which are owned, mostly in Rioja Alta itself, mostly calcareous, and all sharing a common altitude. Its iconic wine (‘Cirsion‘ means ‘thistle’ in Latin, hence the prickly icon on the label) differs from the other five on our list. The others are merely expressions of ‘the best of the best’. Cirsion could not be more different.

The goal here, as advocated by head winemaker Carlos Díez de la Concepción, is to express above all the ‘primacy of fruit’, and it is to this end that rigorous site selection is carried out, and it is also to this end that ageing is not allowed to ‘interfere’ in any way.

No two years are sourced from exactly the same vineyards, although it is often the case that the oldest vines offer up the most impressive fruit for ensuing polymerisation. I ask Vicky Bocanegra, sales manager at Roda, what is special about Cirsion. ‘Cirsion is about deepening the best of Tempranillo, the perfect ripeness of vines that give an incredible balance, joining volume, lightness and freshness and embracing all the landscape’s feelings and the meteorological vintage to preserve them, improving for decades.’

The focus here is very much on the vines and their environment and one should not forget that the key difference between this and the other icons resides in the ageing process. No lengthy sojourn in old American oak for Cirsion; it is treated to only eight to 10 months in new French oak. Not very ‘traditional Rioja’, in other words. It is thus certainly the most iconoclastic of our icons.

Roda, Cirsion, Rioja Alta, Spain 2017 94pts

Roda, Cirsion, Rioja Alta, Spain 2020 92pts

See notes and scores for 12 wines from six iconic Rioja wineries

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Rioja and age go well together. That’s bottle and barrel age. There’s nothing like a mature gran reserva, layered with the memories of red fruit, autumn, wood smoke and wild herbs; smooth and very long-lived.

Its age of maturation is firmly regulated: a minimum of two years in a 225-litre barrel, a minimum of two years in bottle, with five years’ ageing overall before release.

What is curious, though, is that the age of the vines has never featured in the appreciation of the wine. Until now, that is.

The wine world is talking about vineyards and old vines, and Rioja has joined the conversation.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for old vine Rioja

It deserves to. Something similar has already happened elsewhere in Spain – in Jerez. The glory years of Sherry’s late 20th century were led by brands, and their categories of fino, oloroso, cream, etc.

Now, Sherry producers are scrambling to highlight their vineyards, such as Balbaina and Macharnudo. In Rioja, many of the great brands were originally (and still are) blends. Some bodegas owned vineyards, but a named vineyard wasn’t the point, and neither was the age of the vines.

Rioja began to properly recognise its vine heritage with the viñedo singular classification, which was incorporated in 2017 and has a minimum vine age requirement. Not everyone eligible to market viñedo singular wines wanted to do so – but it changed the conversation. Then, in 2021, Rioja committed investment to support old vines and their growers.

What is an old vine?

There’s no specific definition. Australia’s Barossa Old Vine Charter has a useful guide: Old Vine, 35 or more years; Survivor Vine, 70 or more; Centenarian Vine, 100 or more; Ancestor Vine, 125 or more.

A minimum age of 35 years is widely recognised and is the minimum requirement for Rioja’s viñedo singular wines. While Spain has an exceptional heritage of old vines, it is not associated with any particular style (unlike Barossa Shiraz), region (think Carignan in Maule, Chile) or category.

There are vineyard parcels in Spain, red and white, which escaped phylloxera (in Rueda, Rías Baixas, Priorat, Toro, for example) with vines over 100 years, and, in a few sites, over 200 years. Note that the date of planting given does not always mean the specific date the vines were planted; rather, it is the year in which records were taken.

Recognising vineyards

Academic Juan Carlos Sancha is a Riojan who is working with centenarian vines. He has calculated that only some 0.6% of Rioja’s 66,000ha of vines fall into that age group. The figures look better for pre-1980 plantings, with at least 9,400ha of vines older than 40 years.

It’s always useful to have an external perspective. Winemaker Manu Michelini arrived in Rioja in 2017, aged 21. He works with his parents at the family winery, Michelini i Mufatto, making wine in Argentina’s Uco Valley, Maldonado in Uruguay and Bierzo in Spain.

Michelini was impressed – ‘completely shocked’ as he puts it – to find ‘old vineyards, in terraces, on calcareous soil’ in Rioja.

‘Old vines have always been here, but it seems like nobody cared for a long time,’ he reflects. ‘The important thing [in those days] was not to talk about the vineyards, but just to talk about the process. I think both are important for typicity and quality.’

So impressed was he that in 2018 he contacted Carlos Fernández of Creaciones Exeo in Labastida. Their project together, Dominio del Challao winery, is the result.

‘My first idea was high-altitude old vines, because I wanted to express what happened in Rioja 100 years ago,’ he explains. ‘The old vineyards have the field blend – approximately 75% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha, 10% Viura/ Garnacha Blanca and 5% others – which gives typicity to the wines.’

He also wanted to continue other local traditions: using some whole-cluster, ageing in oak, a ‘kind of classic modernism’.

Vine management

Typically, the benefit of using old vines was seen as their concentrated fruit. The downside was the lower yield – and an obvious reason why growers turned to the more productive clones of Tempranillo in the 1970s and 1980s.

Effectively this created a monoculture, abruptly halting the diversity. In the longer term it can also narrow the palate profile. Just as the planting material has changed, so has the vine management. Today, some 60% of Rioja’s vineyards are machine-harvested from trellised vines.

However, Rubén Jiménez, director of viticulture at Bodegas Luis Cañas and Amaren, explains that traditional bush vines have benefits, not least their resistance to the wind, thanks to their three canes circling the stem at 120 degrees to one another.

Jiménez adds that, following the philosophy of Italian expert pruner Marco Simonit, the method today is not to prune back too hard.

‘Pruning was much more aggressive 50 years ago,’ he says. There’s an added requirement today: to find vines that can tolerate the pressures of climate change. These long-lived, dry-farmed vines are newly important for their tolerance to these conditions.

What’s more, Rioja’s old-vine material is a precious resource: it contains many varieties that fell out of favour after phylloxera. Rioja Alavesa, with its network of smaller parcels handed down through families, has the strongest concentration of old vines.

Together with Jon Cañas, winemaker at Amaren in Samaniego, Jiménez is working on a particularly interesting project. Their task is to recuperate old varieties in order to ‘prevent genetic erosion’, ‘assist future winemaking’, ‘add value to the region’ and ‘sustain the typicity of the family’s wines’.

Jiménez explains that the narrowing of diversity of plant material is, for winemakers, ‘like a painter only having blue paint in the palette’. He adds: ‘This work is crucial to protect against future diseases.’

Recovered varieties

The work they’ve carried out is based on a detailed investigation by the Institute of Grapevine and Wine Sciences (ICVV). Samples taken from Cañas’ vineyards revealed 167 biotypes of Tempranillo, 53 of Graciano, and so on, descending through Garnacha, Viura and Malvasía, down to 14 of Bobal and five of Calagraño. In 2021, Jiménez led the planting of three vineyards with the most promising varieties. It’s painstaking work.

One vineyard was planted with 447 strains of Graciano from 29 clones and eight clones of Viura, plus some Malvasía and Bobal. A second vineyard was planted to study recovered varieties in a different environment.

The third is their germplasm field. Across 2ha they planted 37 different varieties: diverse clones of the more well-known varieties, along with Benedicto, Garró and Cadrete. Remember the names of these three varieties; they may be part of the future.

Back at Amaren, Cañas has an experimental cellar that is a wine writer’s delight, full of stainless steel from jugs to deposits, glass carboys and concrete of all shapes and sizes. I tasted eight samples at Amaren, and the number of variables to assess was enormous.

Yet even at this early stage the Amaren team has clear ideas of what is working. They are looking for varieties with good acidity and pH.

Those that meet the criteria include Garró (aka Mando, already proving itself in Catalonia), X (that’s what they’re calling it for now), Julén, Malpuesta and Morate.

The latter has the added benefit of its lower alcohol, while Malpuesta has a dense spicy character with crunchy redcurrant acidity. For me, the Malpuesta sample ticked all the boxes with its acidity, pH, colour, aromas and structure.

Cadrete easily reaches 15%, but is deeply coloured, fresh and crisp, with firm, ripe tannin… it’s certainly promising.

Jiménez and Cañas were particularly excited about Benedicto, which is apparently the ‘mother’ of Tempranillo. (Unfortunately, my sample was not showing well.)

While Benedicto has been found elsewhere in Spain, this is the first time it has been identified in Rioja. It is typically floral, aromatic with terpenes, with silky, ‘friendly’ tannin, and usefully higher acidity and lower pH. One to watch – eventually.

Old vine campaigns

The pioneer in campaigning for the protection of old vines is the Old Vines Project (oldvineproject.co.za), founded in South Africa in 2002 by Rosa Kruger, the vineyard manager and great-great granddaughter of Paul Kruger, former president of the South African Republic. One of its initiatives that adds real value is the Certified Heritage Vineyard seal, and the old-vine wines sold under this label command a premium price.

The UK’s Old Vine Conference (oldvines.org) is a non-profit that works with its members and supporters in ‘developing commercial models to make old vines work in the real world’.

In Europe, Spain is undoubtedly the best source of old vines, and the network is recruiting producers and DOs. Luis Cañas, and its UK importer Alliance Wines, are both members. The Old Vine Conference is a partner in building the old vine database (oldvineregistry.org), which should develop into an essential record.

Looking ahead

These ‘new-old’ grape varieties will take time to prove themselves and come into production. Whether within blends or on their own they are certain to add exciting complexity to Rioja. They complement the work being done across the region by other producers in different soils, elevations and climates.

Still, it’s important not to get sentimental about age. I won’t forget being asked to host a masterclass on old vines in Rioja for viticulturists. I brought along some of the great old-vine wines, including samples from Barossa and California. I admit I was very romantic about their sense of history.

I asked the audience to vote on their age preference: almost unanimously, they voted in favour of working with 30-year-old vines rather than centenarians. I learned then that there’s romance and reality – though I believe there’s room for both.

I leave the last word to the clear-thinking Michelini. ‘In Argentina and Uruguay our challenge is completely the opposite; it’s to make the old vines of the future,’ he explains.

‘Rioja has a big opportunity to be great again, by talking about its vineyards, villages, terroir. It has everything: climate, soil, a beautiful variety and the most important thing of all: people with viticultural culture.’

Golden age: 10 top wines that showcase Rioja’s old vines…

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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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Rioja is one of the great wine regions of the world, up there with Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo. Yet, unlike these other big names, you’ll find a remarkable number of Riojas on sale in the supermarkets at under £10. Setting aside this category of cheap wines, where is good value in Rioja? What are the smart buys now, and where are the likely prospects for the future?

In researching this article I spoke to sommeliers, restaurant managers, independent retailers, wine buyers and Masters of Wine. They all agreed that Rioja sells itself too cheaply. Take a look at our vintage guide and you will see what I – and they – mean.

Glorious wines, lovely maturity, but underpriced compared to their international peers. Value for me is all about quality, not about low prices. So where is the real value? Here are my six steps to heaven…

Scroll down to see notes and scores for Sarah Jane Evans MW’s 12 Riojas to seek out

1. The fine reservas and gran reservas are still a safe bet

The consensus among the experts I spoke to was that Rioja’s fine reservas and gran reservas offer real value. I wondered if this article was going to be very short indeed! Diana Rollan, group head of beverage at bar and restaurant group D&D London, puts it clearly: ‘The reserva and gran reserva designations still offer some of the best value in all of fine wine.’

For her, the key feature of these wines is that ‘they drink brilliantly on release but can mature superbly in bottle as well. When compared to similarly mature wines from elsewhere, Rioja nearly always comes out top in value’.

She adds: ‘The ability of the large bodegas to offer mature wines, direct from the wineries at reasonable prices and with good availability, is one of Rioja’s great strengths. That may be politically contentious [in the division between large producers and smaller ones], but there’s no way to brush it under the carpet.’

In terms of best price-to-value ratio, Agustín Trapero, wine consultant and former beverage manager at the Four Seasons Madrid, suggests that €30-€40 (£26-£34) is the price point for reserva and gran reserva wines with the ideal balance of ‘structure, balance, complexity and fruit’.

If lovely mature Riojas are your thing, don’t overlook the results of Decanter panel tastings and the DWWA. Ed Adams MW of La Báscula, and a long-standing DWWA judge, confesses: ‘I’m a classic reserva and gran reserva enthusiast. I still remember that aged rosado we gave a huge score to at DWWA 2022 [Hacienda López de Haro, Gran Reserva Rosado 2009, 97 points]. You don’t get that anywhere else in the world, do you?’

2. Look beyond the classics

Sticking with those classics could be seen as a bit safe. Do you want to look like a boring wine buff to your dinner date? Terry Kandylis, group head sommelier at Noble Rot, will rescue you from that fate and is quick to recommend R López de Heredia – a winery name-checked many times in my conversations with the experts.

Just around the corner from the Bank of England is Hispania London, where general manager Juan Murillo is alert to his customers’ tastes. He is a fan of Muga but reckons the glorious Prado Enea Gran Reserva is ‘a bit too classic, too old-style for the City of London’, preferring the Selección Especial Reserva.

Wine consultant and writer Jason Millar, formerly of London independent merchant Theatre of Wine, is enthusiastic about Rioja’s potential: ‘It’s all about its versatility and accessibility. Rioja offers so many different styles that there is always value and quality. I’m amazed by the diversity of the region and how the wines manage to be unique, each one telling a story of where it came from.’ He adds: ‘Many consumers are not aware that Rioja has undergone significant evolution over the past decade.’

Kandylis and many others recommend wines from Rioja’s new generation of producers. The likes of Artuke, José Gil, Tentenublo and Cuentaviñas (above), are frequently spotted on wine lists.

All this change is exciting for us consumers, but potentially problematic for the wine trade. Diana Rollan sees ‘a tension between the old bodegas and the historical blended style, and the new producers focusing on vineyard and village expression rather than ageing’. She warns that, ‘growers and importers focusing on the new style have to make a real effort to engage with the market. It won’t be enough to simply add new words and designations to the label and expect wine buyers to respond’.

3. Hit the road

There has never been a better time to visit Rioja. Both Pierre Mansour, wine director at The Wine Society, and Agustín Trapero are equally positive about the wines to be explored and the value across the range. Gone are the days when a visit might consist of a day or two tacked on to a gastronomic trip to San Sebastián. The hotel offering is more appealing these days too.

A reason for visiting Rioja, says Jason Millar, is that ‘provenance is key’. The villages and vineyards are what make the wines, not the quantity of barrels in the cellar. This is the time to walk, cycle or drive through the region. On Millar’s list are El Villar, Laguardia, Lanciego, Leza, Haro and San Vicente de la Sonsierra. I’d add Alfaro and Quel, which have very different landscapes.

4. Look out for pink and sparkling

Gradually, the traditional ‘claretes’ are coming back, joined by the arrival of pale ‘rosados‘ that match the colours of Provence rosé.

Find the wines made from Mazuelo, with its blueberry fruit and bright acidity, by Marqués de Murrieta or Javier Arizcuren. The aged rosado epitomised by R López de Heredia is in demand, too. ‘In fact, getting hold of Viña Tondonia Rosado is mission impossible,’ says Agustín Trapero.

He also suggests trying the traditional-method sparkling wines: ‘The new category of [sparkling wines] espumosos de calidad offers excellent value for money, with wines such as Vivanco Cuvée Inédita (below) or Bodegas Bilbaínas Royal Carlton,’ he advises.

5. Revisit the ‘vinos de autor’

These ‘icon wines’ were all the rage in the 1990s. Rioja houses turned to new French oak, moving away from the classic ageing regulations. The styles were international, with double selection of the grapes (first in the vineyard and then in the winery), and they were higher – if not double – in price.

Typically polished, ripe and alcoholic, they were often not easily identifiable as Rioja. Now, these wines have calmed down and grown up. Take a second look at ‘Barón de Chirel’ from Marqués de Riscal, ‘Dalmau’ from Marqués de Murrieta (a particular favourite of mine), ‘Amaren’ from Luis Cañas, ‘Aro’ from Muga and ‘Mirto’ from Ramón Bilbao (below). These may still be seriously priced, but in terms of value they deliver so much more quality and drinking pleasure today.

6. Above all… follow the producer

If in doubt, remember to follow the producer. In poor years, the best producers will always make something pleasurable. In the future, climate change may require producers to find new sites at higher elevations and explore new varieties. Even now, expertise in the vineyard is needed to cope with the extremes of the climate.

12 to try: Evans’ mixed case of wines offering real value

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The name of Bodegas Lan, so the story goes, stands for the three main provinces that make up Rioja: Logroño (now La Rioja), Alava and Navarra. The winery was founded in 1972 by a group of men from Bilbao looking to set up a txoko, a traditional Basque dining club. Lan was not alone; Beronia, also launched in the 1970s, was similarly based on a group of friends meeting in a txoko.

The Ebro river meanders through Rioja on its journey eastwards to the Mediterranean. It’s in one of the most obvious of those meanders that Lan has the 74 hectare ‘Lanciano’ vineyard. This is border country, on the very edge of Rioja Alta, just across the river from Rioja Alavesa.

There has been a crossing point here since Roman times, though the remains of the Puente de Mantible (Mantible Bridge), more likely date from the Middle Ages. Just two arches of an estimated seven remain today, but it must have been a striking construct, with 30 metre-high arches at the highest point. The stones themselves were quarried from the edge of the vineyard and give a clue to the quality of the land on this estate.

Scroll down to see Sarah Jane Evans MW’s nine Bodegas Lan wines to seek out

The vineyard lies at an altitude of 400m, sloping down to 380m. It has a protected microclimate, sheltered by the Sierra Cantabria range, as well as the influence from the river. As a result the vineyard is rarely frosted, though instead it is susceptible to mildew and odium.

The soils are Quaternary – including clay, sand and gravel – and the vineyard is divided into 22 plots. Tempranillo dominates, with some Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo. Currently, 15ha are organic, with 9ha in conversion in the area close to the bridge. The plan is that 24ha will be certified organic this year.

Lanciano and Culmen

This vineyard produces two, very different, wines. The first is ‘Viña Lanciano’, which is a fresh take on the classic Rioja style, according to Bodegas Lan. The Gran Reserva won a gold medal at Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2023. By contrast, ‘Culmen’ was launched as a ‘vino de autor’, a distinctive winemaker wine, at a time when there were US critics looking for dense, plush, concentrated styles; the opposite to the Riojan classics.

As the name suggests, Culmen is one of the top wines from Lan – and it is a definite change of gear. It comes from a subset of the Lanciano vineyard, known as the ‘Pago el Rincón’ (‘the parcel in the corner’). It consists of 15ha of 50- to 60-year-old bush vines at almost 500m at the foot of the El Rincón hill.

Both Viña Lanciano and Culmen are fermented in small, truncated cone-shaped stainless steel vats. Both wines are distinctly deep in colour, which is achieved by long macerations and regular pumping over.

The winemaking of Lanciano under technical director María Barúa is evolving to good effect. Where the 2017 Reserva saw 20 months in a mix of French and Russian oak, followed by 18 months bottle age, the 2019 saw 16 months in part new, part one-year-old French oak and nine months in concrete tank, before 12 months ageing in bottle. This is not just a matter of finessing – there’s a difference between the two. The tannins are finer in 2019, the fruit more expressive, the finish more explosive.

Winemaking style

By contrast, the winemaking for Culmen has changed little since 2001 which was the third vintage after 1994 and 1995. There is a double selection table; fermentation follows, with post-fermentation maceration for 20 days. Malolactic fermentation is in new French oak, with ageing for 26 months in the same barrels. No wonder the wines are sumptuously full and fleshy, with spice, black pepper and intense blackcurrant fruit.

The 2001 vintage has definitely developed well; by contrast the 2019 is very young and needs time to grow into itself. As befits a concentrated style, the yields from the vineyard are low: 3,500 kg/ha in 2001 and 3,100 kg/ha in 2019. In 2017, the year when the vineyard just escaped the punishing frost, the yield went down to 2,800 kg/ha.

Graciano and Garnacha

Lan also has a 100% Graciano, which has not yet been released. In this regard it is following the practice of that other winery in a meander of the Ebro: Contino, which makes a 100% Graciano called ‘Viña del Olivo’. As for Garnacha, Lan has planted 5ha, but is not yet happy enough with the results to release it.

There’s more to Lan than Viña Lanciano and Culmen. The total production is five million bottles, and the winery buys in grapes from another 400ha of vineyards. Since 2012, Lan has been owned by Sogrape, the Portuguese company founded in 1942 that produces Mateus Rosé.

Just over 80 years later, Sogrape has 19 wineries in its portfolio and its reach now extends far beyond Portugal, not only throughout Spain including properties in Rueda, Ribera del Duero and Rías Baixas, but also to Argentina, Chile and New Zealand.

See notes and scores for Sarah Jane Evans MW’s nine Bodegas Lan wines to seek out

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The region’s vintners welcomed the 2021 vintage after what was a cataclysmic year in 2020, marred by wildfire smoke. The heat dome phenomenon was the signature event of the growing season. Yet, as in the Willamette Valley further to the north, it occurred early enough in the summer not to impact the vintage’s final wines. Yields were below average, and the dry conditions marked the beginning of a drought that is still ongoing in this part of Oregon.

Overall, the wines from 2021 in Southern Oregon are riper in style, and the white wines show brilliant balance. While many of the red wines have yet to be released, they are tending towards opulence and ripeness overall.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 21 top wines from Southern Oregon in 2021

Warm but not hot

‘The 2021 growing season started somewhat inauspiciously in the Applegate Valley,’ said Nate Wall, winemaker for biodynamic Troon Vineyard. ‘We had a cool March, which ended with a late April spring frost. We prune our vines quite late, at the very end of winter, in an attempt to delay bud break for this exact reason.’

‘The good news here was the cooler spring also delayed bud break in most varieties,’ Wall continued. ‘There were only a handful of vines susceptible to the effects of the frost when it occurred. We had a much drier than normal spring, leading to a slightly drier than normal summer. This really kept disease pressure low, so we could slightly back off on our already minimal organic spray program.’

‘The vintage was one of the five warmest on record in the region,’ commented climatologist and owner of Abacela winery, Dr Greg Jones. ‘It was also very dry, starting the slide into drought conditions we have seen over the past couple of years, and that continues today.’

‘The major weather event of the 2021 vintage came over three days in late June. A heat dome over British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest,’ Jones continued. ‘All-time temperature records were broken by 5-10 degrees. Weather stations throughout Southern Oregon broke records during this time as well, with temperatures reaching 45-47°C.

‘Fortunately, the plant growth and fruit development stages at the time [post-flowering] were such that there was not as much damage to the vines or developing berries as anticipated. Plus, growers were well aware of the coming heat wave from forecasts and used irrigation to hydrate the vines during the event.’

The growing season settled in nicely after the heat dome with steady, somewhat cooler temperatures than average in Southern Oregon.

‘From mid-August until late September, the weather was steady and seasonal, with an average high of 28° C and no major heat spikes. Weather during harvest was dry and allowed for the picking of clean fruit of excellent quality. We saw moderate alcohol levels and good acidity overall,’ Brian Gruber of Irvine & Roberts Vineyards reports.

The resulting wines

‘The conditions of 2021 resulted in slightly more hedonistic wines,’ Wall reported. ‘That cooler summer allowed for really nice ripening, so we had these ripe, concentrated fruit flavours with more approachable tannins. This was due to more phenolic ripeness and slightly less whole cluster tannin.’

‘So the wines, on the whole, have been very well received. I am not sure if there will be a slight sacrifice to the long-term ageability of these wines because of this amalgamation of factors – time will tell.’

Southern Oregon 2021: Top-wines tasted

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Bodegas Roda has been one of the pioneers of new-wave Rioja since the company was established in 1987, its hallmarks are a laser focus on expressing the character of vineyard and vintage, as well as a restrained approach to winemaking.

Founded by wine merchants Mario Rotllant and Carmen Daurella – each contributing the first two letters of their surnames to create the Roda name – the winery made its first vintage in 1992, and launched its inaugural wines four years later.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for seven new vintages of Cirsion and Roda

A key moment in Roda’s development came when Agustín Santolaya and Isidro Palacios were brought on board as consultants. ‘The first thing that they said to the family was that the 40ha of vineyards that they had put together were no good – they had to get rid of them,’ says Victor Charcán, Roda’s global sales director.

Instead, the company started acquiring small plots of vineyards with a precise brief linked to the traditions of Rioja: sandstone soils, bush vines, dry farming. ‘What we want to capture in a bottle is landscape, typicity, sense of origin, terroir if you like, and vintage,’ says Charcán. ‘That’s our notion, that’s how we interpret Rioja.’

History and evolution

Back in the 1990s, they were nicknamed ‘the modern guys’ thanks to innovations (for Rioja at the time) such as sorting tables, a predilection for French over American oak and the eschewing of long macerations. ‘We don’t make any gran reserva,’ says Charcán. ‘Overripe, over-extracted, over-oaked – we try to avoid all those things. I guess everyone says that these days, but not everyone said that back in the 1990s.’

With Santolaya now on board as managing director and winemaker, and working from a recently modernised winery in Haro’s fabled Barrio de la Estación (Station District), Roda works with 120ha of vineyards, 75ha of them owned. The company reinvests up to 7% of annual turnover in research and development, and has identified more than 400 different clones of Tempranillo in Rioja alone.

The initial results of these labours were two wines – Roda I and Roda II – with different flavour profiles. The former focused on Tempranillo’s black fruit expression, the latter (after 2001 simply known as ‘Roda’) aiming to capture the variety’s red fruit character. Both wines are classified as reservas. Last year, the venture’s first white wine, Roda I Blanco 2019, was released.

Tempranillo is the star of the Roda reds, but Garnacha and Graciano both play supporting roles. Graciano in particular has become prized for its relatively high acidity, contributing freshness to the blend – a boon particularly in hot, Mediterranean vintages.

Vintage review

However, the latest release – Roda I 2018 – comes from a wetter, ‘Atlantic’ year. ‘It was by far the rainiest year since 1992,’ recalls Charcán. ‘In Rioja, we usually have about 400-600mm of rainfall a year, but in 2018 it was 668mm.’

Some vineyards suffered outbreaks of downy mildew in the spring, but a drying northwest wind provided a much-needed healing effect. The blend for Roda I 2018 is 92% Tempranillo, plus 6% Graciano and 2% Garnacha, with the wine spending 16 months in a 50/50 mix of new and second-use French oak barriques.

‘That darker fruit character is harder to get in an Atlantic vintage – it’s easier to make Roda I in a Mediterranean year,’ admits Charcán. ‘But if you’re selective with the fruit, sometimes Atlantic vintages can give you wonderful ageing potential, and I think that’s the case with the 2018.’

Cirsion: born in the vineyard

Bodegas Roda’s third – and by far its most expensive – release came in 1998 with the first vintage of Cirsion. It’s named after the teasel plant featured on the label. ‘It’s a cover crop and not very flashy, and we love the notion of discreet elegance in the wine,’ says Charcán. This is a wine that was truly born in the vineyard.

In 1996, Santolaya and Palacios were tasting grapes in a very old vineyard in the Obarenes mountains when they noticed that certain vines ripened differently to others, maturing earlier and with ‘very silky’ tannins right from the beginning. They marked the vines and repeated the tasting the following year, creating an experimental batch of a couple of barriques.

Cirsion’s character requires a different maturation protocol, with the wine spending only eight months in entirely new French oak barriques. ‘Barrique ageing is supposed to polymerise tannins,’ explains Charcán. ‘It makes grape tannins a little bit silkier. But for us with Cirsion, it was like having barriques in the vineyard.’

This shorter ageing period means that Cirsion is always released well ahead of Roda I, with the latest release coming from the 2020 vintage. There are similarities here to 2018 – another rainy, Atlantic year, with 635mm of rainfall in Haro. There was downy mildew in the vineyards in June, but after a cool start to July, the temperature rose and ripening conditions were excellent.

Again, Tempranillo is dominant in the blend but, since the very dry year of 2012, Graciano has also been used (typically 10%-plus of the blend; 12% in 2020). The variety’s acidity and deep colour are prized by Roda for bringing extra elements of freshness, precision and a little spice to the wine.

Cirsion and Roda tasting notes: New releases and older vintages

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Once used as mere support for Tempranillo, the red varieties Graciano, Mazuelo and Maturana now have a voice of their own. They may be a little more challenging than the versatile, charming Garnacha, but changing conditions resulting from climate change, coupled with the thirst for something different, are driving a new breed of varietal reds in Rioja.

Scroll down for a selection of 18 Graciano, Mazuelo & Maturana wines to try

In the context of increasing temperatures, Graciano (1,400ha of plantings in Rioja) is a star. Boasting one of the deepest, most vibrant ruby shades in Rioja’s colour spectrum, it has high acidity and distinctive herbal and floral aromas, and has been the secret ingredient behind aged Rioja – just a little can really make a difference. In 1990 there were less than 200ha remaining, but a 1996 study carried out by the regional consejo concluded that Graciano was more suitable to escort Tempranillo than Cabernet Sauvignon, and since then the area under vine has grown steadily.

Interestingly, the first single-variety Graciano was made by Brown Brothers in Australia in the 1970s. Contino and Viña Ijalba didn’t produce theirs until the mid-1990s. A late-ripening variety, Graciano can struggle to achieve full ripeness, particularly in fresh areas or during cold vintages. This is not the case in Rioja Oriental, where it feels at ease and results in rounder, gentler reds in contrast to the energetic, vibrant profile that it usually achieves in Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa.

Breaking new ground

With its high acidity and tannins, Mazuelo (known as Cariñena in Catalonia, 1,175ha) is another common choice for blends in Rioja. A rather rustic, drought-resistant grape variety, it needs warm areas and full-sun exposure to ripen. Marqués de Murrieta produced a single variety to mark its 150th anniversary in 2002 and, in fact, the grape plays a key role in the current blend of Castillo de Ygay. More recently, Murrieta also produced a very striking 100% Mazuelo rosé. Perhaps Mazuelo hasn’t drawn as much attention as Graciano so far, but there are some very impressive, terroir-driven examples that are well worth looking for. The best wines make judicious use of oak and explore Mazuelo’s wild side.

Unlike the other two, Maturana (aka Castets in southwest France, 260ha) is a relatively recent discovery, and its cultivation was authorised in 2009. It’s the offspring of Gros Cabernet and Galician Espadeiro, and the Bordelais connection brings some herbal and pyrazinic aromas, but tannins tend to be gentler. This is not a late ripening variety; it has a relatively high pH but still has good acidity. The styles are less defined and, for the time being, the best examples avoid overripeness and keep oak under control.

All three varieties tend to be used for niche, limited-production wines that either sit within the premium ranges of well-established wineries or expand the portfolio of market-driven producers. They also wave the flag for a number of winemakers who are breaking new ground in Rioja. In fact, some of the most inspiring wines I have tasted fall into the latter group.

Tasting notes and scores for 18 Graciano, Mazuelo & Maturana wines to try

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There’s much more to the Texas panhandle than oil derricks, row crops and windswept landscapes peppered with rolling tumbleweeds, particularly when it comes to wine.

The aptly named 41,214km2 panhandle of Texas was a result of the Compromise of 1850 wherein the state’s disputed land claims were resolved. The region is home to the Texas High Plains AVA.

Of the eight official AVAs in the Lone Star State, the scenic, central Texas Hill Country AVA claims the most attention for wine tourism, with the highest concentration of wineries and tasting rooms. Still, with more than two-thirds of the state’s vineyards, the High Plains is arguably the heart of Texas viticulture.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 10 wines from the Texas High Plains AVA

It’s also considered the birthplace of the modern Texas wine industry. In the late 1960s, researchers from Texas Tech University, Robert Reed and Clinton ‘Doc’ McPherson, planted an experimental vineyard in Lubbock, the region’s primary city.

Its success would later lead to the founding of Llano Estacado Winery in 1976, which remains one of the largest producers in the state. It wasn’t until 1993 that the region would earn official AVA status. Home to more than 80% of the state’s grape output, it is the primary source of fruit for Texas wine producers.

Though the region spans 109,000ha west from Lubbock to the New Mexico border, the High Plains has an estimated 2,000ha under vine. Most vineyards are farmed by long-time agricultural families who have historically grown row crops such as cotton, soy and peanuts – another distinguishing factor for the region.

Many of these farmers grew up never having had a glass of wine. But they knew how to farm. Over the past few decades, severe droughts have pushed many families to seek more drought-tolerant crops. Fortunately, with the rise of Texas winemaking, many producers convinced farmers to begin planting grapes.

‘The majority of the growers in this region come from generational farm families who have worked the fields with hoes in their hands as well as with extremely precise mechanised agriculture for decades,’ says Katy Jane Seaton of the family-owned Farmhouse Vineyards, which manages more than 40ha of vineyards.

‘We’ve taken that knowledge and passion for the land and applied it to wine growing as part of a way to keep future generations in the industry.’

Soils and climate

The region’s unique location is atop the Llano Estacado, a mesa that rises steeply from the northern portion of Hill Country. Spanning more than 60,000km2, the Llano Estacado is one North America’s largest tablelands.

However, the terrain looks flat, with neither a rise or grove of trees for kilometres, the elevations throughout the Llano Estacado range between 900m and 1,400m. By comparison, the Texas Hill Country is 350m to 700m.

Spanish for ‘Staked Plains,’ the area received its name for its vastness. Early 17th-century explorers were often disoriented by its emptiness and would stake the ground to help navigate a straight line.

The landscape is generally flat, arid and desolate, with a perpetual wind that kicks up sandy dust from the alkaline-rich caliche that cover a subsoil high in calcium. The soils are deep with almost universally red, iron-rich sands, sandy and clay loams, and a hard-pan crust of calcium-rich caliche outcroppings throughout.

During the growing season, temperatures swing between more than 37°C during the day and below 15°C at night, affording grapes sufficient cooling for ripening.

While wind and a relatively dry growing season help mitigate disease pressure for vineyards, the most significant challenges include late spring frosts, early fall freezes and the threat of hail from thunderstorms.

Still, the High Plains yields some of the best grapes in the state.

‘In the High Plains, you get the warm Texas sun, but the cooler nights allow the grapes to slow down for ripening. It helps create a different richness in the wines,’ says Ron Yates, who has grown grapes in the Hill Country for over a decade.

Yates also sources many of his grapes from High Plains for his two labels, Ron Yates Winery and Spicewood Vineyards.

The grapes

When McPherson and Reed originally planted their experimental vineyard in 1968, they started with Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and a handful of other French varieties. McPherson felt the soils and the growing environment was similar to the warmer areas of Italy.

At the time, Bordeaux and Burgundian varieties were the most marketable in the US. For the next few decades, this is what early Texas producers planted. But it was McPherson’s son, Kim McPherson, who took a strong interest in warm climate varieties from the Rhône Valley.

Others felt Tempranillo and Italian varieties such as Montepulciano, Vermentino, and Aglianico were best suited for Texas. As a result, the past 15 years have seen a proliferation of warm-climate plantings.

Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and other Bordeaux varieties still have a strong presence. Still, new plantings of these have dwindled in favour of grape varieties from the warmer growing regions of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. In particular, some of the most promising include Picpoul Blanc, Cinsault, Albariño, Sangiovese and Montepulciano.

‘What’s great about Texas is we have no rules regarding what we can plant, which has allowed us to try new things,’ says Yates. ‘There has been a lot of room for experimentation with different grape varieties and blends. That’s not something you can do in the Old World, but it’s something we’re taking advantage of.’

‘We’re still young in our winemaking history, so we have time to figure out what works best. That makes making wine here so much fun; the sky is the limit.’

Texas High Plains AVA: 10 wines to seek out

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Below, we have listed the best Spanish wines as rated by our experts – all achieving a mighty 96 points or above. Perfect Iberian pours for the festive season.

Which red Spanish wine to pick

If you’re unsure which wine to pick, then think about what you and your guests enjoy and what food you will be eating.

The elegant red fruits and spice of Rioja are perfect with lamb, while the darker fruited, muscular wines of Ribera del Duero work well with beef, and the meaty, mineral tones of Priorat are a good match for furred game.

Tempranillo-based Rioja is a great alternative to Burgundian Pinot Noir or Tuscan Sangiovese, with all three sharing bright acidity and vibrant, complex red fruit characters.

Ribera de Duero, meanwhile, is a great Bordeaux alternative, as its dark fruits and muscular tannins echo the style of classed-growth Medocs.

Priorat is unique in its bloody, meaty, stony character, however alternatives could include South African Syrah grown on granite soils, and even some Valpolicella Ripassos or Amarones.

The best Spanish red wines for Christmas – no expense spared

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Rioja’s rising stars: the winemakers to watch out for

Vega Sicilia lies behind the trees at the eastern end of Ribera del Duero’s Golden Mile along the river Duero. It’s just within the Ribera del Duero DO, naturally enough since when the DO was created it could not afford to omit its oldest and most famous bodega.

The DO was created in 1982, with a handful of wineries; today there are more than 300. On 15 April in the same year David Alvarez agreed the purchase of Vega Sicilia. His son Pablo, a young lawyer, became general manager in 1985.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 40 vintages of Vega Sicilia Único

The winemakers have been few across the subsequent 40 years. In situ when Alvarez arrived was Jesús Anadon. In 1985 he handed over to Mariano García, who was winemaker for 13 years, until Javier Ausàs was appointed. Today’s technical director, Gonzalo Iturriaga, has been in post since 2015.

When these wines are kept for so long before release, where does Iturriaga think his influence began? ‘I count from Unico 2013 and 2014 as being part of the work of my team and me,’ he says. ‘Unico 2013 spent three years in our hands and the 2014 spent four years.’

Looking back to the early days in the 1980s, Pablo comments: ‘We were the one-eyed guy in the land of the blind. Vega Sicilia was quite advanced for the age, but it was time for renewal and modernisation… We began by recovering all the vineyards of Vega Sicilia dating back to the 19th century, we carried out the first soil and vine studies.’

In addition herbicides and chemical fertilisers were banned, and a clonal selection of the vines was carried out. The estate covers some 1,000ha. Forty years ago there were just 80ha of vineyards. Now there are 210ha at 700-900m, with 24 different clones of Tempranillo and 19 types of soil across 64 plots. Unico comes from a 40ha plot.

The heart of Unico

Unico is all about ageing – typically it is not released until 10 years after the vintage. The ‘recipe’ changes slightly from year to year but the process involves, as the winery puts it, ‘building the structure of the wine’, moving it from different ages and sizes of oak vats, followed by extensive bottle ageing.

Under iturriaga, since 2015, the approach is changing. ‘We have been building our capacity to age in large-capacity vats,’ he says. ‘That means we are using fewer barrels and more large formats, with the aim of reducing the impact of the wood. This will increase precision and definition in the texture of the wine, as well as give greater complexity.’

In terms of numbers, between 2005 and 2010 the wine spent 18 months in new barrels, 12 months in used barrels and almost 30 months in large format. By contrast 2014 spent 12 months in new barrels, six months in used barrels and 42 months in large format.

Unico is only made in the good vintages. Thus there was no Unico in 2001, 1997, 1993, 1992, 1988, 1984, 1978, 1977, 1971 or 1967, when the wine did not come up to the expected standard. A tip: in those years the fruit will have gone into Valbuena, which should make those Valbuenas a good buy.

Given the breaks in production, this tasting of ‘40 vintages for 40 years’ of Unico in magnum took us back to 1960 (unfortunately the 1964 was corked). The real stars were in the odd-numbered years and especially the 1970s.

The tasting

The tasting took place at the two-times Best Restaurant in the World winner, El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona. It was an extraordinary combination of the grandeur of Vega Sicilia, with the playful artistry of chef Joan Roca, and the astonishing wine service of ‘Pitu’ Roca and his team.

At the first sitting of the morning each taster had 22 wine glasses to taste the even-numbered vintages, plus a water glass and a spittoon. A personalised folder contained a gilded tasting book. With four of us tasting at a round table, there was scarcely room to breathe.

After the break (for delicate canapes in the garden and glasses of Salon 2012) we returned to a further 18 glasses for the odd-numbered vintages, plus a series of little lunch dishes. Complex to handle but all of it delicious.

Six years ago, I was fortunate to be a guest of Vega Sicilia at a similar vertical of Unico at Restaurante Etxebarri outside Bilbao, hosted by the great Brazilian collector Célio Almeida. That tasting was from 2004 and 1960. Astonishing today to compare my scores and notes, and see how little they had changed. These are wines of exceptional longevity.

The generosity of the event started the night before at the Roca brothers’ Mas Marroch. The party of 30 international wine writers and journalists was greeted with glasses of Bollinger RD 2007, and later Bonneau du Martray 2017 Corton-Charlemagne, 2016s of Cos d’Estournel and Léoville las Cases, plus wines from the Vega Sicilia cellar.

The following evening, those of us with the energy were indulged at El Celler de Can Roca with Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill 2013, Comtes Lafon Meursault-Perrières 2017, and no less than four 2015 Burgundies: Domaine Dujac Bonnes-Mares, Clos de Tart, Comte Liger-Belair Echezeaux, and DRC Richebourg.

Pablo and his wife Elisa Kwon are always exceptionally generous hosts. They were self-effacing too. Apart from an informal speech on the first evening, there were no set piece moments to celebrate 40 years of stewardship and investment.

Under Pablo’s management, Vega Sicilia has grown – and with it what is now the Tempos Vega Sicilia group – from 200,000 bottles in 1982 to 1.2 million in 2021.

The other wineries in the group include Alión (Ribera del Duero) which came in 1991 and Oremus in Tokaji, which is still their only investment outside Spain, in 1993. Pintia (Toro) was added in 2001, followed by Macán – the joint venture in Rioja with Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild – in 2009.

The most recent addition to the portfolio is Deiva in Rías Baixas. Deiva was announced to mark the 40th anniversary. The first harvest in the new winery will be 2023, with the first wine to appear on the market in 2025.

See Sarah Jane Evans MW’s tasting notes and scores for 40 vintages of Vega Sicilia Único

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Decanter’s Dream Destination: Marqués de Riscal, Rioja, Spain

In the dusty outskirts of pretty Elciego, it rises like a beacon. A tangle of metal and glass, an explosive futuristic figure set among rows of manicured old Tempranillo vines. Marqués de Riscal, the hotel owned by the well-known winery of the same name in Rioja, isn’t just a place to stay. It’s a large-scale art piece.

Not that you’d expect much less from Frank Gehry, the visionary who also designed the nearby Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Paris’s striking Louis Vuitton Foundation. Arresting deconstructivism is the signature of this starchitect – and even though the hotel opened back in 2006, it still feels electrifying.

Ribbons of colourful Japanese titanium and stainless steel bend and dive as if caught in suspended animation. They dress the front of honey-stoned 19th century buildings in striking high drama. It’s a bold, contemporary statement that’s dished up, in poetic contrast, on the grounds of Rioja’s oldest winery.

Old and new

Established in 1858, with its first wines bottled in 1862, Marqués de Riscal is one of Rioja’s most pivotal names. Founder Camilo Hurtado de Amézaga brought the winemaking traditions of the Médoc to sun-drenched northern Spain. In fact the property still harvests from some of the oldest vines in the region, including pre-phylloxera plantings.

The winery introduced Sauvignon Blanc into the region and was instrumental in the establishment of DO Rueda in 1980.

Today Marqués de Riscal is among Rioja’s most celebrated brands, and provides a comprehensive visitor experience in a ‘city of wine’. It includes the original bodega, El Palomar – the winery for its premium range – and hospitality facilities galore.

Among those facilities is the hotel. Its 61 bedrooms are dressed in crisp whites and the rich ruby hue of young Tempranillo. Leathery sofas, light polished woods and marbled bathrooms join terraces and big windows.

Views are of the surrounding verdant vineyards, undulating hills and, in many cases, the rising honey-stone figure of the historic Church of San Andrés in the distance. In a region that prizes tradition while also pushing for innovation, this old-meets-new stay feels a perfect fit.

Exploring Rioja

There are plenty of wines to taste on site – whether via a winery tour or in the hotel Vinoteca, which pours the label’s own wines alongside slivers of jamón and creamy croquettes. But once you’ve had your fill, more of Rioja’s finest wineries are on your doorstep.

To the northeast by Laguardia, Bodegas Ysios and Bodegas Javier San Pedro Ortega await. In Haro, to the west, one of Rioja’s winery epicentres, you can simply stroll between the likes of Bodegas Muga and Bodegas CVNE.

Prefer to keep it local? The hotel has free bicycles to borrow so you can spin along pathways cutting through the vines and along the Ebro river. Staff will even pack a picnic to take away with you.

Relaxation o’clock

When you’re ready for downtime, Marqués de Riscal delivers. You’ll want to spend yours in the excellent Spa Vinothérapie Caudalie, which puts the antioxidant properties of the grape front and centre. Book in for a skin-softening Crushed Cabernet Scrub or toning Winemaker’s Massage.

Then, shoulders unclenched, make for the open-air terrace of the Restaurant 1860 Tradición for a lazy alfresco meal. Or for a more serious gastronomic affair, choose Restaurant Marqués de Riscal instead. In this Michelin-starred spot you’ll get a multi-course parade of gussied-up local ingredients, including Idiazábal cheese, red prawns and black olives.

And, of course, there’s a riveting wine list to help it all down. Older vintage Marqués de Riscal pours include the likes of Cosecha 1945 and Barón de Chirel Reserva 1994. But you can also choose from dozens of other exciting Riojas, both red and white.

For more information visit marquesderiscal.com

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The two great wine regions of Bordeaux and Rioja came together recently, in the historic railway quarter, Barrio de la Estación of Haro in Rioja. The tastings brought together six Haro wineries with six Bordeaux châteaux.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for nine Spanish wine highlights from the Barrio de la Estación tasting

It was the railways that first threw Bordeaux and Rioja together – that and the phylloxera louse. Haro and Bordeaux have had an on-off relationship ever since.

In March 2022 the relationship was more definitely more on than off, with a tasting of current releases and verticals of special vintages. As a former ‘maquinista’ or ‘engine driver’ – a presenter of the masterclasses held by the Barrio bodegas – I was invited along for the ride.

Representing the Barrio were Bodegas Bilbaínas, CVNE, Gómez Cruzado, La Rioja Alta SA, Muga and RODA. They were joined by Château Smith Haut Lafitte, Château Rauzan-Segla, Château Lynch-Bages, Barton Family Wines, Château Petit-Village and Château Canon-la-Gaffelière.

Sommeliers and buyers came to update themselves after the months of lockdown. Producers came to compare their wines. And I came to find out what exactly the two regions had learned from each other and what they shared today.

Looking back

In the mid-19th century, it was the Marquéses de Riscal and Murrieta who launched the forerunners of the red wines we know today. They were not the first to introduce barrel-ageing following the Bordeaux model. A previous initiative failed – apart from the cost of the barrels it meant a delay in getting the wine to market and recouping expenses.

However the Marquéses both understood the role of barrels, and French winemakers brought their skills to implement the expertise in the region. La Rioja Alta’s first winemaker, M Vigier, was French.

In turn Bordeaux depended on Rioja and in particular the Station Quarter. When phylloxera took hold in Bordeaux, it turned to Rioja for wine. Haro shipped wine by rail from its warehouses around the station.

French influence?

Yet while Rioja owed much to the French in winemaking, from the use of oak to the art of blending, it was not so keen on copying the grape varieties. When Rioja recovered from its own bout of phylloxera it did not turn to French varieties for replanting. There are exceptions. Marqués de Riscal is famous for his 1945 ‘Médoc’ Rioja with Cabernet Sauvignon, and there is Merlot in Rioja too.

Like so many regions in the world, Rioja persisted into the 20th century using French names for their wines: Sauternes, Burgundy. However it was not until relatively recently that the Riojans lost their loyalty to American oak, returning to French or a blend of the two.

Bordeaux remained a particular influence on winemakers through the 20th century with many Riojans going to Bordeaux to study, including Alvaro Palacios, and his niece Barbara, who has her own brand Barbarot – the name referring to the Merlot in her vineyards.

So what do Haro, as a historical subset of Rioja, and Bordeaux have to learn or teach to each other today? One château owner I spoke to was complimentary about what he was tasting in Haro. ‘The wines are much more precise than I remember from 20 years ago’. Could he learn anything from his colleagues in Haro? ‘Non.’

Shared goals

Maria Urrutia is president of the association of the Barrio de la Estación, and a member of the fifth generation of CVNE. She saw the event – intended to be the first of a series of international encounters – as a meeting for the two historic regions. It was a chance to share their ‘common objective of making the best possible wines in their regions’.

One of the key stories of the open tasting was white wine, although there weren’t many. Château Smith Haut Lafitte brought the only Bordeaux white, which was very well-received, and caused grief when it ran out so quickly. For Haro the discussion was around the first white to come from RODA later this year, and how long La Rioja Alta could hold out from releasing a white when everyone else was.

In Haro, as across Rioja, a combination of better viticulture, and old vines, is making for excellent white wines, not only to enjoy in our increasingly warm summers, but also for cellaring.

There was no formal debate or conference. In retrospect it would have been good to have heard advice and experience on climate change, sustainability and the environment. The two regions have plenty to share on that topic.

What the hosts did share was some excellent tastings. Gómez Cruzado showed six vintages of its Montes Obarenes white. La Rioja Alta laid on a tasting of the great year of 2001, with all its Gran Reservas from Arana through to 890. CVNE presented four vintages of its Real de Asua. While RODA offered a discovery tasting of wines that never made it to the market. My highlights are below.

See tasting notes and scores for nine Spanish wine highlights from the Barrio de la Estación tasting

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Bodegas Vizar is located in the municipality of Villabáñez, to the east of Valladolid is Spain’s Castile and León region, bordering the Ribera del Duero DO.

Vizar’s application to obtain the Dehesa Peñalba vino de pago DO was first put forward to, and approved by the Agrarian and Technological Institute of Castilla y León (ITACyL), in 2019. The proposal was then submitted to the European Commission, which granted the final green light earlier this month.

‘We started the process in 2015 and this involved a lot of hard work,’ MD and co-founder Felipe Zarzuela told Decanter. ‘We had to pass hard audits… having obtained this achievement is a great recognition of our effort and quality. A well-done job since we started the project.’

Spain’s vino de pago classification was originally introduced in 2003. The single-winery DO is awarded to estates whose vineyards benefit from unique environmental and climatic characteristics that differentiate them from surrounding regions and denominations. Dehesa Peñalba’s vineyards are located on a river basin, with a topsoil consisting of pebbles, gravel and sand, and marl-limestone underneath.

‘This means filtering soils which are dry and sandy on the surface. It’s a warm terrain but that is cool underneath, with good water reserves and poor in organic matter and nutrients,’ Zarzuela explained. ‘Our estate’s winegrowing heritage dates back to the 14th century. We also benefit from a special microclimate, being surrounded by the Duero river and its canals, and by centuries-old mountains and pine forests that produce a cushioning effect against adverse conditions.’

Bodegas Vizar boasts some 90ha of land, comprising vineyards planted to Tempranillo, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Verdejo. The wines are currently being labelled as IGP Tierra de Castilla y León and will only be allowed to carry the Dehesa Peñalba vino de pago DO as of the 2022 vintage, yet Zarzuela has appealed for the DO to be retroactive.

‘We are requesting the possibility of it being retroactive, so our first Dehesa Peñalba DO vintages could be Vizar Selección Especial 2019 [a Tempranillo and Syrah blend] and Vizar Syrah 2015. We have to wait for the audit but we will know this soon.’

The quality requirements for a Vino de Pago are comparable to those of a wider denomination. All the grapes used must come from estate-owned vineyards and the wine must be produced and matured within its premises.

Most of the about 20 vinos de pago currently active in Spain are located within the large Castilla-La Mancha region, but some are also found in Aragon, Navarra and in the surroundings of Valencia.

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Sarah Jane Evans MW, Diana Rollan and Beth Willard tasted 73 wines, with three Outstanding and 29 Highly Recommended.

New-wave Rioja panel tasting scores

73 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 3

Highly recommended 29

Recommended 31

Commended 6

Fair 4

Poor 0

Faulty 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit current-release vintages of red Rioja that don’t conform to the traditional oaked styles of Rioja defined by age statements; that showcase modern styles and different methods of winemaking; with ageing in concrete, amphora, etc; and single-vineyard wines

What an enjoyable tasting! To be sure, all these wines shared the ‘Rioja’ label, but then their paths diverged. For us as tasters it was an absorbing, delicious journey through the contemporary DOCa, its aspect and altitudes, its varieties and vinifications. What is happening in Rioja is so much more varied and exciting than the wine textbooks would have you believe.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring new-wave Riojas

Given the eclecticism of the wines that Decanter requested for this tasting (see ‘Entry criteria’, above), we tasted according to vintage, starting with the youngest, then with unoaked before oaked. What was it that we enjoyed so much?

According to Diana Rollan: ‘A diverse range of styles, based on quality over quantity of oak’. Beth Willard: ‘I was looking for, and scored more generously, wines that offered floral notes, red cherry, crunchy acidity and a focus on fruit, even if there was no oak present.’

Rarely did we comment on or criticise heavy-handed use of oak. Further, there was fine expression of place – and freshness. As Rollan noted: ‘A common denominator for all these wines is the freshness, minerality and the balance above all, versus [the traditional measure of] oak ageing as the primary indicator of quality.’ The different fermentation and ageing processes, and containers used in production, also potentially offered different texture and palate weights.

The tasting certainly reflected the diversity of Rioja today – even simply in terms of grape varieties. There was a Maturana and a Mazuelo (Carignan/Cariñena), as well as four 100% Gracianos, and 12 Garnachas – each of them giving a stylistic choice. There was also a mix of vineyards, sub-zones, altitudes and oaks. To be honest, we were comparing chalk and cheese with so many different styles. This explains some of the surprising results, where some established reputations received lower scores than are usual.

Willard summed it up: ‘Some of the lower scoring wines were very good – and my notes reflect that – but for me they fell into the category of more mainstream (even if tasty!) Rioja. Rather than judging as a UK-based Rioja drinker, I was focused on the brief of the tasting, bringing my knowledge of the more vineyard-focused work going on in the region.’

Overall we finished tasting with feelings of excitement and enthusiasm. Inevitably a few questions remain. Rioja is renowned for its ageability. What about these young stainless steel and/or concrete wines? Will they age? What will the absence of oak influence do? Will it reduce longevity? We so enjoyed some of these young styles, that frankly we didn’t mind. Enjoy them now or soon.

Choice is a fine thing, and Rioja is offering glorious choices nowadays. How, though, to communicate these wines?

‘The new wave of Rioja definitely adds value to the region by offering a more diverse range of styles,’ said Rollan. ‘However, I don’t think these are easily understood by consumers. The way to help people to buy these styles is by adding regionality for Rioja into wine lists; by offering wines from the municipalities and Viñedos Singulares; and restaurants should be looking to offer these new styles by the glass.’

Willard added: ‘None of these wines are particularly cheap, so they’ll attract a customer who can see beyond traditional classifications: there is a lot for an engaged consumer to get behind, even if they require more of a hand-sell.’

Take our advice: read the notes, make your choices, then seek out and enjoy the wines.

The top scoring new-wave Riojas: 

The judges

Sarah Jane Evans MW is an awarded journalist, author and broadcaster, and a DWWA Co-Chair. Author of The Wines of Northern Spain (Infinite Ideas, 2018), she is also chair of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino

Diana Rollan is group head of beverage for D&D London restaurants group. A DWWA judge for Spain, she formerly managed wine buying and training at Hakkasan Group as its UK head of wine

Beth Willard is buying director for independent merchant Winetraders UK, with a focus on Spain and Eastern Europe, and former buying manager at Direct Wines. A member of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros de Vino, she was a joint Regional Chair for Spain at DWWA 2021

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Expert’s choice: Ribera del Duero wines under £30

My appointment with Francisco Barona sounded like something out of a Graham Greene novel. ‘Meet me in front of the bullring in Roa,’ he’d told me on the phone. I was intrigued. Did he want to share his love of the corrida before we talked and tasted? Would he arrive dressed as a matador? The answer was more prosaic.

Barona is in the process of building a bodega nearby and, for the time being, he presents his wines in a modest ground floor room in the centre of town. The bullring is the nearest landmark.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for two Francisco Barona wines

The tasting itself was considerably more eventful.

It wasn’t just that Barona turned up with an armful of vine cuttings, harvested that morning to show me the varieties that make up his field blends. It was also the remarkable quality of his wines, as good as anything I’ve sampled in Ribera del Duero. But more than anything, it was Barona’s life story that inspired and enchanted me.

This young winemaker – he’s still only 37 – has packed more adventure into his three and a half decades than most of his contemporaries will manage in twice the time. Sit down and pour yourself a glass of red while I share the details.

The beginning

It all began mundanely enough. Barona was born into a family of what he calls ‘humble growers’ in Roa. A poor student, he found his inspiration working in vineyards. ‘I could drive a tractor by the time I was 12 and at weekends and during the holidays I helped my dad or worked at neighbouring Bodegas y Viñedos Robeal.’

He left school at 18, with grades in his Bachillerato (Spanish A-levels) that weren’t good enough for him to go to university to study winemaking. More hard graft in the vineyard beckoned.

Serendipity was about to change his circumstances for the better, however. Barona had become friends with Gonzalo Iturriaga, now the winemaker at Vega Sicilia but then at Alonso del Yerro, who suggested he go to France to gain some experience. ‘I don’t speak French,’ he said. ‘You’ll learn,’ replied Iturriaga, who offered to put him in contact with Château Pavie Macquin in St-Emilion. ‘I had no idea where St-Emilion was,’ admits Barona.

In July 2003, the 19-year-old Spaniard arrived in Bordeaux to take up a temporary post as a vineyard labourer. Within two weeks, his new employers were so impressed by his work ethic that they took him on full-time. Later the same year, they urged him to study for a BTS VO (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur), a further qualification in viticulture and oenology, and said that they would pay the fees. Barona was the only foreign student; when the course ended three years later, he’d come second out of 63 people. The top four graduates were guaranteed a place at Bordeaux University, so by 2008, Barona had added a prestigious Diplôme National d’Oenologue to his CV. This time, he finished top of his class. ‘At school in Spain, my teachers told me I was stupid,’ he says.

In the course of his studies, Barona worked at Château Malescot St-Exupéry in Margaux and, more importantly in terms of his future, Château Angélus in St-Emilion, where the family estate’s co-owner Hubert de Boüard became a mentor.

After graduation, the next stop was Hartwell Estate in the Napa Valley to improve his English. ‘I learned a lot about wine,’ Barona remembers, ‘but most of the workers were Mexicans, so my language skills didn’t progress much.’

Francisco Barona at a glance

Born 9 May 1984

Studied Lycée Agricole de Blanquefort (BTS); Université de Bordeaux (Diplôme National d’Oenologue)

Worked Bodegas y Viñedos Robeal, Château Malescot St-Exupéry, Château Angélus, Hartwell Estate, Klein Constantia, Dominio Basconcillos

First vintage of Francisco Barona 2014

Owns 30ha of old vines

Current production 16,000 bottles

Family Married to Beatríz; two children

A return to Spain

He thought about returning to Spain, but decided against it because the financial crisis was throttling the economy. De Boüard got him a job at Klein Constantia in the Cape instead. After six months in South Africa, it was finally time to head home to Ribera del Duero.

Barona’s first idea was to speak to his great uncle, Millán Cristóbal, who owned 3ha of old vines in Roa that were so good that Vega Sicilia bought most of the grapes. Would he consider selling some of the crop to a relative? ‘He told me to get stuffed.’

Barona needed work, so he circulated his CV to local wineries. Dominio Basconcillos in Gumiel de Izán was interested and offered him an interview. ‘José María Basconcillos asked me what score I’d give myself as an oenologist out of 10,’ remembers Barona with a smile, ‘so I said 10.’ He hired the self-confident young winemaker on the spot. Barona remained at Basconcillos until 2020, crafting some superb reds from this marginal, high-altitude site. But all the time he was there, he was developing his own project, too.

From the start in 2009, Barona was determined to acquire old vineyards. The problem was that growers didn’t want to sell them. Castilians are fiercely attached to their land and famously stubborn, to boot. His father had 14ha, but they were planted with higher-yielding Italian clones. ‘I wanted nectar, nectar, nectar,’ says Barona. There was only one solution – to buy abandoned parcels for a song and coax them back to life.

Barona purchased 4.5ha across five parcels in Anguix, La Aguilera and Roa, working evenings and weekends on their recuperation. It took him five years before they yielded a crop, but it was worth the toil. The grapes were very promising indeed – sweet, fresh and full of flavour. He was ready to make his first Francisco Barona wine.

Fulfilling ambitions

Most people would have been happy with those 8,000 bottles, especially if they had a demanding day job, but Barona’s ambitions went beyond that. Fate was about to lend a hand once more. In 2013, a family from Barcelona with 10ha of old vines in Anguix was looking for a buyer and got in touch. Could Barona help them out and take a commission on the sale? He could, but he had a much better idea. He’d buy them himself.

The only problem was that the family wanted €400,000 and Barona had no money. And then he remembered the €6,000 that he and his wife Beatríz had just been given as a wedding present to redo their kitchen. Without asking her, he offered that as a down payment on the vines and resolved to borrow the rest from the bank. ‘My wife nearly divorced me on the spot when she found out.’ The bank wasn’t impressed either, but this is one determined hombre. Eventually, he bought the vines for €200,000, accumulating debt that he was confident he could pay back in time. ‘It was the deal of the century,’ he says.

By 2017, Barona was just keeping his head above water. He owed the bank €45,000 in interest, his house was in danger of being repossessed and his wife still didn’t have a new kitchen. Those 8,000 bottles of 2014 were now on the market, but who would buy them? ‘People underestimate how hard it is to start a new project when you have no contacts,’ says Barona. But then he remembered a distributor from Galicia who’d expressed an interest in his project from the start. Barona invited him to come and taste the wine. It was so good that the Galician bought the lot.

The fledgling project was finally on its feet. Five years later, Barona has rapidly established himself as the best young winemaker in Ribera del Duero. He now makes two wines – both field blends of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) with Albillo Mayor, Bobal, Garnacha and Jaén Blanca. The first comes from the 29ha he has accumulated since 2009, including the 3ha that his great uncle finally sold him just before he died in 2017; the second – Finca Las Dueñas – is from half a hectare of vines, planted in 1928, part of what he acquired with the help of the bank and that wedding gift.

Both are world-class wines, drawing on the experience that Barona has acquired in the 25 years since he started driving a tractor as a boy. ‘I’ve worked like a mule all my life,’ he says. ‘I’ve sweated blood.’ We wine drinkers should be grateful for his sacrifice. And so should Spain.

Natural touch: the wines of Francisco Barona

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Expert’s choice: Ribera del Duero under £30

Ribera del Duero runs east to west in Castilla y León, and is home to many top Spanish wines.

The region is far from homogeneous; indeed, there is a huge diversity of terroirs. To say that a wine is from Ribera del Duero can be as vague as saying that a wine is from Burgundy.

There are just two main grape varieties: Tinta Fina (aka Tempranillo) for red wines and Albillo Mayor for white wines.

Scroll down for Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW’s top Ribera del Duero wines under £30

Tempranillo gives an amazing array of wine styles and qualities in Ribera, but labels are not very helpful for navigating this complex mix. Indeed, the regoin’s consejo regulador recognises only one classification, based on the time a wine spends ageing in oak barrels – as in many other regions of Spain.

However, at present such classification is almost irrelevant, except for the gran reserva category, because it doesn’t give a true indication of quality.

Most producers at the top omit any such classification, despite the fact that they age their wines for a long time. As a result, wine lovers must rely on their knowledge of brands or on expert recommendations.

In my view, clear and certified label indications relating to the specific origin of a wine are urgently needed. If there is one region that would benefit from an ad-hoc classification, it’s Ribera del Duero.

Little siblings

As a whole, the appellation is becoming a must-buy for top collectors because of the increasing number of iconic wines, often at very high prices. These can be a deterrent for anyone looking to buy wines in the mid-price range; however, there is a lot of affordable wine – under the categories roble (oak) and joven (young) – that is perfect for everyday drinking, even though it’s by no means indicative of Ribera’s potential.

For value-conscious wine lovers, the region’s prestige can be sampled through the wines in-between – those that, being affordable (£30 per bottle or less), show the quality and multiple identities within this appellation.

These fall into two categories. First, the second wines of very prestigious houses, which keep an air of family identity with the major wines, and are often only marginally inferior to them, but at a fraction of the price.

Second, the top bottles from ambitious wineries that are increasing their quality and fine-tuning the profile of their wines. These include newcomers, wineries under generational transition, or simply wineries that have hired or acquired new skills.

Some of those wines may be an excellent investment, since the producers are likely to become iconic, in time.

My selection here includes wines from both types, plus one clairet wine (rather than rosé), that are another demonstration of the potential for excellence in Ribera del Duero.

All wines except one were aged for a remarkable time in oak vats: a necessary condition for red Tempranillo wines to realise their potential.

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW’s top Ribera del Duero wines under £30:

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Ribera del Duero is the extreme member of Spain’s top wine family: very hot in summer, freezing cold in winter, yielding continental wines grown on a high plateau.

For almost a century, the Moro family has been growing vines here, at the self-titled Bodegas Emilio Moro.

See tasting notes and scores for the latest Emilio Moro wines

Behind the name is a real Emilio Moro, born in 1932 – the year that his family started vine growing in the region. Its Finca Resalso vineyard was planted that same year. Fast-forward to 1982, and the launch of the Ribera del Duero DO, which was created with fewer than a dozen wineries.

Six years later, Emilio – with his sons José and Javier – decided to join the pioneers and transform from growers into winery owners. They launched their first wine under the fledgling DO in 1989. At the time, they were working with just 5ha of vines that their grandfather had planted around Pesquera del Duero.

Originally, the family vineyards were more extensive but, as in so many places, vines had been widely uprooted in Spain’s economic downturn. Oddly, this had one great advantage: when it came to expanding once more: they were able to use the best clonal material of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) from their oldest plots.

Today, the winery emphasises the special heritage of Tinto Fino, with its smaller berries.

New generation

Emilio died in 2008, and the third generation – lead by José Moro Espinosa – is now driving change. They describe their work as a blend of tradition, innovation and social responsibility, emphasising the use of technology to promote sustainability in the vineyard and manage the winemaking process.

Theirs are big, bold, forthright wines, expressing the equally forthright character of the land and its people. Typically, the wines are fermented in stainless steel and aged in mostly French oak, with some American wood.

The wine known as Emilio Moro 2018 (their largest production) typifies the house style, offering power and plentiful black fruits.

It’s made from younger vines, grown on a blend of different soil types at around 750m, and aged in a blend of French and American oak. Each of the bottles has a small disc above the label, illustrating an aspect of family history – in this case, Emilio harvesting with his father.

The next step up in the series is Malleolus, derived from majuelo – the local word for a small plot of vines. These are older vines (25-75 years), including some that were rescued from the widespread vine pull during the latter part of the 20th century. With the launch of Malleolus in the late 1990s, the winery decided to step back from the traditional categories of crianza and reserva. Instead, it prefers simply to label its wines with the vintage – like so many producers nowadays.

Singular wines

The winery’s single vineyards form the basis for its top wines. Malleolus de Valderramiro is from the family’s oldest vineyard (4.2ha), planted in 1924 on clay soils with limestone, while the vineyard for Malleolus de Sanchomartin (0.7ha) was planted in 1944 at a higher altitude, and in soils with a greater limestone content.

As a result, Sanchomartin has greater freshness, whereas Valderramiro is more powerful and structured. The ‘regular’ Malleolus takes grapes from some of these old vineyards, together with the plantings of selected clones from the 1980s.

The most recent launch among Moro’s top wines is the Clon de la Familia – one of Spain’s most expensive treasures. As the name suggests, this is a homage to the best clone of Tempranillo, as well as to the family who preserved it. The wine is intended to reflect the three soil types in the Moro vineyards: limestone, clay, and sand.

Launched in 2007, the family also has a separate winery in Ribera del Duero, named Cepa 21. Stylistically, the wines are modern and expressive, and Cepa also has a strong focus on wine tourism. In 2016, the family launched a third outpost, this time in Bierzo to the northwest of Castilla y Leon.

White wines (made from the Albillo grape) are now permitted in the Ribera del Duero DO. However, José Moro preferred to go to Bierzo, regarding the Godello grape as the best of Spain’s white varieties.

At present, Moro produces three whites: the young Polvorete; El Zarzal, lees-aged in foudres; and La Revelía, lees-aged in French oak barrels.

Sarah Jane Evans MW tastes and rates the latest Emilio Moro wines

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Given the prestige and the fame of its top wines, most notably Pingus and Vega Sicilia, it’s easy to forget that Ribera del Duero is a young DO, established in 1982. In the ensuing 39 years Ribera has accumulated plaudits and brickbats in equal quantity. For every person who considers it Spain’s top red wine region, there’s another who finds the wines too powerful, too oaky or too pricey.

Ribera is certainly historic – the Romans tended vineyards here – but the DO is best viewed as something inchoate: as a work in progress, if you prefer. It has expanded from 6,460ha in the early 1980s to 24,157ha today and is still growing. And remember: the region may be young, but many of its best vineyards (21.8% of them) are more than 50 years old.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 top wines from eight Ribera del Duero producers

Often viewed as homogenous, Ribera del Duero is extremely diverse in altitudes, soil types and aspects. How could it be otherwise in a region that’s 115km long, 35km wide and varies between 740m close to the river (from which the DO takes its name) and 1,000m up on the moorlands, which have been brought into play by a changing climate.

Ribera del Duero’s 307 bodegas are heterogeneous too, of course. All of them work with Tempranillo (known here as Tinto Fino: the grape covers nearly 96% of plantings, after all), but Albillo Mayor (white), Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha and Merlot (among others) play a part, too. And styles vary considerably from village to village, winery to winery.

Ribera has changed a lot in the last decade and will continue to evolve. As it does, these are eight of my favourite bodegas to keep an eye on.

Ribera del Duero producers to know:

La Loba

La Loba is a tribute to Ana Carazo’s grandmother, who features on the labels of her wines and was called ‘the wolf’. There’s something of the lone wolf about Carazo, too, who does everything herself at this remote boutique winery close to Ribera del Duero’s eastern extremity. She’s the kind of person you’d want on your Armageddon team.

Born in Alicante, where her parents owned a wine wholesale company, Carazo ended up running a bodega in Matanza de Soria, the home of some family vineyards, after working in Bierzo, Jumilla, the Loire valley, New Zealand and, gaining experience with a number of different producers, Ribera del Duero. La Loba was created in 2011, with a focus on old vines, terroir expression and low intervention.

Carazo works with 3.5ha in Matanza de Soria as well as the neighbouring villages of Alcubilla del Marqués, Pedraja de San Esteban and Quintanilla de Tres Barrios. Most of these are on clay-based soils between 960m-1,000m, once considered marginal in some Ribera vintages but now a safer bet thanks to climate change. Some of these parcels could be 200 years old. ‘One of my projects is to date them exactly,’ she says.

Two wines are produced here: La Loba and cheaper La Lobita. Both are marked by their freshness and precision as well as restrained use of oak. ‘I use Tempranillo to make my wines, but what I really want you to taste is Soria.’

Vivaltus

Based in a spectacular location between the castles of Peñafiel and Curiel de Duero, Vivaltus is one of Ribera del Duero’s most exciting new projects. Owned by Grupo Yllera, it has rapidly established itself among the region’s best reds, with a first release in 2016. The key to the project’s success was persuading the legendary French winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet, formerly of Château Petrus, to come on board, according to Marcos Yllera. ‘We wanted to create something unique, so we went to Bordeaux to talk to the person recognised by many as the best winemaker in the world.’

Berrouet had definite ideas about what he wanted to produce, and they weren’t wines with lots of colour, tannin, oak and extraction. Instead, he would pick earlier, minimise the use of new barrels and use up to 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2016 vintage – plentiful and comparatively cool – was a boon in one sense, but Berrouet (consultant) and Montxo Martínez (winemaker) worked the same elegant magic in 2017, which was a much warmer and more concentrated year.

Clay and limestone-based vineyards in Fuentenebro, a comparatively new area in the south of Burgos, are at the core of the grand vin, with support from grapes grown in La Aguilera, Curiel de Duero and the Atauta valley in Soria. Unlike Petrus, Vivaltus is a regional blend – if you can’t find or afford the top wine, there’s always La Fleur Vivaltus, made with the same assemblage of Tempranillo and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Garmón

The García family – father Mariano and sons Alberto and Eduardo – have projects in Castilla y León (Mauro), Toro (San Román) and now Rioja but are most strongly associated with Ribera del Duero, where García padre is referred to as ‘the master’ thanks to the 30 years he spent at Vega Sicilia and his part-ownership of Aalto (founded in 1999). Garmón Continental – a cuvée of the family’s surnames, García and Montaña – is a more recent project, having released its first critically acclaimed wine as recently as 2014.

The bodega may be located in Olivares de Duero, close to the western limit of the DO, but, apart from some vines in nearby Quintanilla de Onésimo, it works almost exclusively with 35ha in cooler Burgos (Anguix, Baños de Valdearados, La Aguilera, Moradillo and Tubilla del Lago). With the exception of lower-lying Quintanilla, these are all located between 800m-1,000m. ‘We don’t have a recipe,’ says Eduardo García. ‘There are so many factors to take into account: plantation density, altitude, orientation, training and pruning methods, soil types, picking dates, yields and vine age. We’re trying to express the personality of each vintage.’

Eduardo has worked at Cos d’Estournel in Bordeaux, Domaine Hubert Lignier in Burgundy and Ridge in California, but he’s most excited about what’s happening in Spain, especially Ribera del Duero right now. ‘The styles of the best bodegas are increasingly self-confident and distinctive,’ he adds. ‘And as the years go by, they are showing their class.’

Ausàs

Xavier Ausàs, or Javier Ausás if you prefer the Spanish spelling of his name, is a Catalan who was brought up in Valladolid and has spent most of his working life in Ribera del Duero. He is arguably best known for the 25 years he spent at Vega Sicilia – he started cleaning harvesting boxes before succeeding Mariano García as technical director – but he has been doing his own thing since 2015, both as a consultant and producer.

The experience he accumulated at the region’s most famous winery helped him with the creation of Ausàs Interpretación, which hit the market with the 2016 vintage and is a pan-regional cuvée. He blends the wine from 10ha (half of which he owns) located in four different villages in the province of Burgos – Gumiel del Mercado, Moradillo de Roa, Nava de Roa and Roa de Duero – ranging between 760m-900m and aged from 35 to 80 years. ‘I’ve known some of these vineyards for 30 years, so I understand what they contribute to a blend,’ Ausàs says, ‘be it tannins, acidity, elegance or structure.’

Partly educated in France and now consulting there, Ausàs is always ‘eager to learn’, by tasting and drinking wines from other countries, he says. A cosmopolitan figure who understands his adopted region like few others, he aims to achieve ‘purity and freshness’ in his wine, making a Tinto Fino that has structure, but is still refined.

Valdaya

Valdaya was founded in 2006, but the quality of this small, high-quality bodega’s wines improved dramatically with the arrival of Marta Ramas and Miguel Fisac in 2013. (Ironically, the young, well-travelled couple couldn’t have picked a more challenging first harvest.) Having studied in Bordeaux under Professor Denis Dubourdieu, they worked in California, South Africa and New Zealand before returning to Spain, giving them a broad international perspective that’s reflected in the styles of wine they like to consume at home. ‘We drink wines from anywhere and everywhere,’ says Ramas, ‘as long as we can afford them.’

Ramas and Fisac only work with grapes from the north bank of the Duero river, specifically the villages of Baños de Valdearados, Gumiel de Mercado and Sotillo de la Ribera. They draw on 14ha in total, located from 850m-920m and aged between 50-90 years old. Each of their three wines comes from a different soil type: limestone for flagship red Mirum, sand for second wine Valdaya and clay for entry-point Valiente.

The philosophy at Valdaya has been pretty much the same since 2013. ‘Each year we learn a little bit more about our parcels,’ adds Fisac, ‘and we’ve introduced one or two new things like fermentation in concrete for Valiente. But as a rule, we try to intervene as little as possible. It’s all about expressing the character of the vintage and of our soils.’

Marta Maté (top)

‘I make village wines,’ says César Maté of his impressive seven-label range from Tubilla del Lago and Gumiel de Mercado in the extreme north of Ribera del Duero. He admits that even 30 years ago the area would have struggled to ripen Tinto Fino in cooler vintages, but now it suits his fresher, lower-alcohol style to perfection. ‘Who says our region’s reds are unbalanced?’ he asks. ‘Some are, but they don’t all taste the same, thank goodness.’

Marta Maté was created in 2008 by Maté and his partner Marta Castrillo – hence the name – and works with 45ha of vineyards, 70% of which the bodega owns and farms organically. All of these are above 900m and vary in age between 17-150 years old.

‘Honesty’ and ‘sincerity’ are the watchwords here and they are reflected in Maté’s desire to express this cooler-climate terroir as well as the differences between vintages.

‘We pick later than they do in Soria,’ he says. ‘We get natural freshness in our wines, more verticality.’ Oak is kept to a minimum, so that ‘you don’t notice it’.

Maté’s love of Burgundy is reflected in the style of wines he makes, especially Viñas del Lago, sourced from 24 parcels co-planted with Tempranillo and other grapes. ‘It’s our homage to Tubilla del Lago,’ he says. Even more refined is Marta Maté itself, a varietal Tempranillo that represents outstanding value alongside its peers.

Valdemonjas

This small, family-owned bodega is located in Ribera del Duero’s so-called ‘golden mile’, up the road from Vega Sicilia, in Quintanilla de Arriba. Most of its vineyards are on a north-facing slope and are vinified according to soil type, row direction and altitude. ‘We get our best results from rows that run from north to south, rather than east to west,’ says owner Alejandro Moyano.

The Moyanos – Alejandro and son Alexis – work alongside consultant Luca D’Attoma and made their first wines in 2012. Their vineyards are split between two sites: the 7.1ha of Pago de Valdemonjas that surround the winery, and a much smaller 0.6ha parcel in La Horra, used to make the bodega’s top wine, Abrí las Alas. From the 2021 vintage onwards, they will have access to a third 1ha plot in Quintana del Pidio.

Possessing an ‘aversion to astringency’ in reds, Alejandro makes wines that are inspired by his love of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and white grapes, as well as Tempranillo of course.

The style varies from wine to wine – Abrí las Alas sees 100% new wood and is a richer, bolder wine – but the focus is generally on elegance and balance. El Patio is a juicy, unwooded style that sees no added sulphur; El Primer Beso is a sappy, concrete-aged delight; while Entre Palabras and Los Tres Dones are deftly oaked, terroir-focused expressions of, respectively, six and three of the Pago de Valdemonjas’ nine terroirs.

Legaris

It might seem perverse to include Legaris, owned by Cava behemoth Raventós Codorníu, in a list of producers to watch in Ribera del Duero, especially as the Catalans have been making wines here for more than 20 years. But there have been significant changes since 2014 and the top wines are improving with every vintage.

The bodega’s roble, crianza and reserva bottlings are sound enough, yet the real excitement starts with its series of terroir-focused reds. Páramos de Legaris was the first of these, produced from parcels above 900m on the moorlands (páramos) of Peñafiel, Pesquera and Moradillo de Roa. The wine was so successful that winemaker Jorge Bombín extended the range from 2015 to include (to date) four village-specific wines: Alcubilla de Avellaneda, La Aguilera, Peñaranda de Duero and Moradillo de Roa.

Vine age varies considerably, but all four wines show the influence of cooler sites. Earlier picking dates are crucial too. ‘People often wait too long,’ says Bombín. They are appreciably different in style, depending on soil type as much as anything, yet all show a lightness of touch that would challenge the prevailing image of Ribera del Duero. ‘If you want muscular wines,’ says Bombín, ‘these won’t work for you.’ Volumes are comparatively small, but they are worth tracking down. ‘They are playthings for us, in a way, but we are learning from them with every vintage. It’s another side of Ribera del Duero.’

Tim Atkin MW’s top wines from eight innovative Ribera del Duero producers

Wines are listed alphabetically in score order

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Spanish wines you should have in your cellar

Galicia is famous for its white wines: pure, elegant, lees-aged, unoaked or only lightly so. The leader of the charge has been the Rías Baixas DO – and its Albariño grape in particular – followed by Ribeiro, and the Godellos of Valdeorras. Producers from Rioja and Ribera del Duero looking for a white companion to their reds find Galicia a happy hunting ground.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 20 top Galician red wines

Albariño still accounts for 96% of Rías Baixas’ output. In Valdeorras, red Mencía is now almost neck and neck with Godello in production terms. It’s in Ribeira Sacra that red dominates. Galicia always had red vines.

However, they had been widely ignored in the recent stampede to feed the world’s appetite for the region’s whites. Fortunately, things are changing.

There’s a glorious portfolio of reds to discover. What unites them is a very distinct Atlantic acidity.

It won’t be to everyone’s taste. But if you enjoy the wines of the Loire, or crunchy northern Italian reds, or fine Greek Xinomavro, then take a look. Expertise in managing the vineyards is developing rapidly. As we learn to live with increasingly hot summers, these crisply refreshing reds with their lower alcohols are a treat.

Above all, they are originals. Here’s a chance to try Espadeiro, Caíño Tinto, Caíño Longo and Merenzao. The latter, also known in the Iberian peninsula as María Ordoña and Bastardo, is one variety that has travelled – as Jura’s Trousseau.

Many of the wines are pale in colour, but that does not mean they are lacking in flavour. Far from it, in fact. What’s more, the joy of these reds is that they are not masked by new oak. Clearly, that’s partly for financial reasons [time spent in oak barrels increases production costs]. But it’s also explained by producers not wanting to interfere with the subtlety of the wines.

Simply reds

With this top 20 selection of wines, I looked to represent every DO, producers who prefer not to belong to a DO, and a range of key people. Where to begin the tasting journey? Roberto Durán, twice voted Spain’s top sommelier – and senior sommelier at London’s 67 Pall Mall wine club – is in no doubt: Monterrei.

This is Galicia’s most southerly DO, the least known and least highly rated. Red wines count for less than half of production, but the best are exceptional. Mencía dominates (more than 80%). Other red varieties recognised include Merenzao, Araúxa (Tempranillo), Caíño Tinto and Sousón (the Vinhão of Portugal, just over the border).

To start, let’s consider José Luis Mateo at Quinta da Muradella. Here, as elsewhere among Galicia’s reds, the wines are as much about the people who make them as about the grape or the soil. Mateo’s wines are an ideal introduction.

Moving north, the precipitous vineyards of Ribeira Sacra, the essence of heroic viticulture, shelter a wide range of varieties, including Brancellao, Caíños Longo and Bravo, Mouratón, Tempranillo, Gran Negro and Garnacha. ‘Garnacha’ in this region may also mean Garnacha Tintorera or Alicante Bouschet, traditionally prized as a ‘teinturier’ for the way it lends deep colour to wines.

Ribeira Sacra is the only DO in Galicia where red prevails (more than three-quarters of production). Viticulture has improved greatly in the last 20 years. So too has packaging – a sign that producers now have an eye to export.

A century of phylloxera, depression, civil war and dictatorship took its toll across Spain, and revival was slow. In Ribeira Sacra, Fernando Algueira was one of the pioneers recuperating the steep terraces and ancient varieties. His son Fabio has now joined the business, and their single varieties are a good place to start exploring the potential of the region.

The most continental of the Galician DOs is Valdeorras. Though renowned for its Godello, the proportion of reds (and particularly Mencía) is catching up. In Ribeiro, reds form about 15% of the output, which is why it’s so exciting to have a new red in this tasting from the master of whites: Emilio Rojo. In Rías Baixas, meanwhile, whites didn’t always prevail. Eulogio Pomares and Rodri Méndez are among those leading the revival.

Hovering over a number of these elegant wines in Galicia is the benign influence of Raúl Pérez (from Bierzo by birth), who has guided them in the search for individuality. Many of these are gastronomic wines – when matched with food, their crispness cuts through cheffy richness. However, the restaurant closures of the past 18 months due to Covid-19 have affected availability of these wines, and that’s why many of the suppliers listed are importers.

Some specialist restaurants are importing wine directly, notably Ultracomida and L’Oculto. I have my eye on the latter’s adorably named Enthusiasmus: ‘A blend of Sousón, Caíño, Garnacha, Brancellao, Pedralonga, Espadeiro. Fermented together in chestnut barrels, then aged in Galician oak barrels. Must serve chilled.’

Not for everyone, perhaps. But for an enthusiast like me? I can’t wait.

Discover Galician red wines: Sarah Jane Evans MW’s top 20

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The Consejo Regulador has rated every Rioja vintage since 1925, with 19 of the 94 marked so far earning the top accolade of Excelente (excellent). Since 1980, nine years have received this award, six of which were earned after 2000. There was a distinct golden period in the early noughties with gongs for 2001, 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011.

Since then, only 2019 has made the top grade.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 15 great Riojas to open and enjoy today

Plenty of choice, then, when it comes to selecting the best vintages and their best wines. However, I am tempted to wonder if there may have been a little ‘grade inflation’ and whether all of the most recent selections will linger long in the memory in the same way as the outstanding years of earlier decades (1934, 1964 and 1982). Hard to say.

Climate change may have played some part, but Rioja flourishes on the creative tension imparted by both Atlantic and Mediterranean influences, and it mustn’t get too hot, or too water starved.

Three of my five selections fall into the Excelente category; the two most recent (2012 and 2015) are unlucky ‘merely’ to be accredited as Muy buena (very good). In fact, their best wines (maybe a little less grand than my older selections) have been made for earlier appreciation and are all at the top of their game now.

Rioja, we must remember, has traditionally been aged for an extended period in wood and only released to the market when ready to drink. This is good for wine drinkers and less good for the cash flow of the bodega. Allied to a perceived change in taste, this has led to a countermovement which has pursued the French model, with shorter ageing (often in European rather than American oak) and an earlier release.

The result has been more choice and variety, which is a good thing, but also more risk in terms of certainty as to whether the wine purchased has been released to an unsuspecting public before it is ready to drink. Caveat emptor.

My selections strongly favour the traditional camp; only four of the 15 wines are more modern, and all are selected mindful of their differing ageing regimes. All are perfectly à point now.

Otherwise, the wines cleave to the traditional Rioja model whereby quality is imputed first and foremost by length of ageing rather than specific provenance. This model, vertical rather than horizontal, is still dominant in the region and there is no shortage of typicity – not to mention sheer quality – on display.

Given that 91% of all Riojas are red and given that the whites do not age in the same way, I have desisted from over-complication and have not included the blancos. I have thrown in one rosado, however, a wine that is so unusual and unique that it is quite content to sit in solitary splendour within the line-up.

As I learned by rote a long time ago, reserva reds from Rioja are released after no less than two calendar years after the harvest (one spent in wood), that number increased to five years for gran reservas, with a minimum of 24 months in cask.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the better reserva wines from 2015 are now doing the rounds (I have selected three of the very best) and that the gran reservas from the best producers are still from the great years of 2011 and 2010.

It is worth noting that these rules are often treated as minimums by the top bodegas, many of whom seek extra bottle age before their wines get to market. Most of my selections prove this point.

Once again, this jeopardises bank balances in an adherence to a strict if unwritten qualitative protocol. Impressive indeed.

The Rioja vintages to drink now

2015

This was an early year with a relatively short harvest; precocious flowering and a particularly impressive September favoured all who were able to control alcohol levels, thereby permitting longer hang times and ensuring harmony in the wines.

The three bodegas chosen should need no introduction; the fact that all have access to fruit from differing altitudes and aspects may be perceived as a great advantage when it comes to fruit selection and the harnessing of elegance in a warm year.

All three have succeeded admirably and the wines are beautifully approachable now.

2012

Possibly the wild card selection of the five vintages, 2012 was not without its difficulties; drought was somewhat mitigated by late rains (which I remember well as I was picking fruit at López de Heredia) and, overall, the wines achieved impressive phenolic ripeness.

I have selected a textbook-value crianza to demonstrate that this category should not be overlooked in terms of mid-term ageing; also, in the spirit of counter-intuition, a modern wine from one of the great traditionalists, Marqués de Riscal.

2011

A large crop of excellent quality; early drought resulted in smaller, more concentrated fruit bunches, and, in places, lower acidity. What I describe as the ‘run to the hills’ was initiated in vintages such as this, when higher altitude sites (including the Oriental sub-region) really came into their own.

The three wines I have selected differ quite dramatically in all but their undeniable quality. The gran reserva 904 from La Rioja Alta is especially impressive.

2010

A terrific vintage in many parts of Spain and France (including Bordeaux, of course), producing wines of great classicism and harmonious shape. Despite a slightly later fruit set, the season was long and untroubled by excess of any kind. The ‘golden mean’.

Muga’s Prado Enea is a worthy representative of the year: plenty of colour, aroma and structure; eminently approachable and nothing over-worked.

2005

I recall lively debate at the time as to whether 2005 or 2004 was the better vintage; 2004 won by a short head, I seem to remember, but now I’m not so sure.

Less classic than, say, 2010, the year was marked by thunderstorms in June and drought in July and yet the conditions thereafter were little short of superb, with an extended harvest finally completed on 29 July – fortune favouring the brave, as my heroic trio demonstrates so flamboyantly.

The Castillo Ygay is especially impressive, although not without strong competition.

Simon Field MW’s pick of 15 Riojas to open and enjoy today

Wines are in score order per vintage, in descending order

Simon Field MW was wine buyer for Berry Bros & Rudd, responsible for Spanish and fortified ranges, Champagne, Languedoc-Roussillon, the Rhône and the Loire. He has been a DWWA judge since 2005 and in 2015 was admitted into the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino.

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The good news is that wherever you look in Spain you will find well-made, well-priced, drink-me-now rosados, perfect for a summer’s day. Consistent, clean and fruity.

Of the 110 wines I tasted, only one was corked and there were no other faults. Reliability isn’t in doubt here, which is why I found it extremely difficult to pick out my favourites from the cluster of wines scoring 90 points.

The sheer variety of origins was highly impressive. While almost half of the wines I tasted came from Rioja, in the end they made up only about a quarter of my choices.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Sarah Jane Evans’ top Spanish rosé

Navarra, once the traditional home of rosado, provided 10 samples, but only one wine made it through. Instead, you will find Méntrida, Condado de Huelva and Priorat and its neighbour Montsant in my top 18, along with two wines whose origin is merely ‘Spain’, as they don’t conform with the rules in their local region.

You will see that I am a Garnacha lover. Its juicy strawberry fruits with notes of orange are a great basis for a rosado. But I’m open to persuasion.

Two of the most interesting entries in this selection are made with 70% white grapes: Viura and Palomino. There’s no single-variety Tempranillo here. But there is a 100% Monastrell, which is usually too bold, too red to make a good rosado.

A new entrant is XF, a Rioja with no less than 30% Sauvignon Blanc. It’s delicious, but may not be popular with those who think Rioja has enough traditional varieties not to need an intruder like Sauvignon Blanc. The Riojan winery Marqués de Riscal working in Castilla y León has introduced Sauvignon subtly by ageing its Garnacha-Tempranillo blend on Sauvignon Blanc lees. These are cleverly made and blended wines.

The variety that is missing from my top 18 is Mazuelo (Carignan) with its wonderful blue tinge and its crunchy blueberry fruit. Seek out the Marqués de Murrieta Rosado for a fine example (my review of the 2019 vintage is avaialble here).

Two others I did not taste but must mention in the line-up of Spain’s top rosados are R López de Heredia’s Viña Tondonia Rosado Rioja, with its lengthy oak ageing, and Antídoto’s Le Rosé de Antídoto, from Ribera del Duero, the ultimate in refinement. One that I would have included, but is sadly already sold out in the UK, comes from Alta Alella, next-door to Barcelona in Alella DO: Celler de Les Aus Rosé Pét-Nat.

Finally, a brief note on colour. Producers who want to export their rosados from Spain nowadays are making Provençal-pink wines with screwcaps. There are far fewer of the deep red rosados around now – once the signature of Navarra.

Will this pale pink fashion prevail? I pity the winemakers trying to predict the market.

Sarah Jane Evans MW’s top Spanish rosé

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Individual analysis of the Adelaide Hills by grape variety:

Chardonnay | Sauvignon Blanc| Shiraz | Pinot Noir | Sparkling

Plus: Adelaide Hills value – the best wines to buy

The great excitement in exploring the Adelaide Hills is finding things you never expected. Whether that be driving along its maze of undulating country lanes to find hidden wineries, or discovering grape varieties that most would never expect to find in this part of Australia.

With so many different soil types, microclimates and elevations dotted throughout the region, along with its absence of entrenched vinous history, the Adelaide Hills has become a fertile bed of experimentation.

Scroll down for notes and scores of top Adelaide Hills alternative varieties

The subsequent ongoing search for appropriate styles across myriad grape varieties has seen a majority of Adelaide Hills producers dabble in at least one alternative variety – with many surprising and impressive results. This includes some very classic grapes that are less common in the Hills, such as Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon.

A concerted effort to promote Grüner Veltliner across the higher elevations, led by Larry Jacobs and Marc Dobson at Hahndorf Hill winery, but now including more than 20 other grape growers, as resulted in the introduction of a Grüner Veltliner class at the annual Adelaide Hills Regional Wine Show, and launched rigorous debate about appropriate styles.

However, it is the southern Mediterranean grapes that originate from warm, dry climates that are showing the greatest potential, and many plantings have found a natural home in the Hills: Arneis, Fiano, Nebbiolo, Montepulciano and Nero d’Avola for starters.

La Línea’s Peter Leske, for example, has made a fist of Tempranillo and Mencía, capturing the spice and bite of both styles in a distinctly Australian manner. This is a space for bold winemaking where anything can happen – and probably will.

Top producers of alternative varieties in the Adelaide Hills

• Unico Zelo
• SC Pannell
• La Línea
• Hahndorf Hill
• K1 by Geoff Hardy
  

Adelaide Hills alternative varieties: top wines to try

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If you’re a lover of hearty red wines, then Spain will undoubtedly already be on your radar.

With its wealth of native red grapes, such as Tempranillo, and traditional oaked styles like Rioja gran reserva, Spain can deliver reliable quality.

‘The 2001, 2005, 2010, even 2009, and then the 2011 vintage were all showing well,’ noted Sarah Jane Evans MW, DWWA Co-Chair and author of The Wines of Northern Spain, at a recent panel tasting.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 10 full-bodied Spanish red wines to stock up on

Ribera del Duero in northwest Spain is another name that should be on your list.

Again, Tempranillo is the star here, put to good use by top producers such as Vega Sicilia and Dominio de Pingus. ‘All great Ribera wines are the result of careful site(s) selection, mature vines, low yields, smart winemaking and deft ageing,’ notes Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, DWWA Regional Chair for Spain.

Meanwhile in the northeast of the country, the Catalan DOQ Priorat, with its high-altitude Garnacha and Cariñena vineyards, distinctive licorella slate soils and wealth of old vines, can also produce distinctive, concentrated red wines.

‘Priorat is the world’s strictest appellation in what concerns the legal definition of old vines, or vinyas vellas, a term that is only applied to vines planted before 1945,’ explains Ballesteros Torres.

While many of the wineries in these three regions can command hefty sums for their top wines, there is value to be found elsewhere in Spain, as winemakers are constantly innovating and experimenting with both lesser known native varieties and international grapes.

For example leading producer Torres – which planted one of the first Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the whole of Spain in 1966 – has looked beyond its Penedès homeland: rescuing old vineyards in Priorat, as well as championing forgotten native grapes with its Ancestral Varieties project since the 1980s.

These include red grapes Garró and Querol, which are blended with Garnacha, Cariñena and Monastrell to produce Torres Grans Muralles (see below) in Conca de Barberà.

Another red variety that will probably be unfamiliar to most wine lovers is Bobal. Actually Spain’s third-most planted variety with 62,000ha, it was previously used to bulk up blends or to produce rather rustic, tannic single-varietal wines.

Recent improvements in winemaking – particularly in the Bobal heartland of Utiel-Requena, which is home to nearly 40% of the world’s total Bobal plantings – have led to a raft of quality wines appearing in the market. This prompted Decanter‘s first-ever Bobal panel tasting.

‘Bobal is a variety with potential, much still to be realised,’ noted Evans at that tasting. ‘Producers are showing that the “difficult”, “rustic” Bobal can be immensely adaptable, producing long-lasting reds, fresh rosados and sparkling wines.’ The fact that it is still so unknown, means that wine lovers can find tremendous value if they seek out top expressions of aged Bobal.

Bobal is one of the ‘discovery’ wines in this selection of top-scoring full-bodied reds from recent Decanter tastings.

Whether you have thousands of pounds to spend on top names for your cellar or want an affordable mid-week wine to enjoy, Spain will deliver.

Full-bodied Spanish red wines to try

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Founded in 1987 by Mario Rotllant and Carmen Daurella, Bodegas Roda was a breath of fresh air in the traditional Rioja wine scene. Previously working as wine merchants, the couple had no experience of winemaking in the region and took a radical new approach: choosing to make Riojas defined by style.

Scroll down for new-release Roda I 2016 and Roda Cirsion 2018 tasting notes and scores

Their decision was based on meticulous research of vineyard sites in Rioja Alta, with a focus on old bush vines of Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano.

Subject to varied Atlantic, Continental and Mediterranean climatic influences in every vintage, these sites allowed the Roda team to create two distinct styles of Rioja.

Working from their new winery in Haro’s established Station District, Rotllant and Daurella produced Roda I and Roda II in 1992. In the simplest terms, the former has a mainly black-fruit profile; while the latter – now just known as ‘Roda’ – has a red-fruit character.

At the time these modern styles, released at higher-than-average prices, caused a sensation in Rioja; today they are collectable classics. Bodegas Roda has become known for pushing boundaries and for its meticulous research into the Tempranillo grape, identifying 552 individual clones. Every year a percentage of the company profits are ploughed back into research and the Familia Roda 107 collection has become an international resource for Tempranillo growers.

Creation of Roda Cirsion

Viticulturist Agustín Santolaya worked on the initial selection of Roda vineyards, becoming general manager in 1998. Now Roda’s managing director and winemaker, he’s responsible for the bodega’s 28 blocks of old Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano vines, and was a driving force behind the creation of the winery’s third – and most expensive – release, Cirsion in 1998.

‘The concept was born back in 1995/96 when Isidro Palacios, the vineyard manager, and myself were tasting berries in an old Villalba vineyard in the foothills of the Obarenes mountains,’ he says.

‘The Cirsion notion is a rarity, and it represented a change in the way we understand the vineyard. Only a few vines from our oldest vineyards are included in Cirsion: those showing an extraordinary ripening with silky tannins in the very vine. When tasting the berries from those vines, the complexity, volume and finesse are well above that of the neighbouring vines,’ explains Santolaya.

He noticed that those particular vines displayed the same silkiness of tannins year on year. ‘We started thinking that this was very much linked to the polymerisation of the tannins at the very vine, bringing the smoothness,’ he adds.

Previously used to produce Roda I, the fruit from these vines was dedicated to the first Cirsion vinification in 1997. ‘We made 300 bottles, which were astonishing and different to the Roda I concept,’ says Santolaya.

‘We tasted them with opinion leaders, who were perplexed by the roundness, expressivity and complexity of the wine at such an early stage. From that year on we decided to increase our production and have made Cirsion every vintage, except for 2002, 2008, 2013 and 2014.’

Winemaking and ageing

Due to the unique character of the Cirsion vines, their grapes undergo a different winemaking process to Roda I. ‘Since the tannins are silkier at the vineyard, there is no need to extend the barrique ageing in order to fine them,’ explains Santolaya. ‘A shorter stay in barrique, below 10 months, allows a better expression of the vineyard, the landscape, with more nuances uncovered by the oak.’

In comparison Roda I will spend 14-16 months in barrel – roughly half new and half second-use ­French oak – and a further 20 months in bottle. This means that Cirsion is always released younger than Roda I.

‘The wine shows volume, yet remains airy, with length and delicacy at the same time. It has the ability to impress when young, because of the complexity, expressivity and smoothness, but it also ages gracefully,’ says Santolaya.

What does he think are the best vintages of Cirsion? ‘1999 is very surprising, being a cold vintage; perfection was probably closer in 2001, and 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011 were extraordinary. In terms of freshness and balance I would say 2016.’

Current releases

The latest release of Cirsion is the 2018 vintage, launched with the 2016 vintage of Roda I. The former is a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano, fermented and aged in French oak. The 2018 vintage saw one of the highest rainfalls in recent years and was hit by frost in May and hail in July.

Roda I 2016 is 96% Tempranillo and 4% Graciano, from old bush vines with a marked black-fruit character. Harvest began on 21st September in a year that has been classified as ‘very good’ by the Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja. It was fermented in French oak vats and aged in barriques (50% new and 50% second-use) for 16 months.

Read on for Decanter’s review and scores of these latest vintages – as well as older releases.

See tasting notes and scores for new and older vintages of Roda I and Cirsion

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Sarah Jane Evans MW, Christine Parkinson and Beth Willard tasted 61 Rioja gran reservas with three outstanding and 30 highly-recommended wines.

Entry criteria: Decanter invited producers and UK agents to submit Rioja gran reserva reds from any vintage, with availability in the UK

The verdict

Although the gran reserva category has basic parameters, there is still considerable variation in its wines. Winemakers can choose to age their gran reservas for longer, and wines are also increasingly being made in a variety of styles.

In a tasting that encompassed a range of vintages from 2001 to 2015, this diversity was even more pronounced – and it was the first thing that tasters commented on. ‘Gran reserva used to be a small category, but you knew what you were getting. Now I think it’s much more confusing,’ said Sarah Jane Evans MW.

‘You have 24 months in oak or you have 36 months in oak; you have American oak or French oak. We used to expect gran reserva to be a truffly, mushroomy wine, with a lovely maturity developing, some slightly paler colours around the edges. But in fact, in this tasting we found dark- coloured wines, with a lot of really intense primary fruit,’ she added.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top Rioja gran reserva wines

‘I know that the styles are changing – and golly you could see here that gran reserva is really, really changing. Some of the winemakers are clearly making gran reservas for a modern consumer palate. But with some of them I thought: “Is this really Rioja?”’

Christine Parkinson agreed. ‘It is confusing for people. All of these wines are on current release: some are youthful, full of vim and vigour and fruit; others are delicate, autumnal and evolved. The styles are widely different, though so many are delicious,’ she added. ‘Without doubt this is now a category where you need to take advice before you buy the wine, or you need to be prepared to have something that will be delicious but may be completely different from what you may have expected.’

Beth Willard noted that the quality was consistent. ‘I think it’s really important that just about everything was at bronze medal standard and above,’ she said. ‘What I thought shone through was that, within the wines that showed great typicity for Rioja, we were tasting 100% Tempranillo or blends with Graciano and Mazuelo, or in some the Garnacha came through beautifully. So we were tasting a range of flavours which perfectly expressed the region and put us very firmly in Rioja.’

All of our tasters agreed that the older vintages were more satisfying. ‘The tasting showed that when gran reserva Rioja gets some substantial age, it really does undergo a magical transformation,’ said Parkinson. ‘It becomes an utterly distinctive thing. Age is a really key component in these wines.’ Evans added: ‘The 2001, 2005, 2010, even 2009, and then the 2011s were all showing well.’

What about price to quality ratio? ‘A gran reserva of a particular age will usually be better value than a comparative style or level of quality from another country,’ noted Willard. ‘One of the advantages with Rioja is that so many wineries do actually hold back their wines to the point where it’s the right moment to release. You don’t need to buy a 2019 Bordeaux en primeur when you can buy a 2011 Rioja, for a fraction of the price, that’s almost ready to drink.’

‘It’s so thrilling to be able to have really genuinely quite affordable wines that are all about age,’ agreed Parkinson. ‘For someone who is fairly early in their journey of wine appreciation, and may not have a huge budget, I think there’s so much more reward in spending time getting to know the different producers, styles and vintages of Rioja than there is in trying to achieve the same, certainly in Burgundy or Bordeaux.’

Discussion copy by Julie Sheppard

See all the wines from the Rioja gran reserva panel tasting 

The Rioja gran reserva scores: 

61 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 3

Highly recommended 30

Recommended 25

Commended 1

Fair 1

Poor 0

Faulty 1

Rioja gran reserva: the facts

Total Rioja vineyard area 66,240ha

Red grapes Tempranillo 87.7%, Garnacha 7.5%, Graciano 2.2%, Mazuelo 2%, Maturana Tinta 0.3%, others 0.2%.

Volumes In 2019, total sales of red Rioja were about 218.5m litres, of which just 6.2m litres were gran reservas – the largest category, Crianza, accounted for 99.1m litres.

Exports The UK is the leading market for Rioja exports overall, with 30% market share, followed by Germany, the USA, Switzerland and Russia.

Barrels The total number of 225-litre oak barrels for use in ageing was 1,356,820 on 31 December 2019, illustrating the importance of barrel ageing in Rioja as a whole

Source: www.riojawine.com

About Rioja gran reserva

It sets a global benchmark for wines aged in barrel, and shows that Tempranillo is very capable of developing over time. Sarah Jane Evans MW explains what lies behind Rioja’s most long-lived reds.

The ‘gran’ in gran reserva could be said to have made Rioja great. It built the image of venerable elegance, of the refined interplay of oak with an autumnal palate of mellow fruitfulness. Despite this, there is a remarkably small proportion of gran reserva produced.

Rioja is the model of gran reservas. Producers worldwide use the term, but Rioja’s is the most clearly regulated. Red Rioja gran reservas are defined as ‘wines of great vintages that have been painstakingly aged for a total of 60 months [five years] with at least two years in oak barrels [of 225 litres] and two years in bottle’.

Note that although the qualification for being a gran reserva is age, the Rioja Consejo Regulador requires the wine to have been produced in a ‘great vintage’. Nevertheless, this definition does not mean that wines are all similar in style.

The ageing requirements, for instance, are a minimum. At the Decanter World Wine Awards 2020 judging we tasted young gran reservas that only just qualified for the category. They were vivid characters, with firm tannins and bright acidity.

Talk to the producers of these styles and they explain that they are designed to appeal to a different audience. While being gran reservas, they are intended to bring new consumers in: ones looking for fruit-forward styles.

Wood works

Within the category there are also differences over winemaking. Mature Rioja is regarded as synonymous with the vanilla-and- coconut tones of American oak. However, French oak is widespread. The modern classic from Remírez de Ganuza is a case in point, using new French oak.

Muga works with both French and American oak across its portfolio, commenting that American oak comes into its own with the longer ageing typical of gran reservas when it has lost its earlier rusticity. As for varieties, blends were traditional, but many producers today are using 100% Tempranillo.

What unites the best of these wines, however, is a remarkable capacity to age. While it’s true that the great advantage for consumers is that gran reservas are released ‘ready to drink’, they do go on improving. With the great ones, come back in 20 years, 40 years and more, and you will be charmed.

Marqués de Murrieta’s Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial (a blend of French and American oak) and the López de Heredia may be the most famous, but there are plenty more to enjoy.

Rioja gran reserva: know your vintages

2015 – After several lean years, this is a fine vintage with some excellent early-drinking wines. The gran reservas are still young, released with minimum ageing.

2014 – A return to form after the disappointing 2013s, but lacks Rioja’s hoped-for brilliance.

2013 – A difficult year – the best advice is to follow the producer.

2012 – Officially very good, with a number of enjoyable wines.

2011 – Uneven, in the shadow of 2010, but has some good wines.

2010 – This was a fine vintage to end the first decade of the 2000s and arguably the best in 2010-15. Across the board, there were wines of excellent quality and cellaring potential.

Top-scoring wines from the Rioja gran reserva panel tasting:

The judges

Sarah Jane Evans MW

Evans is an awarded journalist, author and broadcaster in food and wine, with a particular interest in Spain. A Master of Wine since 2006, she is chairman of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, author of The Wines of Northern Spain, and one of three Co-Chairs overseeing the Decanter World Wine Awards.

Christine Parkinson

Parkinson is co- founder and drinks consultant at Brimful Drinks. Starting out in the kitchen and rising to head chef, she went on to become worldwide group head of wine for the Michelin-starred Hakkasan Group. Having led her team to the WSET Educator of the Year global award in 2016, she left Hakkasan in 2019.

Beth Willard

After moving to the UK from Australia, Willard worked in several buying roles before that of buying manager at Direct Wines. Now working with Winetraders to introduce new wines from Spain and Eastern Europe to the UK, she is a member of Spain’s Gran Orden de Caballeros de Vino and the Confrérie de Tokaj.

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If you listen to the man responsible for its existence, the success of Spain’s most celebrated cult red wine is almost entirely down to forces beyond his control.

Fate, good fortune, the right place at the right time… these are the motifs in Peter Sisseck’s story of how he came to hit the jackpot with his tiny-production Ribera del Duero in the mid-1990s – and how it continues to command some of the highest wine prices in Spain, a quarter of a century later.

Scroll down to see scores and tasting notes for the latest Pingus releases

But if it’s true that there’s something a little implausible about the story of Dominio de Pingus, then it’s also true that its telling might prompt the listener to pull a kind of reverse Lady Bracknell. To have one successful wine project may be regarded as fortunate, to have two (or three) looks, well… might it be that Sisseck deserves some credit himself?

The Pingus legend starts with Sisseck’s background, far from the vinous mainstream, in Denmark. But if his industrialist family ‘were not wine buffs, or “five-bottle men”’, Sisseck says, they nonetheless liked wine. A precocious interest soon developed. ‘Some people collected stamps; I collected wine labels.’

Bordeaux inspiration

One family member helped turn the boyish collector’s impulse into something more serious: Sisseck’s uncle, Peter Vinding- Diers, was a respected consultant winemaker in Bordeaux, and it was during childhood visits to the region that Sisseck developed an idealised vision of the wine-grower’s life.

‘It was very glamorous,’ Sisseck says. ‘Not in a château-ish way, but it was cultured; just the conversation. I met people like Anthony Barton, who are icons today. Suddenly I saw something I wanted to do.’

Not quite ready to leave his family and friends in Denmark, Sisseck studied agricultural science in Copenhagen rather than go to a winemaking school overseas. ‘I’m happy that I didn’t get programmed,’ Sisseck says. ‘I was blessed to be a free-thinker, not to be dogmatic.’

Still, he was soon learning the specifics of wine in Bordeaux – before fate intervened again. ‘29 June, 1990: I was on my way to California. I believed that one time in your life you should go west, my boy, so I was quite keen to try my luck there. Paul Draper [of Ridge Vineyards] kindly offered me a job, but I couldn’t start until after August. In the meantime, I was offered the opportunity to go and look after a newly planted vineyard in Ribera.’

Spanish scene

That project, Hacienda Monasterio, ‘was an incredible opportunity. The idea was to make one of the most truly vineyard-based wines. We didn’t want to buy grapes, it wasn’t a revolutionary thing [in the world] – but it proved to be very revolutionary in Spain, and still is.’

Sisseck never did make it to Ridge, and celebrated 30 years with Hacienda Monasterio in 2020, though his involvement is much reduced these days. ‘I live next door,’ he says. ‘Now and again I pop over and kick their asses! I’m not hands-on, but I will help with the blends and vinification, and the bigger picture.’

His years setting up the project provided a crash course in the local conditions at a crucial point in Ribera del Duero’s development. As Sisseck says, while wine production in the region predates the Romans, its more recent (post-medieval) history had, with one important exception, been one of isolation and decline. ‘Rioja has much more of a developed wine tradition. Ribera was – is – the New World.’

The exception, of course, was Vega Sicilia, with whom Sisseck worked closely, sourcing vines and sharing resources while developing the vineyard for Monasterio.

The 1980s had seen the beginnings of a renaissance throughout the region, albeit not one without its issues. ‘It started off really nicely in the beginning,’ Sisseck says, ‘with small- size wineries, 30,000 cases volume, most of them having their own grapes or [sourcing them from] very good neighbour friends, old vine-based.’ Large-scale, ill-advised and poorly executed planting soon took its toll, however. ‘In 10 years, it had turned into one of the most badly done vineyards in the world.’

Going solo

With Spain entering one of its periodic moments of intense economic crisis in the early-to-mid 1990s, and with the 1993 Monasterio vintage ‘not exactly flying out of the door’, Sisseck, by now married with two young children, began to worry about his livelihood. ‘Would I still be in a job in a day or two?’

But he was still convinced of the area’s potential. ‘Talking to my friends in Bordeaux, they said, “Why don’t you make a wine for yourself?” It was the time of the garage movement, of course, and in travelling around the area I’d got to know the region, and [the village of] La Horra I liked very much, with its big concentration of old vines. I wanted to make very pure Tinta Fina, with no technology: a small project, very old vines, let the wine make itself, natural yeast.’

And that’s exactly what he did. On what he calls a ‘gravelly tongue’ of land over a clay- limestone foundation in a ‘sea of silt’ in La Horra in the middle of Ribera del Duero, he found a 4.2ha vineyard planted with bush vines in 1929, effectively in two plots separated by 500m. ‘The wine I made from there became Pingus 1995. I had never tasted anything like it and that was really special,’ Sisseck says of that first 12-barrel production.

He showed it to Vinding-Diers, who was impressed and advised him to sell it en primeur on the Bordeaux Place. ‘Everything was aligned,’ Sisseck says. Bordeaux was in an optimistic mood after a series of difficult en primeur campaigns, and Sisseck’s friends were able to get the wine to the big critics – Stephen Tanzer, Michel Bettane, and, crucially, Robert Parker all loved it. ‘It went ballistic. It wasn’t planned; there was no business plan. It was the first time that this thing had happened to a Spanish wine.’

In late November 1997 came the event that established Pingus’ place in wine legend. The year had started off badly for Sisseck as it was, with frost wiping out any prospect of a Pingus vintage. Then a ship containing 75 cases of Pingus 1995 – nearly a quarter of the total production, destined for the US market – sank in the deep Atlantic off the Azores. A disaster it may have been, but demand for the wine in the US suddenly soared, and the net effect was that the bottle price more than doubled to some $450 – and a star was born.

Pingus at a glance

Dominio de Pingus

Established 1995

Vineyard 4.2ha

Grape varieties Tinta Fina (Tempranillo)

Annual production 5,000 bottles

Region Ribera del Duero

Flor de Pingus

First commercial vintage 1996

Vineyard 30ha across four sites

Grape varieties Tinta Fina and 5% Garnacha

Annual production 50,000 bottles

Region Ribera del Duero

Psi

Established 2006

First vintage 2007

Vineyard 200ha

Grape varieties A blend from mostly old vines

Annual production 350,000 bottles

Region Ribera del Duero

The evolution

Since that explosive first vintage, ‘everything and nothing has changed’, says Sisseck. The vineyard remains the same, although it has transitioned to biodynamics and has been divided into five sub-plots, reflecting the subtle gradations of sand and clay.

Thanks to global warming, there have also been changes in the way it is managed. The yields are higher and the harvest is, generally speaking, earlier, both being decisions imposed by the behaviour of the vines rather than the dogma of the winemaker.

‘Harvesting earlier is not necessarily a choice: you have to work towards it, as the vineyards become better balanced,’ Sisseck explains. ‘We have been working them for 25 years now – they are very fit old men.’

According to Sisseck, the warming climate has also influenced work in the cellar. Up until 2004, the policy was to use 100% new oak, understandable since the 1995 vintage had been made that way as he ‘had to buy everything new’, and why change a winning recipe?

Then came 2005, ‘the first very warm year’. He says: ‘One of the first things I noticed was that with slightly higher alcohol, the impact of the new barrel felt more intense. Alcohol itself is a high extractor, so 12% alcohol will taste less woody than 15%. In 2006, we started experimenting with wood. It took me a while, but by 2012 we weren’t using any new wood – we use 12-month-old used barrels.’

Other wines

The source of those used barrels takes us to another chapter of the Pingus story. First produced commercially in 1996 in response to Sisseck’s American importer, who ‘wasn’t content with the small quantities we could give him’, Flor de Pingus is the ‘village wine’ that sits alongside the Pingus ‘grand vin’.

‘It’s not a second wine, it’s the “other” wine,’ Sisseck says, stressing that it has always used different vineyards: until 2004 the grapes came from a vineyard rented from a neighbour of Vega Sicilia; since 2005 it has its own four sites covering 30ha in La Horra, including a small proportion of Garnacha.

Inspired by the lushness of Pomerol Le Pin, Sisseck says he still looks for ‘that sexiness’ in Flor, which today uses 25% new oak.

The Burgundian model extends to Sisseck’s third Ribera project, Psi. Sisseck’s ‘regional’ wine, Psi was conceived in the mid-2000s as a means of conserving Ribera del Duero’s old- vine heritage, much of which was sacrificed to a local scheme that sought to make highly fragmented vineyards easier to farm by concentrating them into larger, contiguous plots.

‘I could see why the scheme was going on, but at the same time, a lot of the vineyards were really great and it was sad to see so many being pulled out,’ Sisseck says. ‘In the eastern part of Ribera, they hadn’t been through this concentration. I thought we could help them get a good return out of their old vineyards, but they had to be compensated properly.’

The success of his project meant Psi’s production soon outgrew the slightly ad-hoc winemaking facilities, which by 2016 were spread across the wineries of seven different co-ops. Psi’s purpose-built winery now makes 350,000 bottles a year, from 800 plots of ‘mostly old vines’ covering 200ha, and including one-tenth of the old vines in Ribera.

From Ribera to Jerez

Sisseck likes to describe himself as a ‘specialist in limestone’. And his latest collaboration with the owners of Hacienda Monasterio cements the idea: a fino Sherry-focused project based on two vineyards (2ha in the pago Macharnudo Alto and 8ha in pago Balbaína) planted on some of the best historic sites in the limestone soils of Jerez.

For Sisseck, this is the consummation of a desire to make a worthy white wine partner for Pingus in what he believes is Spain’s greatest white wine region and idiom. It also connects perfectly with his work in the limestone soils of Château Rocheyron, the St-Emilion estate that he co-owns.

Sisseck’s interest in the soil is not merely academic. Like many of the best wine-growers of his generation, he has a deep and longstanding commitment to biodynamics. And he clearly relishes the idea of connecting Pingus to an older tradition. ‘When you think of Janasse and all the great guys in Côte-Rôtie, they were farmers, they had apricots; the old châteaux were farms, they were working farms. A vineyard is not sustainable in itself. We have to try to understand it as part of a bigger ecosystem.

‘This cult of wine that we’ve had for the last 20 years, I cannot deny that I’ve benefited greatly from it,’ he continues. ‘But sometimes it saddens me a bit. I recently read a lot of books by Hugh Johnson, one of the true greats, and refreshingly he makes wine belong to a tradition of culture and doesn’t solely focus on just the wine itself.’

And so he turns to his latest project. ‘We’ve been making cheese,’ Sisseck says with a smile. ‘We need to start making something from the cows.’ Queso de Dominio de Pingus? Something tells me that may be one to watch.

A Spanish great: the latest Pingus releases tasted

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The oldies: 1862-1964

The most relevant quality of top Rioja wines is their capacity to improve over time in the cellar, often over a very long time. Some of the very rare 19th century Rioja that is still available gives unforgettable sensorial experiences.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for top Riojas that are drinking well now

If you happen to have any bottle of very old Rioja, particularly Riscal, go for it. A high proportion of them are very likely to provide a great tasting moment, if you follow a few rules:

• The wines that age well were made to age well. No miracles. Avoid lesser (at the time) wineries and wines. However, keep in mind that many wineries that are now not in their best moment used to be great.
• Know what to expect: silky texture, low alcohol, suave but abundant tannins, tertiary aromas, which are neither animal nor oxidised, very long finishes. Old Rioja wines that are thin or decadent are simply not good enough.
• Avoid the period 1901-1914: vines were being replanted after phylloxera. Wines are thin.
• There are no good old wines but good old bottles. The cellaring conditions are key for quality. Ullage (the free space in the bottle) is crucial. Nevertheless, for reasons I do not understand well, large ullage looks to me less risky in Rioja than in Bordeaux.
  

The most recent and reasonably available old Rioja vintage is 1964: a perfect vintage. Most well-preserved wines are still great now. I would recommend tasting any of the great red wines of this vintage if you have a chance, in order to have a glimpse on how original Rioja was: delicate, balanced, complex, slow.

The sad years: 1965-1993

Agriculture follows human developments with a certain time lag. In 1959, Spain’s dictatorship decided, upon American influence, to become competitive. Productivity and efficiency became the norm. The mood took a decade to reach the vines, but, when it did, it stayed for a long time. Old vines were grubbed up, pesticides, fertilisers and the like were introduced.

Rioja entered the worst period of its history: a period of mediocrity. Some excellent vintages, like 1970, are of small interest because of widespread fraud and bad viticulture. Other potentially great vintages are practically dead now.

Fortunately there are some exceptions, such as La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 1978 and Bodegas Muga Prado Enea 1982.

The renaissance

The trilogy of years 1994, 1995 and 1996 marks the definite recovery of Rioja as a top wine region.

More than the vintages (which were excellent), new people, new rules and new ambitions played a role in that. Those wines are now mature and lovely to drink, and will be good for many years. Marqués de Riscal’s Barón de Chirel and CVNE Imperial are great examples.

Then came the greatest vintage ever: 2001. Practically anything from this year is amazingly good. Classic gran reserva, new-wave wines, all kinds of inbetweens. It is the most necessary vintage to taste for understanding Rioja.

If possible, go for the top bottles – being aware of the high risk of getting hooked to the region. Roda Cirsion and Allende are impossibly good.

The 2000s

There are three trios of great Rioja vintages in recent times: 2004-2006, 2010-2012 and 2015-2017. Try as many as you like; you will find your favourite style. Names are as important as ever. Diversity of style is increasingly relevant. There are too many names to mention – but start with some of the recommendations below.

White wines

White Rioja wine can be even more unique than red, but it is much rarer to find. Many of López de Heredia’s Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva vintages are now excellent.

For perfection, try Marqués de Murrieta Ygay 1946 or 1970.

Currently Remírez de Ganuza, Abel Mendoza and more are producing white wines for you and/or your children to enjoy.

See tasting notes and scores for top Riojas that are drinking well now

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Ull de Llebre, Tinta del País, Cencibel, Tinto Fino – even in Spain Tempranillo comes under a rainbow of names. The diversity of that country’s soils and terroirs mean that it also comes in an equal rainbow of styles. Juicy cherries; lightweight, unoaked fresh wines; laden with tarry oak; elegantly mature with tertiary aromas. It’s a chameleon, one that adapts itself to blend with Garnacha, Cariñena and Graciano, as well as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Anyone who makes Tempranillo outside Spain is going to have to measure their wine up against the home version. Because of Spain’s diversity the international versions are nearly always going to fall short of one regional version or another. Like Rioja but not quite; like Toro, but not quite; like Valdepenas but not quite.

That hasn’t stopped people trying, making Tempranillo the fifth-most planted variety in the World (OIV, 2017). This was the premise behind a presentation at the 2019 Texsom Conference. Junior Vianna MW (batting for Portugal and Argentina) and Jessica Dupuy, author of the forthcoming book on The Wines of Texas and the South-West (batting for those regions), and I (with Spain) were asked to organise a taste-off between the varietal worldwide.

In the end the real difficulty was distribution. At relatively short notice it wasn’t possible to get our wish list into Texas. Today, revisiting the tasting under lockdown, it’s equally difficult to recommend wines with good distribution outside their production regions. But as that tasting showed it’s a very worthy exercise to track down Tempranillo.

Is it possible to make Tempranillo without thinking of Spain?

Argentina

Let’s be frank: who would make Tempranillo in Argentina when they could make Malbec? The statistics show it – in a country where 58% of the grapes are red, Tempranillo only accounts for 4.84% (5,561ha), and 95.22% of the plantings centred on Mendoza. Commercially, Malbec surely has to be the better option. The most established in reputation has to be the Zuccardi family with its dedicated approach to the Q Tempranillo. Zuccardi took the longer view – and still do – preferring to cellar wines for longer before release.

Elsewhere in South America, Chile and Uruguay also have much smaller plantings, and there are established vineyards in Mexico.

Australia

Australia’s plantings are growing. Between 2008 and 2015 plantings doubled to just under 800ha, and the crush increased from 4,300 to 6,000 tonnes between 2015 and 2018. At the 2018 IMW Symposium, David Le Mire MW noted that Tempranillo had a lucky arrival in Australia, in that it was not hindered by poor clonal material, unlike Sangiovese for example.

However, its low acidity and high pH are an issue for anyone trying to emulate Spain – and indeed for Spanish growers themselves. ‘One response already evident is to plant in more continental climates, with regions like Canberra District and Heathcote showing good potential,’ says Le Mire.

Tempranillo in Australia is a chameleon of sorts. It’s hard to be sure whether you will find a juicy youngster, a boldly oaked example, or indeed as at La Línea, where Le Mire is a partner, a rosé.

Historically ‘a lot of Tempranillo in Australia has been made like [traditional] Shiraz, with fruit picked at high ripeness, heavily extracted, and given plenty of new oak,’ he says. ‘Young Tempranillo vines are not old Shiraz vines, and as producers seek more drinkability and balance they are using less oak and at times no oak at all.’

Mark Davidson, head of education, Americas, for Wine Australia, agrees: ‘Careful oak handling is key. The best expressions are fragrant, medium-bodied and savoury, and rarely see more than 10-15% new oak – many not seeing any new oak at all.’ His favourite picks include La Linea (Adelaide Hills), Mount Majura (Canberra District), Tar & Roses (Heathcote). He adds: ‘Kalleske in the Barossa have just started working with the variety and I really like what they are doing with it.’

USA

It arrived in Central Valley, California in 1888, and is the 18th most planted variety today. Tempranillo stretches across Oregon, Washington, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. California has some good varietal wines, but has not come near the attraction of Zinfandel. Of the US states, Washington and Oregon share top spot.

According to Bree Stock MW, the climate favours ‘the Walla Walla Valley and Southern Oregon – these are regions that both show huge potential for the variety, with their reliably warm growing seasons and large diurnal temperature shifts that keep acids bright and the fruit profiles fresh.’ That’s why the Walla Walla Valley has attracted the attention of Spanish producers. ‘The Valdemar Estate [of Rioja] is building a state-of-the-art winemaking facility in the region,’ adds Bree, who is industry and trade education manager for the Oregon Wine Board.

In her other life Bree is a director of Constant Crush Winery, where she makes a Garnacha and a Mencía from the Willamette Valley. Why no Tempranillo? ‘I’ve spent a good deal of time in Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra, working harvest and importing Mencía. In the early 2010s this variety really resonated with me and other sommeliers, who were attracted to the variety’s transparency and energy, when so much Tempranillo in Spain was being made in either a very traditional style or very modern style and both styles obfuscated the variety with oak,’ she says. Ah, the oak again…

With just under 90% of all plantings of Tempranillo in Spain, it’s definitely hard for any producer outside the country to change minds with a Tempranillo of a different identity. The Rhône Rangers achieved it with their own Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre versions. Grenache, as Garnacha in Spain, is managing to break out.

But perhaps, as Stock says, the monoliths of traditional Tempranillo have deadened its pleasures. It may take more than International Tempranillo Day on November 11 to convert the world beyond the Iberian Peninsula to plant that variety.

Sarah Jane Evans MW’s top Tempranillos from around the world

What is the difference between La Rioja Alta 890 Gran Reserva and the 904 Gran Reserva – apart from the numbers in their names and their prices? Why doesn’t La Rioja Alta make white Rioja? And what lies behind the recent step-up in quality across the range?

These were some of the questions covered at the sell-out masterclass held at Decanter’s Spain & Portugal Fine Wine Encounter in February 2020. La Rioja Alta’s technical director, Julio Sáenz, had brought verticals of the bodega’s two great Gran Reservas – 890 and 904 – plus the longstanding favourite, Viña Ardanza.

Each of the three wines shown at the tasting is closely connected to the history of the bodega, which is still owned by its founding families. The name of 890 derives from 1890, the year when La Rioja Alta was founded in Haro’s Station Quarter. It was made by the bodega’s first winemaker, Frenchman Albert Vigier.

Fourteen years later, in 1904, a wine was launched to mark the merger of La Rioja Alta with Viña Ardanza – a wine that, in due course, became the 904.

Sáenz noted that Viña Ardanza was registered in 1942, as a ‘Burgundy style’ wine, indicated by its bottle shape. It was an inauspicious beginning, during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and as World War II raged elsewhere around the globe. ‘The best markets at that time were Cuba and Venezuela,’ said Sáenz.

However Ardanza went on to become a national and international favourite. La Rioja Alta subsequently launched Viña Arana (1974) and Viña Alberdi (1978), both of which are now labelled as gran reservas, formally recognising their age classification.

‘Today, in the years when no 890 is produced, the fruit goes to Viña Arana,’ explained Sáenz. ‘And in the years where there is no 904, the fruit goes to Arana or Alberdi.’

Sáenz revealed: ‘The most important change in Viña Ardanza’s history was the Finca La Pedriza vineyard in Rioja Oriental.’ Located in Tudelilla, this is a highly rate site for Garnacha (typically Ardanza is 20% Garnacha).

‘Pedriza’ means stony, and the vineyard certainly has a Châteauneuf-du-Pape appearance. The vines were planted in 1999 and the exceptional Ardanza 2010 shows all the energy of that vineyard.

Sáenz is even more optimistic about the future of Ardanza. ‘The vineyard is getting better and better,’ he noted. Today Sáenz differentiates the ageing of different varieties. The Garnacha sees 30 months in American oak with five rackings; while the Tempranillo is aged for three years with six rackings.

890 and 904

With the glasses in front of us, and Sáenz as our guide, the differences between 890 and 904 were clear. He explained: ‘The 890 has an explosive character, it’s more tannic and complex, with a horizontal structure. By contrast 904 is very elegant, with less tannin and a more vertical structure.’

Analytically, the 890 has just 3% Graciano and 2% Mazuelo to polish the Tempranillo in the blend; while 904 has 10% Graciano. There is also a difference in the ageing: today 890 spends six years in oak, compared to four years for the 904.

In 1981, the 890 was aged for seven years in American oak barrels, while number of rackings has also reduced from 12 to 10. ‘We decided to do this in the final years of barrel ageing,’ said Sáenz. ‘By this time it’s no longer necessary for clarifying the wine and it reduces the oxidation.’

A further change is the addition to the winemaking team of Alejandro López in 2019. López crossed the road in Haro’s Station Quarter from Bodegas Bilbaínas, where he was technical director.

And the white wine? Why are there no white Riojas at La Rioja Alta? ‘They used to make a Viña Ardanza Blanco,’ said Sáenz. ‘I’d love to have it again.’ Let’s hope for his sake – and all our sakes – that his wishes are fulfilled.

The Rioja Alta wines

‘This wine is my Lionel Messi,’ says Xavier Ausàs proudly. ‘It’s young with plenty of potential.’ He’s talking about only the fourth vintage of his Interpretación, a brand that was launched in the UK on 28 February 2020. The tasting was held at Fortnum & Mason, exclusive stockists of the brand.

As Ausàs himself recognises, the reason that the world is interested in his new wine is because he worked at Vega Sicilia in Ribera del Duero for 25 years, spending 17 of them as technical director.

‘When I started we were making 200,000 bottles of wine. By the time I left, ready for a new challenge, we were making more than 1.5 million a year,’ he says. ‘And we had gone from one winery to five: Vega, plus Alión [1991], Oremus in Tokaji [1993], Pintia in Toro [2001], and the joint venture with Benjamin de Rothschild in Rioja, Macán [2009].’

For his first seven years at Vega Sicilia, Ausàs worked for Mariano García. ‘I came with new ideas, with a technical training. Mariano taught me to be patient, and instinctive.’ Working with García, he also got to know and understand the diversity of Ribera del Duero. This has stood him in good stead for the creation of Ausàs Bodegas y Viñedos, and its first release of 2016.

‘I know all the growers – I’ve been buying grapes from them for Alión for a number of years,’ explains Ausàs. These relationships are reflected in his label logo, which is a pair of cupped hands. ‘It’s a symbol of friendship. It also represents transparency and honesty.’

The building blocks

Interpretación is a blend of parcels in Ribera del Duero, his interpretation of the region. Ausàs varies his purchases depending on the character of the vintage. Nava de Roa, with its sandy soils, ‘brings blue flowers’ and elegance. ‘It’s delicate and I don’t give it new oak,’ he says.

Gumiel del Mercado, with clay soils, ‘delivers blue fruits in a generous year, and red fruits in a cool one, as well as acidity’. Roa de Duero and Pesquera bring elegance, while Moradillo de Roa at 950m brings freshness. The Moradillo fruit provides ‘the pillars’, the structure, for the wines, and has new oak treatment.

The wines are notable for their refined oak usage. They are fermented in stainless steel and concrete, and aged in French oak, 30% new, in two sizes: half in 225-litre casks and half in 500-litre casks.

Winemaking philosophy

‘Ribera del Duero can be strong and elegant. I don’t understand why it always has to be massive,’ says Ausàs. ‘My aim is to express the wine, not the wood,’ he adds.

The Ausàs philosophy is based on three principles: pure aromas, freshness and good tannin structure. The first four vintages of the project express these principles clearly – despite the different character of the vintages.

Interpretación 2016 reflects the most ‘Atlantic’ year of the four. It has already sold out in Spain, but is just starting to attract consumers in the UK, a buying market that prefers wine with greater maturity. Stylistically it reveals the transformation of the wine with bottle age.

2017 was the year of the great frost in Europe, with subsequent drought in Ribera del Duero. As a result production was greatly reduced, except in areas such as Moradillo, which escaped because of its altitude. The benefit of this is a more concentrated character.

The Interpretación 2018 barrel sample, which will be bottled in June 2020, is currently expressive, fresh and floral. The 2019 barrel sample – the ‘Lionel Messi’ of the line-up – is from what promises to be a very good vintage, even at this early stage.

When Ausàs is not in his own winery at Quintanilla de Onésimo, you will find him on the road. His consulting business takes in a number of famous names including: Fournier (acquired by Gonzàlez Byass in 2019) and Pago de Carraovejas in Ribera del Duero; Ossian and Prieto Pariente in Rueda; Anima Negra in Mallorca; Marqués de Vargas in Rioja; Prieto Pariente in Castilla y León; and Domaine les Grands Bois in Provence.

Sarah Jane Evans MW’s ratings and tasting notes:

Bottles produced: 131, 696

Grapes: 100% Tempranillo

Yield: 4.5 kg/ha

Alcohol: 14.5%

Format: 750 ml

Drink from/to: 2020-2030

Price UK: £50

Price US: $100

The vintage: A stellar year for Rioja, 2004 got off to a slow start with low temperatures in March, April and early May delaying the start of the growth cycle. However, once active, it made up for the lost time. Plants evolved well through July and August (which saw scattered thunderstorms throughout the region), and rain in early September was followed by a period of exceptionally good weather which remained throughout the harvest dominated by sunny days with moderate temperatures and cool nights.

The wine: Old vine Tempranillo is hand-picked and sorted before temperature-controlled fermentation in oak vats. The wine is aged in 225L oak barrels – 50% new 50% second fill – for 16 months, followed by 20 months in bottle.

Decanter review/reaction: All bush vines, all 100% fruit from a single vintage, with natural yeasts fermented in French oak vats. This is ageing slowly, showing grilled red and black berry fruits, with liquorice and smoky peat notes, great persistency and still confident tannins. An excellent vintage with a cool start and a hot finish, giving extra complexity and clear intensity. 94 points – Jane Anson, November 2019

North Spain consists of five regions, two distinctive climates and a little transition zone. The four regions facing the Atlantic ocean (Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia) are known as Green Spain. It rains a lot here – more than in England. There are many different types of soil, topography is very rugged and temperatures are mild.

The grape varieties in this corner of Spain are original and indigenous, with ancient origins. It is believed that, at the time of the Romans, vineyards extended into the Atlantic and northern latitudes thanks to accidental crossings between Mediterranean grape varieties and the native varieties of northern Spain. Other varieties could have been imported through the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in the Middle Ages.

Potential unlocked

Green Spain and its microclimates are paradise for distinctive red wines redolent of their origins, expressing freshness, delicacy and subtlety. Sadly, these qualities were the reason for the style being relatively unknown throughout the centuries, as locals preferred the hearty reds from the south. Today these northern wines – while still not widely available – are appreciated in high-end markets because of their finesse and inimitability. They are the benchmark for the Atlantic character: pale, with restrained aromatic expressions, crisp acidity, suave tannins, a gentle yet persistent finish and lots of personality.

The fifth region is Spain’s largest, Castilla y León. It’s a huge, high-altitude plateau with a markedly continental climate – very cold in winter and very hot in summer – and it receives more sunlight and less rainfall than Green Spain. The small transition zone I mentioned is Bierzo: quite isolated from the rest of the region, with a unique viticulture more than 2,000 years old. Within the rest of Castilla y León there are many microclimates, exposures and soils, giving rise to a remarkable diversity of vines and wines.

Castilla y León’s red wines have a few things in common with those of Green Spain, but they are, for the most part, very different. They tend to be darker, often with ripe fruit aromas. These wines develop well in oak barrels – indeed, for some of them, such as the Tempranillo-based wines of Ribera del Duero and Toro, oak ageing is a must. Acidities are remarkably lower, although the best wines are still quite fresh (Bierzo is an extraordinary case: it tastes amazingly fresh, which theoretically indicates high acidity, when in fact it is actually quite low). The most outstanding wines have the capacity to improve for a very long time with bottle ageing, a factor contributing to the mythical status of Vega Sicilia (and in due course, I daresay, other wines from Ribera).

The north Castilian plateau is surrounded by mountains. This is probably why its wines are unique, and it explains why they don’t have a significant history of being exported. The region is landlocked, so transporting the wines to rich urban markets was an expensive and hazardous undertaking. Consequently, only those wines from Spain’s coastal areas had the opportunity to gain recognition in foreign markets. It was only at the end of the 20th century, once Spain had joined the European Union, that Castilla y León could build the necessary infrastructure and access the global wine trade.

After that, it wasn’t long before Ribera del Duero became one of the world’s classic red wine regions. Toro and Bierzo are steadily improving towards that elite level, while León, Arribes del Duero, Salamanca, Cigales and Arlanza have become exciting quality proposals with varied profiles. Watch this space: in a few years, my ‘best of’ list will feature a completely new set of wines.

Wine selection

The 20 wines I have chosen are based on criteria beyond quality evaluation. There are more than 50 great wines in Ribera del Duero alone. Similarly, Bierzo and Toro lay claim to more than a dozen each. But I think it is of interest for readers to see the scores of wines from regions that are less visible. In addition, I intentionally dismissed those wines mentioned in my article ‘Spanish wines you should have in your cellar’ (Spain supplement, November 2019 issue) to avoid duplication. I also did not include the Gredos area, as this is a separate region that should more appropriately be considered part of central Spain.

Pedro Ballesteros Torres’ top 20 picks from north Spain

Wine Legend: Bodegas Roda, Roda I Reserva 1994, Rioja, Spain

• Bottles produced 83,000
• Composition 83% Tempranillo, 17% Garnacha
• Yield 40hl/ha
• Alcohol 13.5%
• Release price £45
• Price today £100 approx

A legend because…

Roda was founded in 1987 by drinks distributors Mario Rotllant and Carmen Daurell, after a long search for the ideal base for their winemaking project. They eventually settled on the Rioja Alta region. They located their winery in the historic Haro Station District, and it soon made an impact with modern-style wines. The focus was on old vines, especially those cultivated as bush vines. Roda also differentiated between wines with a predominantly red-fruit character – labelled simply as Roda – and those with more balsamic black-fruit character, which were released as Roda I. This is a stylistic choice on the part of the winery, the goal being to create two different interpretations of Rioja.

Looking back

Although the company was established in 1987, the winery in Haro wasn’t completed until 2001. By then it had gained its reputation as one of the top producers in the region. Rotllant had deliberately assembled a viticultural and winemaking team that had extensive experience outside Rioja and very little within it. The idea was to approach the region with a clean slate and no preconceptions, hence the release of cuvées based on style rather than location.

The vintage

The 1994 growing season in Rioja was very dry, and the grapes matured in perfectly healthy conditions. Rainfall was low, but a downpour in late September refreshed the grapes and allowed them to complete the maturation cycle without too much stress. The harvest took place from 1-25 October.

The terroir

Roda owns 70ha of vines, but controls a further 50ha through agreements with trusted local growers. The 20 vineyards from which grapes are sourced are located at elevations between 380m-650m, and the vines are all more than 30 years old. They are dry-farmed, and although the viticulture is sustainable, Roda does not claim to farm organically, as the climate makes that approach too risky.

The wine

The fermentation took place with indigenous yeasts in oak vats at temperatures no higher than 30°C, and malolactic fermentation was completed in barriques. Then the wine continued its ageing in 33% new French oak for 24 months. The toasting was light to medium, to ensure that the oak did not dominate the wine – recent vintages are only aged for about 16 months, but in 50% new oak. Before bottling, the wine was fined with egg whites, but not filtered. After bottling it was left undisturbed for a further 12 months before release.

The reaction

In 1998, Thomas Matthews noted in Wine Spectator: ‘This polished red marries extraction and elegance, with a firm structure and well-balanced flavours of plum, toast and spice that linger on the clean, fresh finish. Drink now through 2005.’

In 2017, Sarah Jane Evans MW attended a vertical tasting of Roda wines in Rioja and noted: ‘It’s a fresh, linear wine with a firm and lively palate. It may not be fleshy, but it is bold and intense, with black plums, dark chocolate and tobacco. Its age has endowed it with a silky texture.’

In 2018, Tom Cannavan reported on the same tasting on www.wine-pages.com: ‘Lovely edge of brick to the colour. Dry, mineral, a touch of iron oxide, a touch of dried blood. Beautiful fruit on the palate, very dry, the tannins coating the mouth, but such a delightful cherry and blackcurrant intensity of fruit. Racing acidity adds to the wiry, tense feel of the wine. Fabulous length.’

Decanter Premium members can see Sarah Jane Evans MW’s full tasting note and score below:

To begin with a confession: when I started to study blind tasting, Tempranillo was the one red variety that I could rarely spot. Even now I sometimes have to circle round it and eliminate all the others first. Syrah, yes, Cabernet Sauvignon, always, Merlot and Pinot Noir or Nebbiolo, no problem. I can even make a calculated guess at Nerello Mascalese. The problem – for me at least – is that Tempranillo is Spain’s most widely planted red, and has many different profiles. Since Spain is a mountainous country, with seas on several sides, significant rivers and a mix of soils, there is exceptional diversity. No wonder the fruit character varies. Fresh cherry? Morello cherry? Cherry jam? Plum? Blackcurrant? Then there’s its savoury character: sweet spices, a slightly leathery feel, sometimes leafy. There can be a fine freshness too.

Unfortunately, the defining clue, the evidence for the prosecution, was always oak: American oak, and lots of it. If you could spot coconutty American oak, then you were home and dry. It was safely Spanish, likely Rioja, and therefore had to be Tempranillo – even if it had other varieties in the blend. I say ‘unfortunately’ because this narrow view of Spain as ‘Tempranillo + oak’ still sticks, even though the winemaking has changed greatly. Further, this sweeping vision of Spain as dominated, unimaginatively, by Tempranillo is as damaging for the reputation of Spain’s wine industry as it is for Tempranillo itself.

In the last decade, Garnacha, Mencía and other lesser regional specialities such as Monastrell, Cariñena, Bobal and Graciano are providing far more interest. Tempranillo just isn’t ‘cool’ anymore. It’s not usual to search under ‘T’ on a wine list. (Searching under ‘P’ for Pinot is a different matter.) The wine world is searching for novelty, and Tempranillo is not new. My thesis is that while Tempranillo is Spain’s most widespread variety, it is also its most underrated. There are still some places where it has outstayed its welcome, but there are many sites where it sings.

In Spain, its synonyms range from Cencibel (Castilla-La Mancha) and Ull de Llebre (Catalonia) to a selection around Tinto Fino/Tinta del País/Tinta Fina/Tinta de Toro across the country’s central and northern parts. Of the world’s 231,000ha of Tempranillo, 88% is in Spain (OIV, 2017). The variety has travelled the world (see tasting notes, p61), from Portugal (Tinta Roriz, Aragonez) to Italy, to the US (California, Washington, Oregon, Texas), Mexico, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. In every case except Portugal and perhaps Texas, it’s a lesser, alternative variety.

That said, it has a number of sterling qualities. It’s adaptable to a range of terroirs, and is equally adaptable – some might say submissive – when it comes to blending and oak ageing. It has firm tannin. As its name suggests, it ripens early – up to two weeks earlier than Garnacha in Rioja, for instance. It’s sensitive to wind and drought, which might become an issue in coming years, and susceptible to powdery mildew. The downsides to Tempranillo appear if you rely on it as your sole variety: it can be moderate or low in acidity, and if you let it overcrop, the colour and palate are light. Many growers are seeking out older material to replace modern productive clones and thus restore diversity and concentration to their vines.

Ribera del Duero

For any student of Tempranillo, the place to begin is Ribera del Duero. Rioja may be more famous, but many Riojas are blends, whereas Ribera del Duero is the land of Tinto Fino. Not that it is easy to follow. The diversity of soils and altitudes gives an array of characters, but hitherto this has often been masked by the winemaking. A reliable tutor in this area is Mariano García. As winemaker at Vega Sicilia for 30 years, he proved that Tinto Fino has the capacity to make wines than can last for 50 or more years. There are other grape varieties in his blends, but Tinto Fino is the heart.

As a local, García knows the villages and the old vines. So when he set up Aalto with Javier Zaccagnini, the pair knew where to look to assemble their 200 plots from across Ribera. Now, 20 years on, the wines offer a fascinating interpretation and the firm tannins are softening into maturity: Tempranillo tamed.

The Ribera del Duero DO was only formed in 1982, despite Vega Sicilia’s founding in 1864 and Protos in 1927. Understanding the profile of Tinto Fino and how to express it best has taken time. It’s fair to say that the experts in Tempranillo from Rioja who have come to make wine in the DO still make better wine at ‘home’ in Rioja than in Ribera del Duero. For wineries such as Ramón Bilbao, Rioja Alta, Roda and more recently CVNE, for instance, it’s a work in progress. It’s the same in the other direction: Vega Sicilia’s Ribera del Duero-meets-Bordeaux joint venture with Benjamin de Rothschild, Macán, has taken time. Tinto Fino is not Tempranillo in the vineyard, and vice versa.

To understand the variety further, you need to add into the mix a lovely but distinctly different expression of Tinto Fino at the far eastern end of the DO’s ‘golden mile’, in Soria, Spain’s least populated province. Here, there’s a real sense of a land that time forgot. Formerly of Dominio de Atauta, Frenchman Bertrand Sourdais is now at Antídoto and Dominio de Es, and he produces exceptionally delicate wines in vineyards at 900m-1,100m. The soils range from sand and gravel to limestone, and he sources from several hundred plots across almost a dozen villages. His rosés are some of the very best in Spain. The single-vineyard Le Rosé – 50% Tinto Fino, 50% Albillo (white) – is from 80- to 100-year-old vines at 1,000m, grown on sandy soil on a base of calcareous rock. It is aged in new 600-litre barrels, and his intention with it is ‘to compete directly with the world elite of rosés’. He does, successfully. For a cheaper option, Roselito is also very good (a blend of 70% Tinto Fino and 30% Albillo).

Castilla y León

Beyond Ribera del Duero lies the extensive DO of Castilla y León with its many hectares of Tempranillo, managed by any number of independent-minded wineries, which don’t happen to fit into the sometimes-arbitrary boundaries. One such winery is Abadía Retuerta. It’s a luxury project attached to the region’s most lavish hotel, complete with a Michelin-starred restaurant. These are estate wines, with several single-varietal, single-vineyard choices: Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo. Angel Anócibar is proud of the Tempranillo too, clearly labelling the variety on the bottle. Tempranillo is ‘cool’ here, and proud.

The highways hereabouts are filled with winemakers, growers and the occasional wine writer. Valladolid is equidistant from Toro, Rueda and the heart of Ribera del Duero, just 45 minutes’ drive. One family on the road is the Garcías: Mariano and his sons run Garmón in Ribera del Duero, Mauro in Castilla y León and Maurodos (also known as San Román) in Toro. It’s no surprise that Toro has seen plenty of investment from Ribera del Duero and beyond. The lower land prices were a draw.

The phylloxera-free, dry, sandy soils are also a lure: some 60% of the vines are own-rooted, and 80% are bush vines. When Toro DO was founded in 1987, there were four bodegas; today there are 63. Also from Ribera del Duero are Vega Sicilia and Alonso del Yerro. LVMH has Numanthia, which was founded by the Egurens from Rioja, who now have Teso La Monja. Not forgetting Michel Rolland, Telmo Rodríguez, Jorge Ordóñez and Domaines Magrez Espagne. This is Tempranillo high country. Historically it made direct, alcoholic blockbusters, and while Toro will always be a forthright wine, this investment in viticulture is transforming the rusticity.

For Toro’s neighbour Rueda, Tempranillo is the preferred red. Understandably perhaps, given its focus on white wines, Rueda’s reds are not the highlight. More successful is its other neighbour Cigales. It has just 1,820ha of vineyard, but mainly old bush vines on stony, rocky soils, up to 800m. The heat and drought create concentrated wines. With good management, Tempranillo is transforming itself from the former alcoholic, baked red.

Rioja

The journey to Rioja is a good two-hour drive. I suggest stopping off and meeting some of the people in the wine world doing the same at Landa, a hotel just off the motorway at Burgos. It’s a crush in the bar, but a glass of a juicy young Tempranillo with local morcilla, a type of black pudding, and a fried egg breaks up the journey, and you will be sure to meet a friend if you stay long enough.

We are entering the DOCa, where Tempranillo is altogether more complicated for a student, though it never used to be so. First, there was the Rioja tradition of blending Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano into the wine. Now 100% Tempranillo is much more common. Second, Rioja wine used to be categorised by its time spent in barrel, with little clue to quality – many producers have abandoned this approach. Third, there was a distinct move towards French oak, away from American. Now the pendulum seems to be swinging back a little, with some producers also making their wines in concrete or amphorae. And fourth, even more variables have entered the mix of official terminology, such as village wines and ‘singular vineyards’ (Viñedos Singulares). Now more than ever, it pays to get to know your producer.

Haro is a particularly interesting town in the region. Here it’s possible to find typical Rioja blends, in which 30% of the wine may be Garnacha, Mazuelo or Graciano. It is also the home of Bodegas Roda, whose wines are based on a long-term project identifying 500 different biotypes of Tempranillo.

Carbonic maceration is also a feature in Rioja – typically used in home winemaking and for young wines intended for early drinking, it is a traditional favourite in the Rioja Alavesa sub-region. Some good examples include Abel Mendoza’s Jarrarte (2016, £13.99 Noble Grape) or, if you can find it, the juicy Murmurón from Sierra Cantabria.

A final footnote to the Tempranillo story of Rioja is the arrival of Tempranillo Blanco, a mutation that produced a white bunch on a red plant, discovered in 1988 and now growing in popularity.

Site selection

Does this constitute the full list of top locations for Tempranillo in Spain, and of its synonyms? On Rioja’s eastern border, Navarra would disagree. But there, as elsewhere, Garnacha is having a rebirth, becoming the ‘cool’ choice. Navarra chose to focus on international varieties as a point of difference. Today when we seek authenticity, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay seem out of place. Is Tempranillo too an embarrassment? Simply a reflection of the old ways, so much less distinctive than Garnacha? Winemaker Adriana Ochoa, whose father was a Navarra pioneer of international varieties, doesn’t think so. She emphasises that her latest release from a singularly stony vineyard is a perfect fit for Tempranillo.

What’s needed in Spain is to find that perfect fit, rather than the widespread planting approach. You can find Tempranillo under its different names up and down the holiday coasts of the Mediterranean. There are pockets in places where a previous generation thought – or was advised – that it was the noble variety: it was necessary to have it, if only because consumers respected it.

Yet the message is clear: Tempranillo is a great variety, but plant it only in the best places. Don’t spoil its reputation by producing dilute or baked or flabby wines. Respect it for its excellence.

Evans’ pick: 12 top Tempranillos to try