Rioja £20-£40: Red Rioja panel tasting results

Sarah Jane Evans MW, Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW and Pierre Mansour tasted 105 wines with 7 Outstanding and 76 Highly recommended.

Red Rioja £20-£40: panel tasting scores

105 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 7

Highly recommended 76

Recommended 22

Commended 0

Fair 0

Poor 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release red Riojas priced at £20-£40 (or $20-$40), with any Rioja classification of gran reserva, reserva, crianza or genérico permitted

How low can red Rioja reserva and gran reserva go? A quick web search reveals that in price terms it’s down to £5.75 and £10 respectively. Just how can Spain’s first DOCa – created in 1991 – sell itself so cheaply?

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring wines from the red Rioja £20-£40 panel tasting

In fact, Rioja sells itself both cheaply and at high prices. So we wanted to know where to find the best intersection of value and quality in red Rioja. Where can you reliably find wines with typicity and individuality? We decided to look at £20-£40 – and this price band offered rich pickings, resulting in seven Outstanding wines.

Producers were asked to send their own choice of available vintages. The result was a broad selection from crianza through reserva to venerable gran reservas, as well as ‘generics’. In this latter case, producers take their own approach to ageing, stepping outside the prescribed months of bottle and barrel age required in the reserva system.

One of the first things to note is the diversity. We tasted reservas from 2006 to 2018, plus a fine, mature outlier from 1998. For the region once famed for its use of American oak in the form of barrels, there is now plenty of French oak in the cellars.

Some of the gran reservas looked remarkably young. Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW was quick to comment on the notably deep colours of the younger gran reservas in the tasting. The textbook image of a gran reserva is of a wine with a garnet core and a gently fading rim. Yet a number of distinctly youthful gran reservas are appearing in shops after the minimum of ageing (five years between barrel and bottle).

That might explain why only one gran reserva wine scored 95pts: the Hermanos Peciña 2011. Gran reservas are typically made only in the good years, and 2011 is one of those.

See all 105 wines from the red Rioja £20-£40 panel tasting

In choosing the £20-£40 level, we had clearly located the ‘sweet spot’, as Pierre Mansour put it. If you’re looking for drinking pleasure, there is plenty to enjoy here. We noticed a high proportion of 100% Tempranillo Riojas, as well as some single-variety Garnachas and Gracianos that showed particular promise. Mansour highlighted Rioja Oriental – while we didn’t have many wines from the region, and no gran reservas, these wines definitely showed potential. His tip: ‘Keep an eye on Rioja Oriental.’

Inevitably there were disappointments, with wines from producers we knew and liked that failed to perform well. This always happens in a blind tasting. So what to buy? As ever with Rioja, it’s complicated. Follow the recommendations from our regular tastings, go to wine tastings, and get to know the producers you enjoy.

Rioja is one of the great wines of Spain. Yet growing grapes and making wines to sell at low prices is not sustainable – there is little left for those at the start of the supply chain. We found many of the fine wines in this tasting were underpriced compared to their Italian and French equivalents. Great news for us as consumers; but do spare a thought for the growers as you raise your glass.

Red Rioja £20-£40 panel tasting scores

The judges

Sarah Jane Evans MW is a Decanter contributing editor and Co-Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards. Her latest book The Wines of Central and Southern Spain is set for release in early 2024.

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW is a widely published wine journalist, educator and judge. He holds a degree in agronomical engineering and a Masters in viticulture and oenology, is a national expert for Spain at the OIV organisation and a DWWA joint Regional Chair for Spain.

Pierre Mansour is director of wine at The Wine Society, where he has worked for 23 years. Starting out with merchant Berry Bros & Rudd, he joined The Wine Society in 2000, moved into buying after four years and has been buying The Society’s Spanish wines since 2008.

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