The wines that made Rioja famous: panel tasting results

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, Amaya Cervera, Sarah Jane Evans MW and Alvaro Ribalta Millán MW tasted 77 wines with one Outstanding and 61 Highly Recommended

The wines that made Rioja famous panel tasting scores

77 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 1

Highly recommended 61

Recommended 13

Commended 1

Fair 0

Poor 0

Faulty 1

Rioja is Bordeaux’s intellectual heiress, on two counts. First, its wines could only achieve greatness when Bordelais winemaking knowhow – the ‘Médoc method’, as it was called – was imported into the region. Careful viticulture, fruit selection, destemming, long maceration and oak ageing are the necessary conditions to reveal Rioja’s true potential.

Second, the business model for the best traditional Rioja wineries was inspired by the French one: building prestige via the use of brands. While producers had the expertise around where the best wines could be made, wine merchants cared about names on labels.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring wines that made Rioja famous

In every other respect, Rioja and Bordeaux differed. To define who is better, French consumers had the debatable support of the Bordeaux region’s official 1855 Classification. Rioja producers, by contrast, were left to their own devices. To create a loyal customer base, two conditions are that brands have their own identity, and that they are deemed reliable.

However, most Rioja wineries had to buy the bulk of their grapes from small growers. Most land holdings in Rioja are tiny and have nothing in common with the powerful Bordeaux bourgeoisie and their large properties. With very few exceptions, blends were the only possibility for Rioja brands. Year after year, elite Rioja producers dedicated a lot of time and intelligence to fine-tuning the art of blending.

Master blenders play a crucial role in the region. Often, their ancestors created the recipe, but it had to be adapted, season after season, in order to match the vagaries of the climate with the consistency required by the market. Rioja blends tend to be quite complex – a final blend can include several grape varieties from several vineyards, and wines that have been aged differently.

The Rioja region has developed over time. More complex segmentations have appeared, because of refined market demand. The origin of the grapes became more relevant, and new categories, such as ‘village’ and ‘single-vineyard’ wines, have been defined. But none of this has diluted the role played by brands in Rioja.

Brands are Rioja’s ambassadors, and they are identified with the region. Rioja wine lovers usually get to know the region through a brand, and then explore other wines – although most drinkers stay with their favourite. Consequently, it’s relevant to pay particular attention to brands: they indicate the quality of the appellation.

This tasting proved positive in that respect – 80% of the wines were awarded 90pts or more. Many were distinctive as regards reliability and identity. The wow factor was also notable in some cases, demonstrating two things that should be obvious but are often neglected. First, there is no reason why a blended wine should be inferior to a single-vineyard wine; and second, many blends result in wines that are better than any of their individual components taken separately.

Rioja is a region of coexistence in diversity, where the hierarchies typical of Bordeaux, Burgundy or Barolo do not play a relevant role. Based on the evidence of this tasting, it is a pleasing difference, which results in consistent quality for wine drinkers.

See the top-scoring wines that made Rioja famous

The following wines all scored 91 points or above

The judges

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW is a widely published wine journalist, educator and judge, and a regular contributor to Decanter on Spanish wines.

Amaya Cervera is the founder of website Spanish Wine Lover, and a freelance wine writer and journalist based in Madrid.

Sarah Jane Evans MW is a Decanter World Wine Awards Co-Chair, and a widely published and awarded journalist, author and broadcaster who specialises in Spanish wines.

Alvaro Ribalta Millán MW works as Spanish wine buyer for UK specialist importer Indigo Wine, and is based in Barcelona.

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Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW is a Decanter contributor and joint Regional Chair for Spain at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2019 alongside Ferran Centelles. He has studied around the world, including Spain, France, USA and Germany. He holds a degree in agro-food engineering and a masters in viticulture and oenology among his qualifications. A columnist for magazines in Spain and Belgium, he works in four languages. He sits at the governing board of the Unión Española de Catadores (the Spanish wine tasters’ union), the board of the International Federation of Wine and Spirit Journalists and Writers, the wine committee of the Basque Culinary Centre, and acts as expert at the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine). He is a VIA Certified Italian Wine Ambassador, a member of Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and has been awarded the Spanish Command Order of Agricultural Merit.

The wines that made Rioja famous panel tasting scores

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring wines that made Rioja famous

See the top-scoring wines that made Rioja famous

The judges

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