Worth the wait: Rioja vintage guide
Should you be opening your Rioja to enjoy now, or is it best to keep it for a few more years? Here’s our guide to how different vintages fare over time.
The best Rioja wines are designed to be aged, first in barrel and then in bottle, for many years. Some of these wines, produced in exceptional vintages, develop great complexity over decades and stay in pristine shape even after a century or more. Such acclaimed vintages from the 20th century include 1948, 1952, 1955, 1964, 1982, 1994 and 1995.
The 21st century began with one of the greatest vintages ever, 2001, and since then it has produced other top vintages such as 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2012. Among the most recent vintages, 2021 and, most of all, 2019, are presented as great, but we’ll need to wait a couple more years to see if that promise becomes a reality.
The vintage guide below should be considered as a general guide. The region is large and diverse, and some producers will perform very well in lesser vintages.
Because of this, the producer’s name is the most relevant clue when it comes to determining quality and ageing potential. Traditional wine classification also helps. The crianza, reserva and gran reserva indications refer to increasing amounts of oak ageing.
While crianza is a friendly, affordable choice to drink straight away, and reserva is more of a mixed bag, ranging from affordable blends that fulfil the legal ageing requirements to some top reds, all gran reserva wines should be made to improve with age.
The current popularity of this latter category proves that there’s a renewed interest in mature, long-lived wines, with some classic labels reaching the status of cult wines.
However, many quality-minded producers believe the traditional classification system is outdated. As a result they do not mention any ageing indication on their labels – nevertheless, many of their wines will get better with extended ageing. Again, know your producers; names are more relevant than classifications and vintages.
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Rioja: Drink or keep vintage guide
2022
Rating: 4/5
Drink or keep: Drink soon/Keep
A hot and dry season, with an early harvest. Overall quality will depend on sites and producers – expect some great wines from the usual suspects.
2021
Rating: 4/5
Drink or keep: Drink soon/Keep
Warm season. Rains in September rounded out a very good vintage, which should realise its potential over the years.
2020
Rating: 3+/5
Drink or keep: Drink soon/Keep
Difficult year due to heavy spring rains, mildew and Covid, resulting in fresh wines with moderate alcohol.
2019
Rating: 4+/5
Drink or keep: Drink soon/Keep
A perfect year with low yields and loose bunches. The wines are expected to be long-lived, in line with 2001.
2018
Rating: 3+/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
Generous yields and a long ripening season led to fresh wines with lower alcohol. Selection was crucial.
2017
Rating: 3+/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
Extremely short, early-ripening vintage marked by frost, with outstanding wines in frost-free areas.
2016
Rating: 4+/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
Mild temperatures in the latest stages of ripening brought great balance in a rare year of quantity and quality.
2015
Rating: 4/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
The good weather led to an early harvest with higher alcohol levels; cool areas performed better.
2014
Rating: 3+/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
Rainfall during harvest truncated a promising vintage except for warm and early ripening areas. Some wines are excellent.
2013
Rating: 2/5
Drink or keep: Drink now
Low temperatures and high rainfall resulted in lighter, almost diluted wines, occasionally with green tannins.
2012
Rating: 4+/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
A third consecutive year of drought meant ripe, powerful wines. Balance was the greatest challenge. Great variation
between the top wines and the others.
2011
Rating: 4/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
Very healthy grapes after a dry summer. The wines are ripe and structured with slightly low acidity.
2010
Rating: 5/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
A textbook growing season with moderate yields resulted in wines with perfect balance that are ageing well.
2009
Rating: 4/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
Rainfall in mid-September offset the dry, hot summer, leading to ripe, Mediterranean-style wines.
2008
Rating: 3+/5
Drink or keep: Drink
One of the coldest vintages of the century with mild summer temperatures and little sun resulting in lighter wines.
2007
Rating: 4/5
Drink or keep: Drink
A fresh, late-ripening vintage with perfect weather in September. Light, lively wines, evolving well.
2006
Rating: 4/5
Drink or keep: Drink
Early ripening, good quality on average, but warmer than 2004. Overshadowed by 2004 and 2005.
2005
Rating: 5/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
Lower rainfall than 2004 and cool nights in the latest stages of ripening resulted in high-quality, long-lived wines.
2004
Rating: 5/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
The gloomy, wet start to the harvest turned into perfect weather, producing beautifully balanced, fine, classic Riojas.
2003
Rating: 3/5
Drink or keep: Drink now
Warm vintage with record high temperatures in summer. Approachable wines with limited cellaring potential.
2002
Rating: 2/5
Drink or keep: Probably too late
Cold, difficult vintage marked by frost, abnormally low summer temperatures and rainfall during picking time.
2001
Rating: 5/5
Drink or keep: Keep or drink
A dream vintage with an extraordinary ripening season. The best wines are still in great shape.
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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.