Rioja (wine)

Rioja wine-growing region inside and outside the Rioja Autonomous Region

View over the wine-growing region near Briones

Santiago Calatrava - Bodegas Ysios in the Rioja Alavesa

Rioja is a wine-growing region in Spain ( Denominación de Origen Calificada ). It is located on both sides of the Ebro River in the autonomous regions of La Rioja , Basque Country and Navarre . The wine-growing area consists of the sub-areas Rioja Alta (in the upper area of the Ebro Basin), Rioja Baja (in the lower area of the Ebro Basin) and Rioja Alavesa (belonging to the Basque province of Álava , Basque Arabako Errioxa ). It is a member of the Great Wine Capitals network .

The wine itself is also called "Rioja" and is marketed under that name.

Growing area

The Rioja wine-growing region is one of the most important in Europe. With a cultivation area of approx. 60,000 hectares, it is located on the upper reaches of the Ebro in northern Spain. White lime and red-gray loam predominate as soils. Over 20,000 winemakers produce 85% red wine there , but also rosé , rotling and white wines .

The red grape varieties Tempranillo (61% of the area under cultivation), Garnacha (18%), Mazuelo (3.5%) and Graciano (0.7%) and the white grape varieties Viura (15%), Malvasia (0 , 25%) and Garnacha Blanca (0.09% of the cultivated area). The classic Riojas are either single- variety Tempranillo wines or blends with a Tempranillo proportion of well over 50% and smaller proportions of Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano. A few producers also make single varietal wines from Garnacha, Mazuelo (which is the Carignan variety ) and Graciano, with the latter being a particular specialty.

A few bodegas in Rioja produce Spanish sparkling wine under the DO ( Denominación de Origen ) Cava .

regulatory authority

The regulatory authority of the DOC Rioja is the Consejo Regulador de la Denominación Calificada Rioja , based in Logroño . Your task is to define and monitor the requirements for Rioja wines, such as B. permissible grape varieties, sugar and alcohol content, use of additives. It also monitors the permitted cultivation areas and production quantities.

Wine

properties

Apart from the predominant use of the Tempranillo grape variety, the Rioja winegrowers are based on the example of the Bordeaux growing region . The producers allow a large proportion of the red wine produced to mature in barriques .

A typical red wine from Rioja is dry, dark red in color and has the characteristic Tempranillo taste.

Well-known wines

The classics of DOC Rioja, in addition to many very good modern Riojas, are especially the wines of the Bodegas CVNE ( Companía Vinícola del Norte de España ), Bodegas Riojanas, Faustino, Federico Paternina, Herederos del Marqués de Riscal , La Rioja Alta, López Heredia-Viña Tondonia, Marqués de Murrieta, Marqués de Cáceres and Muga.

Single layers

Single-site wines are rather rare, but have become increasingly important in the course of the 1990s. Well-known vineyard wines are, for example, Finca Valpiedra from Martínez Bujanda or the “Paisajes” series, which are vinified from small plots with a special character by Miguel Angel de Gregorio, one of the great winemakers in Rioja.

Vinos de author

In vintages with particularly good wine quality, many Rioja winemakers use some of the better grapes to make a limited wine in addition to their conventional production. Such a wine is called Vino de autor (Spanish for "author's wine "). It is mainly smaller companies that have only been established in recent years, which are mainly located in the Rioja Alavesa and follow this international trend of so-called garage wines . Very individual wines are produced on a few hectares from old terraced vineyards, some of which are marketed at very high prices. The Bodega Roda winery, founded in 1989, has been producing the Cirsion wine since 1997 , which has reached prices of over 200 euros per bottle.

Grape ripening

Barrels in a bodega in Rioja

After the main fermentation in stainless steel, wood or concrete tanks, the higher-quality red wine, which is not brought directly to the market as a young wine (Spanish vino joven or vino de año ), is placed in barrels made of American or French oak (the barricas or barriques ) and later matured in bottles in the bodega. The maturation takes different times depending on the wine quality level. Depending on the storage period, these wines are called Crianza , Reserva or Gran Reserva in Spanish . The color and the text of the label of the Consejo Regulador on the back of the bottle indicate the degree of maturity of many Rioja wines.

The oak barrels used in Rioja have a volume of 225 l and can be used for about 5 years before they finally lose their taste-defining properties.

Crianza

The predicate Crianza (from Spanish criar , German “mature, raise” or “expansion”) is reserved for wines that have matured for two years, of which at least one year in oak barrels.

Reserva

A Reserva (Spanish for "Reserve") is a wine that is aged for at least three years. At least one year of this in the oak barrel and two years in the bottle.

Gran Reserva

A wine can be described as a Gran Reserva (Spanish for "large reserve, important reserve") if it has been matured for at least two years in oak barrels and then three years in the bottle. However, Gran Reservas usually go on sale later.

Some bodegas offer wines that are only aged in oak barrels for a few months in order to achieve better quality at a relatively low price. According to the Consejo Regulador , these are still young wines, but are also called Semicrianzas or "roble" (Spanish for oak). In addition, there are now a whole series of large and very large Riojas, the makers of which sometimes demonstratively disregard the traditional classification system. Be it that they do not want to be dictated how long their wine must mature, or be it out of open protest against the classic system that promotes poor quality producers.

Bodegas

Frank Gehry - Bodega Marqués de Riscal in Elciego

As a winery, the bodega is primarily the wine production site, where fermentation and bottling takes place. It is also the place where the winemaker lets the wines mature. Approximately 250 bodegas in Rioja mature using over 900,000 oak barrels. The underground storage facilities allow maturation at constant temperature and humidity.

In addition, the tourist component of the wineries is increasingly emerging, which in addition to qualified tours also offer typical Rioja meals with wine tastings for groups. In addition to culinary incentives, the Rioja wineries are very keen to present themselves. Most of the bodega buildings follow the classic Rioja style and have impressive gardens. Newer bodega buildings of some well-known companies were designed by respected architects such as Frank Gehry ( Marqués de Riscal in Elciego ) or Santiago Calatrava ( Bodegas Ysios in Laguardia ). Some bodegas have their own hotels in the immediate vicinity of the production facilities.