November 2021 - Impress your friends with a smattering of Rioja knowledge

Some basics on Rioja and the region. Rioja is located in the north of Spain, with the other

wine regions of Navarra to it’s east, the Basque region to the north and Castilla y Leon to the west. Geographically it’s made of 3 discrete region, these being Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Alta and Rioja Baja (now Oriental or East) all centred around the City of Logrono. The Ebro river runs through the region and is vital for climate influence and irrigation. The climate in the region is moderate and is protected from the cooler Atlantic coast to the north by the Cantabrian mountains, which helps to moderate the cooling influence. The regions are quite high at 800+ metres

above sea level, which enables a cooler influence in the evening. The primary grape in Rioja is Tempranillo, although some Garnacha (predominantly in Oriental) and Mazuelo (aka Carignan) & Graciano (Spanish native) are also planted and blended.

AGING IS IMPORTANT: Outside the youngest wines (Joven), which have recently been renamed ‘Generic’, all wines have some sort of aging. This was rebranded in 2017 by to enable producer’s greater flexibility for aging in the bottle. The 5-level classification looks something like this….

Generic	Crianza	Reserva	Gran Reserva	Gran Anada
No aging requirements	Aged for 2 years. Red: 1yr minimum in oak barrel. White:6 months minimum in oak barrel.	​Red: 3yrs aging with at least 1yr in oak barrel & *6 months in bottle White/Rose: 2 yrs aging with 6 months in oak barrel Sparkling:2 years ‘en tirage’ (on the lees/yeast)	​Red: 5yrs aging with at least 2yrs in oak barrel & ~2 yrs in bottle. White/Rose:5 yrs aging with at least 6 months in oak barrel.	Sparkling: At least 3 yrs ‘en tirage’ (on the lees/yeast). Vintage wines are hand harvested.

*previously there was no minimum for bottle aging

~was previously 3yrs in bottle

Quality in Rioja has also been rebranded and along with the aging character of the wines, the Rioja DOCA have introduced 3 additional quality standards, in descending order these are;

1. Vinedo Singular Wines <NEW> – designed to highlight the terroir, origins of the wine and diversity too;

2. Vino de Municipio – proof that 85% of grapes come from the specific town (there are 145 registered);

3. Vino de Zona - proof that 85% of grapes come from the specific zone eg. Alta, Alavesa, Oriental;

Come and enjoy the tasting in December at Rae & Webb, so see the difference in the Riojas we have selected. Enjoy :-)

Matt Atkinson, Nov 2021