"Cuando me hice cargo de Murrieta, nadie creía en mí"... Vicente Dalmau, presidente de Marqués de Murrieta

Vicente Dalmau, presidente de Marqués de Murrieta

“Cuando me hice cargo de Murrieta, nadie creía en mí”

• "Nuestro proyecto es único en España. Lo rentabilizaremos porque tiene alma”
• "El 70% de nuestro vino se vende fuera, en 96 países"

Paz Álvarez

Juan Lázaro 

 

Acaba de finalizar la obra de reconstrucción del castillo de Ygay, que alberga Marqués de Murrieta, bodega que nació hace 160 años en La Rioja y que desde hace más de dos décadas pertenece a su familia, desde 1983, cuando su padre la adquirió. Vicente Dalmau, madrileño, de 44 años, conde de Creixell, tuvo que hacerse cargo de la empresa repentinamente tras el fallecimiento de su progenitor. Viste impecable, le da importancia a la imagen, y en ese deseo puede concebirse la restauración del histórico castillo, que acogerá un museo donde se mostrará la historia de la bodega: los tinos originales de fermentación de 1852, fotografías, maquinaria antigua y una colección de 70.000 botellas.
Nueve años de obras son muchos. ¿Con qué finalidad llevaron a cabo la reforma?
La envergadura de la obra se debe a que queríamos hacer un gran proyecto de enoturismo, ya que durante muchos años ha estado cerrada a las visitas. Queríamos algo que fuera muy atractivo: un edificio para atender a las visitas, una tienda de vinos, jardines, y toda la rehabilitación exterior de los edificios se ha realizado a mano, con canteros gallegos. Se ha rehabilitado un patrimonio histórico, ya que los primeros vinos que se elaboraron en la bodega datan de 1852. Y tenemos la responsabilidad de mantener todo este legado. Hemos cambiado todo para que todo siguiera igual.
También albergará un museo.
Con la historia del nacimiento de Marqués de Murrieta, que se debe a la figura de un emprendedor [se refiere a Luciano de Murrieta, militar de profesión] que en Londres, donde la familia tenía negocios financieros, se da cuenta de que existen vinos de calidad. Pasó tres años viajando a Burdeos en busca de técnicas de elaboración de vino. De vuelta a España, comienza a producir con técnicas francesas, y ahí se inicia una nueva era en Rioja, más moderna. Todo esto se va a plasmar en el museo. El 70% de nuestro vino se vende fuera, en 96 países, y queremos que nuestros clientes puedan visitar la bodega. Tenemos un proyecto gastronómico muy interesante, con comedores privados para clientes.
Usted tuvo que tomar las riendas de la bodega muy joven.
Tenía 25 años cuando mi padre falleció, pero ya llevaba varios años trabajando con él, y lo compaginaba con mis estudios de Derecho y Económicas en la Universidad de Navarra. Mi padre me inculcó su misma dedicación, y los años a su lado sirvieron para poder liderar la empresa. Han pasado 18 años y se han alcanzado las metas propuestas.
¿La gente creyó en usted o tuvo que ganarse la confianza del mercado?
Cuando empecé a dirigir la bodega, la gente pensaba que la vendía o la hundía. Murrieta era una pieza clave en el sector vinícola, nadie creía en mí, ya que con 25 años todavía no estaba formado. He tenido que aprender sobre la marcha.
El negocio del vino es oficio, ¿cómo se aprende?
Se requiere dedicación, preparación, constancia y mucha entrega. Muchos han entrado en este negocio sin entender el mundo del vino; se creían que podían entrar como quien lo hace en cualquier otro sector, y no es así, es diferente. Todas las inversiones que aquí se hacen han de ser a largo plazo.

Juan Lázaro

 

¿Cuántos años se requieren?
En nuestro caso, buscamos los terrenos, han de pasar 10 años antes de que la uva entre en un vino de Murrieta y luego hay que hacer el vino. Hablamos de entre 15 o 20 años. He aprendido que si no tienes claro el concepto de largo plazo, no se logrará nada, al menos como nosotros entendemos que ha de ser el mundo del vino. Hay que tener un viñedo bien formado y saber que por mucho que seas el presidente, el que manda es el vino.
¿Cómo se logra mantener el consenso en una familia empresarial?
Una familia que se dedique al vino debe tener un sentimiento especial, ya que es un concepto de vida. Se requiere de inversiones tremendas, los costes del inmovilizado son importantes. Tenemos 12 millones de botellas dentro, de 2009 hasta aquí, más los grandes reservas. Si se analiza todo, es difícilmente entendible si no se tiene ese concepto de vida, unido al prestigio de una marca, al empeño de hacer las cosas bien.
Habrá recibido ofertas...
Continuamente, ya que se trata de una bodega muy atractiva, con posicionamiento y patrimonio, pero siempre tenemos la misma respuesta. Tengo tres hermanas, de las cuales solo Cristina trabaja en la bodega, y mi madre, y todos estamos de acuerdo en que la bodega seguirá en la familia. Mis sobrinos ya observan, les gusta, llevan el sello grabado.
También es propietario de la bodega gallega Pazo de Barrantes. Ahora que hay tantas bodegas disponibles, ¿no han pensado en comprar o entrar en otras denominaciones de origen?
Comenzamos también a modernizar la bodega gallega. Tenemos un pazo que data de 1511 y hacemos el albariño más caro del mercado, pero el mercado nos lo reconoce. Ahora, si mañana aparece algo interesante en La Rioja, solo en esta zona, podríamos estudiarlo.
¿Por qué solo en La Rioja?
Porque creo en el posicionamiento internacional. Los vinos se venden ahora sobre todo fuera de España, y Rioja es la denominación de origen más reconocida.
Han invertido 12 millones en las obras de reconstrucción del castillo de Ygay en plena crisis, ¿no les va mal?
El sector vive una crisis profundísima, pero las empresas tienen que invertir para el futuro. Es tremendo que las grandes empresas tengan que cerrar el grifo para realizar inversiones y que se haya impuesto la austeridad total. El consumo interno ha caído a niveles dramáticos, pero menos mal que habíamos trabajado previamente la expansión exterior. La razón de este esfuerzo de inversión es por el deseo familiar de mantener ese legado. Es un proyecto único en España y lo rentabilizaremos porque se nota que tiene alma, historia, es auténtico.
¿Y una vez finalizado este proyecto se siente satisfecho?
Empezamos otro. Pensaba que tras nueve años de obras iba a disfrutar, pero me he embarcado en una nueva zona productiva de fermentación, una sala de crianza. Estará acabada en 2018; vamos a modernizar toda la producción. Estamos entre las mejores bodegas del mundo y creo que se debe a que hemos sabido rejuvenecer nuestra bodega.
¿Es rentable?
Absolutamente, de qué iba a comer. No somos una bodega grande. De finca Ygay tenemos 300 hectáreas de viñedo, es de las más grandes que poseemos, aunque la cantidad de vino es limitada.

Orígen información: Cinco Días 

Rooted in Rioja, Traditions Gain New Respect

The Pour
Rooted in Rioja, Traditions Gain New Respect

Matias Costa for The New York Times
IN AN OLD VINE, MODERN WISDOM Winemakers in Rioja, Spain, have followed ancient methods that still work, even preferring to grow grapes on bushes, not along trellises.

By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: August 11, 2009
HARO, Spain

ABUNDANT wreaths of ghostly mold hang from the ceiling like sentinels, guarding thousands of bottles of gran reserva wine deep in the cellars of the R. López de Heredia winery here in the heart of Rioja. More mold and copious cobwebs are draped over the bottles, some of which have been aging in their bins for decades.
Perhaps no winery in the world guards its traditions as proudly and steadfastly as López de Heredia does, especially in a region like Rioja, which has been swept by profound changes in the last 25 years. And yet, as fusty and as backward-looking as López de Heredia may seem, it is paradoxically a winery in the vanguard, its viticulture and winemaking a shining, visionary example for young, forward-thinking producers all over the world.
How is this possible? As López de Heredia has stayed true to its time-honored techniques in the 132 years since its inception, the rest of the wine-producing world has spent decades doggedly trying to improve what it does, only to come practically full circle, ending up where López de Heredia has been all along.
I don’t mean that anybody the world over is making wine in the style of López de Heredia. Almost alone, the winery clings to the notion that it must age its wines until they are ready to drink. Rioja requires gran reserva wines to receive a minimum of six years of aging before they can be released. The current vintage for many gran reserva producers is 2001. López de Heredia has just released gran reservas from 1991 and 1987, exquisitely graceful wines that show the lightness of texture and finesse that comes of long aging.
And these are just the red wines. López de Heredia makes white Riojas that age just as well, achieving a beautifully complex, mellow nuttiness that is a special delight. Nobody makes white Riojas like López de Heredia anymore.
Red or white, the wines are great values, starting at $25 to $50 for crianzas and reservas, which can be 10 to 20 years old. Even 20-year-old gran reservas will be under $100, a steal compared to French or Italian wines of similar age and quality.
But while López de Heredia’s wines are almost singular, its ideas about growing grapes and making wines have become increasingly influential, regardless of stylistic concerns.
For more than 50 years after World War II, the great wine regions of the world sought to modernize. Where once backbreaking labor was the only method to grow grapes, science and technology began to offer shortcuts. Growers and producers everywhere seized the chance to mechanize; to deploy chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, to adopt the latest technological recommendations.
Increased knowledge was welcome, and some technology was useful. But, too late, many learned that chemicals were killing the soil, and that techniques to increase vineyard yields also diminished the quality of the grapes, just as too much technology in wineries could harm the quality of the wine. All over the wine-producing world, the brightest winemakers have set out to relearn the wisdom and techniques of their grandparents. All, except for one Rioja producer right here in Haro.
“We don’t need to, we never lost it,” said Maria José López de Heredia, who today, with her sister, Mercedes; brother, Julio César; and father, Pedro, runs the winery founded by her great-grandfather. “New technology is fine, but you can’t forget the logic of history.”
But what many in the wine-producing world have seen clearly from afar is coming more slowly to the rest of Rioja, a region in transition, where many producers are debating stylistic and viticultural issues that have long been resolved in other parts of the world.
For decades, Rioja has emphasized brand over terroir. Many of the biggest names bought grapes from different parts of the region, blending them like the big Champagne producers to make wines — often delicious wines — that fit a house style but revealed little sense of place beyond a generic sense of Rioja.
But López de Heredia, and very few others in the old guard, like Marqués de Murrieta, have always owned their own vineyards and grown their own grapes. The López wines, which come from four distinct vineyards, almost always show characteristics of their site. The reds from the Tondonia vineyard, for example, tend to be lighter and silkier than reds from the Bosconia vineyard, which are sturdier and a bit more powerful.
Today, a growing number of smaller and younger producers are, like López de Heredia, trying to show a sense of place in their wines, by gaining control of vineyards, improving their viticulture and becoming more conscious of the ideals of terroir that have long been accepted in other wine regions.
“The old producers wanted to show a brand, not a place,” said Telmo Rodríguez, who produces wine all over Spain and has recently, with a partner, opened a small, sleek winery, made of earth and old barrel staves, in the village of Lanciego east of Haro. “I want to make a wine that could show a village.”
In some ways, Mr. Rodríguez seems the antithesis of López. He prefers French oak to the traditional American oak found in the López de Heredia cellars, and he no longer uses the traditional terms crianza, reserva and gran reserva to indicate, in ascending order, the aging a wine has received before it has been released. Instead, he uses Burgundian terms — village, premier cru and grand cru — to describe his Riojas: LZ, Lanzaga and Altos de Lanzaga.
His wines are very different, too, fruity, floral and progressively dense moving up the quality scale. The Altos de Lanzaga is marked by the vanilla scent of new French oak.
Yet Mr. Rodríguez clearly respects and venerates López de Heredia. “For me, the only winery that works in an authentic way is López,” he said. “Their vineyards are still worked in a traditional way with direct links to the past.”
Driving through the gently rolling Rioja terrain, where grapes are often planted right up to the edge of the road, it is becoming harder to find vineyards planted in the older bush-vine style, their scraggly canes trained upward from thick, free-standing trunks in the shape of goblets. With the encouragement of agricultural authorities, more and more of the vines are now trained on neat rows of wire trellises, which make vineyards easier to negotiate with tractors and to harvest mechanically. Mr. Rodríguez abhors the changes, and has sought to buy old fields of bush vines, which he says are crucial to good Rioja. “We are more obsessed with authenticity than beauty,” he said.
All the grapes in the López de Heredia vineyards are grown on bush vines, even though, climbing the hill on which Tondonia is planted, one can see occasional rows of grapes on trellises. When asked about them, Ms. López de Heredia explains that tiny parcels of Viña Tondonia are owned by small growers who, over the years, have refused to sell their land to López de Heredia.
“Everything on wires is not owned by us,” she said.
Since the winery was founded 132 years ago by Don Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta, she said, each succeeding generation has adhered to the founder’s guiding principles: “old vines, low yields and careful, gentle handling.” It’s a litany that today can be heard all over the wine-producing world.
While wine has been made in the Rioja region for centuries, Rioja wine as we know it is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating from the mid-19th century. Back then, French vignerons, victimized by phylloxera, the voracious aphid that destroyed vineyards all over Europe, came to Rioja prospecting for new places to make wine.
The Bordelais taught the Spanish how to make wines in the style of Bordeaux, which emphasized long aging in barrels before release.
Today, López de Heredia may be the last Rioja winery still taking those lessons literally. Even venerable Rioja producers like Marqués de Murrieta and La Rioja Alta, which once stood with López de Heredia as bastions of tradition, have tweaked and tinkered in an effort to add a touch of modernity to their wines, hoping that rounding off the edges might make them more appealing to the critics who dispense the scores.
At Marqués de Murrieta’s 741-acre Ygay estate, just outside the city of Logroño, the grapes are planted in a mixture of bush and trellised vines. Today, V. Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga, who took over the estate when his father died in 1996, is on a campaign to update his wines stylistically. “We refused to change the identity,” he said. “But we added more fruit to the wine, we release the wines sooner, we use newer oak and we leave the wine in oak less time.”
The reds clearly have become darker and fruitier. Yet the 2001 Castillo Ygay gran reserva remains true to the style, graceful, light-bodied and balanced. It will be a lovely wine in 20 years.
The same cannot be said with certainty about the white Rioja. Only a few years ago, Murrieta made a white Rioja in the traditional style, like López, the wine aged in American oak from which it gained an almost coconut-like character. Now the white is aged in toasty French oak, and while it may be delicious, it is no longer distinctive.
Like many Rioja wineries, Murrieta also makes a red wine in a modern style — darker, richer, with tannins imparted by French oak. It’s called Dalmau, which Mr. Cebrián-Sagarriga calls “a modern concept of Murrieta.” It, too, is balanced and not overripe, like other versions of what many in Rioja call “alta expression” wines. With Castillo de Ygay and Dalmau, Marqués de Murrieta manages to have it both ways.
Not every producer is as careful as Murrieta to stay tethered to its traditions. With its Frank Gehry-designed hotel on its grounds, Marqués de Riscal is the new face of Rioja in many tourist brochures and guides. The winery is a huge industrial operation, making 4.5 million bottles a year. A 1958 Riscal gran reserva today is a beautiful wine, delicate and harmonious. But Riscal doesn’t make these sorts of wines anymore, opting even in its gran reservas for dark colors and big mouthfuls of fruit.
“Our technical director is very keen to protect the Marqués de Riscal identity, which I understand, but business is business,” the commercial director, Javier Ybañez Creus, told me.
At López de Heredia, there is a serenity that comes with adherence to core principles. For many years, the winery was criticized at home for being backward and old-fashioned. Appreciation came instead from its export markets.
“Acceptance overseas has people here in Spain reconsidering our wines,” Ms. López de Heredia said. “There are people who want to go back again, and we are happy to teach.”

Origin information: New York Times

Rioja Revitalized

Rioja Revitalized

By Michael Schachner

Wines of power; wines of distinction; wines that inspire awe: Meet Rioja's new classics. In the proverbial book of wine, Rioja is Spain’s most storied region. There are early chapters involving kings and pilgrims, and later ones that chronicle the arrival of phylloxera-fleeing Bordelais. Here too are tales of the subsequent advent of world-class red wine, and Rioja being anointed Spain’s very first denominación de origen.
But it’s the segment of the Rioja story that’s just now going to print, one that focuses on the past 15 years or so, that should qualify as required reading for modern-day wine lovers. Much of this chapter is dedicated to a group of revolutionary wines, or more appropriately, a revolutionary style of wine, that came onto the scene beginning in the 1990s. This style has greatly elevated the standing of this traditional, often overly commercial region.
The wines are small in production and deep in color, body and alcohol, with exuberant flavors of old-vines Tempranillo as well as the toast and chocolate that comes from aging in new French oak. These “modern” wines and the level of acceptance they have achieved have literally changed the way the world looks at Rioja. A workhorse D.O. since 1925, Rioja is divided into three subregions—Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Baja—with more than 500 wineries, a whopping 150,000 acres under vine, and 80 million gallons of annual wine production.
Call these wines what you will; it seems as though everyone has taken a stab at labeling them. Circa 1994-95, the Rioja
Consejo Regulador, the governing body that oversees regional wine production, coined the term alta expresión, or high expression, to describe a proliferation of more extracted, bulkier wines coming from the region’s large-scale wineries. Since then journalists, importers and marketers have referred to these purple-tinted, stocky wines generally made from tennis-court sized vineyards planted 30 to 80 years ago as vinos de autor (author/artisan wines), vinos de la vanguardia (vanguard wines) and even la nueva ola (the new wave).
But the name we like best is new classics. And the wineries and individuals making these so-called new classics seem amenable to this label.
“To us, a nuevo classico is a wine that’s neither flat nor fat,” says Marcos Eguren, one of Rioja’s most skilled winemakers. Along with his brother Miguel, Eguren has spent the past 10 years minting single-vineyard stunners such as El Puntido and La Nieta from the town of Laguardia in Rioja Alavesa as well as San Vicente, Finca El Bosque and Amancio from vineyards near the village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra in Rioja Alta.
“The wines we are talking about must have big fruit from mature vines, structure, freshness and elegance. But most of all, they must have balance. The difficulty in making these wines is the lack of vineyards. Less than five percent of Rioja’s vineyards are older than 50 years,” notes Miguel Eguren. “There’s a long history here of throwing many vineyards together, and while we still do that for some of our wines, we are also trying to keep things separate, to emphasize the character of individual sites.”
At the end of the day it is balance that distinguishes the new classics from the average and the subpar. It’s not enough for a new wine to replace Rioja’s traditional lighter hues and tart, dilute flavors with dark colors, high alcohol and extract because that can be achieved through extended maceration or fiddling with temperatures during fermentation.

Miguel and Marcos Eguren of Sierra Cantabria and other labels.But taste something made by Marcos Eguren, or Miguel Angel de Gregorio of Finca Allende, or Agustin Santolaya of Bodegas Roda, or Jorge Muga of Bodegas Muga, or a new classic from any other member of this emerging vanguard, and more than size, power or specific flavors in the wine, it’ll be the overall balance that makes its mark.
What makes things interesting, and arguably a little bit frustrating, is that these wines won’t come at you in perfect form vintage after vintage. Because Rioja is situated quite far north in Spain, with the best vineyards at about 1,400 feet of elevation, it is risky wine country. Certain years can be cool and rainy, i.e. 2002, and because harvests take place very late in the season—from mid October into early November—the wines may turn out raw, choppy and not that lush. Protected to the north by the Sierra Cantabria range and to the south by another set of mountainous peaks, there’s really no telling in advance whether Rioja will have a cool Atlantic year, a hot continental year (see 2003) or a perfect vintage formed by a divine confluence of Atlantic, Mediterranean and continental influences.
When all is said and done, Rioja usually sees two or three excellent vintages per decade (2001 and 2005 so far), a couple of bad ones (2002 and 2003), and the remainder fall somewhere in between (2004 and counting). And this is why, despite there being a number of fine single-vineyard wines, many winemakers still prefer to blend vineyards with similarities as opposed to going the pago (single plot) route; by blending they feel they can insulate themselves from Mother Nature’s inconsistencies.
Examples of top-notch new classic blends from multiple vineyards include Allende’s Aurus, Altos de Lanzaga, Remírez de Ganuza’s Reserva, Artadi’s Pagos Viejos, Roda’s Cirsion and Roda 1, and Muga’s Aro and Torre Muga. And we’d be remiss not to mention what many Rioja winemakers say is the sire, or at least the inspiration, of all these wines: Baron de Chirel.
Marqués de Riscal unveiled Chirel with the 1986 vintage, five years to a decade before most of these other producers joined the game. To date, this wine continues to rank as a new classic, and like the wines we’ve mentioned, it too is a blend of numerous old-vines vineyards. Unlike the others, however, it is aged entirely in American oak barrels.
“Chirel was new in 1986 because it relied on modern winemaking techniques and modern equipment, but it wasn’t really new because it was and still is made from some of the oldest and best vineyards in Rioja Alta,” says Javier Salamero, technical director for the Elciego-based winery. “More than anything, what we are talking about are new wines from the Old World.”

Rioja’s Côte d’Or
So what is it that distinguishes the so-called new classics from the thousands of other Rioja reds on the market? “Eighty percent of it is the grapes,” says Jorge Muga. “Rioja is very big, and there’s a lot of everything—grape types, quality of grapes, soils, exposures. You need vineyards that are around 40 years old to get the fruit necessary for these wines. Trouble is, it’s not easy finding and acquiring these vineyards.”
According to Miguel Eguren, the best vineyards in all of Rioja lie along a 20-mile stretch of terrain that begins in the

Old-vine Tempranillo in the Côte d'Or.town of Haro in Rioja Alta and extends east along the Ebro River valley to Laguardia in Rioja Alavesa. Eguren calls this the “Rioja Côte d’Or,” and it is anchored by vineyard-heavy towns like Briones, Elciego, Cenicero, San Vincente de la Sonsierra, Ollauri and Samaniego.
With old-vines vineyards so valuable but hard to come by, it should come as no surprise that the new classics rank as rare and expensive wines, with prices starting at about $60 a bottle and heading north from there. But such pricing makes better sense when you see the vineyards, the old vines, and the crumbly calcareous soils. A ton of work goes into tending and coaxing 50-year-old vines, including manual harvests that take place late in the growing season. Add in the cost of wood fermentation tanks, pricey French barriques and tiny production levels and it all adds up.
For example, Pablo Eguzkiza and Telmo Rodríguez, friends since winemaking school in the 1980s and partners in Vinos de Telmo Rodríguez, rely on about 35 acres of vineyards spread across 20 different parcels in Rioja Alta and Alavesa to find enough quality fruit to produce 500 cases per year of Altos de Lanzaga. Grapes that don’t make it into Altos go into a larger-production wine called Lanzaga.
At Finca Allende, one of the leaders in the movement to bigger, broader and better Rioja wines, Miguel Angel de Gregorio has spent the past 20 years identifying and buying old vineyards near the town of Briones. Today Allende owns 120 acres of grapes spread among 92 different vineyard plots situated in 14 distinct microclimates. One of those vineyards is Calvario, which isn’t even four acres in size and sits atop a mesa. Total production from Calvario in 2004 was a mere 650 cases of superb wine.
“We have a great Bordeaux history here, but to me Rioja is more like Burgundy than any other wine region,” says de Gregorio. “Every vineyard here has its own character, its own soil, its own exposure. And while guys like me and Agustin (Santolaya of Roda) and Juan Carlos (López de Lacalle, founder of Artadi) are different people with different ideas and wines, we share the belief that the only way to make great wine is to have the right vineyards.”

Agustin Santolaya of Bodegas RodaWith respect to Artadi, there can be little doubt about the quality of the 175 acres it is using for its lineup of wines, which is highlighted by new classics such as Pagos Viejos (a blend of multiple old-vines sites), the single-vineyard Viña el Pisón and the infrequently seen Grandes Añadas (Great Years).
Lacalle insists on employing a berry-by-berry selection process that ensures that only the best fruit goes into wines like Pagos Viejos, but that’s costly and tedious under the best circumstances. And he’s not alone in sweating the details; manual selection of berries is commonplace at Allende, Remírez de Ganuza, Roda and others.
Artadi also opts for large oak tanks for the primary fermentation, which softens the wine and sets the stage for malolactic fermentation in oak barrels. Not surprisingly, Roda, Muga, Altos de Lanzaga, Marqués de Murrieta and others use big oak tanks for the primary fermentation.
Such winemaking techniques, says Muga, are well known throughout Rioja and rank behind vineyard quality and the choice of barriques in terms of impacting the final product. Still, they are what make young wines like the 2004 Roda Cirsion, the 2004 Muga Aro, the 2005 Artadi El Pisón, and the ’05 La Nieta from Viñedos de Páganos so approachable at a young age.
Fernando Remírez de Ganuza, whose first vintage of the usually excellent Remírez de Ganuza Reserva came in 1994, is

Oak fermenters at Bodegas Roda in Haro.another master at making wines that are friendly upon release but structured. Remírez de Ganuza taps about 130 acres of vineyards, all of which are in Rioja Alavesa, and he’s not opposed to making his own rules.
For example, Remírez de Ganuza uses conical-shaped stainless steel tanks for primary fermentation, he cools his fruit overnight before starting maceration, he uses only shoulders (the high part of a grape cluster) for his best wines, and he trellises his vines whereas most of his neighbors prefer bush vines. He’s even fond of inserting a water-filled, heavy nylon bag into the fermentation tank to help press the wine.
None of these practices are particularly normal, and you’d never see a big, commercial winery cooling grapes in a refrigerated room before sending them to the tanks. Then again, we aren’t talking about big, commercial wines. These are the new classics, the wines that have thrust Rioja to the forefront of Spanish red wine.

A Mixed Case
96 Viñedos de Páganos 2004 El Puntido (Rioja); $57. As expected, the wine exhibits a dense black color, with mineral, burnt toast and dark fruit on the bouquet. The flavor profile offers cured meat, leather, graphite and plenty of blackberry, mocha, caramel and coffee. Beautiful modern Rioja; a great wine with tremendous complexity and style.

95 Finca Allende 2004 Calvario (Rioja); $105. The bouquet explodes with tobacco, leather, dry oak and waves of berry fruit. In the mouth, the wine sits comfortably on the tongue, with firm tannins offering structure to the bedazzling boysenberry, black cherry and cassis flavors. Long and intoxicating on the finish. It’s 90% Tempranillo and 10% Garnacha and Graciano.

95 Artadi 2004 Pagos Viejos (Rioja); $95. Classic in color, and backed by aromatics of lavender, graphite and pure blackberry. This is not overly weighty, as the acidity keeps it pointed and pure. There’s a lot of elegance and balance to this wine; a perfect example of how to blend multiple vineyards into one excellent whole.

95 Sierra Cantabria 2004 Finca El Bosque (Rioja); $145. What a superb combination of new oak, leather, mineral, mocha and berry fruit this wine delivers. It’s a giant, with a ripped palate of upfront boysenberry and then coffee and vanilla in support. All the power, precision and other attributes of modern Rioja are on display. Best in a few more years. Cellar Selection.

95 Vinos de Telmo Rodríguez 2004 Altos de Lanzaga (Rioja); $105. Masculine and heady stuff, as leather, espresso, smoked meat, mocha and potent blackberry aromas set the stage for an intense, driven, structured palate that’s full of coconut, vanilla bean, cocoa and pure plum and berry. A serious nuevo classico Rioja if there ever was one. Cellar Selection.

94 Bodegas Muga 2004 Aro (Rioja); $194. Plant-by-plant fruit selection leads to intensity, concentration and structure. Aro shows gripping tannins and juicy acidity, and overall it reeks of power and precision. At this early stage it seems like it could last forever. In reality, it should be just right in about seven years. Cellar Selection.

93 Señorío de San Vicente 2004 San Vicente (Rioja); $57. Slightly tighter and more complex than previous years, this single-vineyard wine delivers a ton of spice and herbs on a manly bouquet and palate. Well-blended acids and tannins allow for it to be drunk now or over the next five to eight years.

92 Bodegas Roda 2004 Cirsion (Rioja); $273. Char and chocolate, then a touch of rum raisin and black cherry, and there is your nose. This version of Cirsion, compared to previous years, is a touch soft, raisiny and less complex. But that doesn’t mean you won’t love the wine’s smooth texture, cocoa and baked berry flavors.

91 Marqués de Riscal 2001 Baron de Chirel Reserva (Rioja); $50. Still the current vintage, this wine remains dark violet in color, with vanilla, spice and round fruit on the nose as well as tobacco. It’s just now beginning to mature on the palate, while the finish is still redolent with mocha and chocolate. Hefty, but with nice tannins and balance.

91 Remírez de Ganuza 2003 Reserva (Rioja); $77. Thick, brooding and aromatically mature, this wine delivers heft, grab and balance. It has developed black-fruit flavors followed by a cushioned, soft finish. Drink now and over the next several years as the 2001 gets better and the promising but not yet released 2004 begins to settle.

90 Marqués de Murrieta 2003 Dalmau (Rioja); $100. Dark mineral, toasted French oak and black fruit carry the nose. This is a sturdy, nicely made high-end Rioja, but due to the heat of the year its range of flavors is narrow as it settles on baked plum and molasses. Medium long on the finish, with a lasting taste of chocolate.

90 Martinez Bujanda 2004 Finca Valpiedra Reserva (Rioja); $30. Red fruit is the dominant player on both the raspberry-driven bouquet and the currant- and cherry-laced palate. In the mouth there’s integrity, natural acidity and restrained oak as opposed to heft and unnecessary burnt coffee and chocolate notes. A clean and well-made wine with aging potential. Good upon release and will hold through 2015.

Origin: Wine Enthusiast