Marqués de Riscal: La cata del siglo

La cata del siglo

 

 

 

   Alberto Gil / Fotos: Sonia Tercero 

 

En noviembre pasado, en Elciego (La Rioja), tuvo lugar 'la cata del siglo'. La bodega Marqués de Riscal descorchó allí ante un exclusivo comité de expertos internacionales 111 añadas que recorren sus 154 años de historia, desde el primer vino de la bodega de 1862 hasta el más reciente.

 

 La cata del siglo

 

En 1976, Steven Spurrier hoy, asesor editorial de Decanter enfrentó en una cata ciega vinos de productores de California contra grandes referencias bordolesas y de Borgoña. El llamado Juicio de París, que dictaminó a favor de los vinos californianos, fue llevado al cine dos veces y se ganó el apelativo de cata del siglo. Dicho término se ha repetido con posterioridad hasta la saciedad, pero, probablemente, no haya habido nunca una cata, ni la habrá jamás, como la que organizó Marqués de Riscal en Elciego el pasado mes de noviembre: 111 añadas, desde 1862, el primer vino de la bodega, hasta el futuro Barón de Chirel 2012. 

Además del propio Steven Spurrier, Pedro Ballesteros (de Master of Wine), Juancho Asenjo (de mundovino.com), María Isabel Mijares y una selecta nómina de profesionales internacionales (de China, Japón, Alemania, Estados Unidos, Suecia, Rusia, Italia y Australia) profundizaron en las entrañas de la historia del vino riojano y español: «Nunca hasta hoy habíamos presentado todos los vinos», explica Francisco Hurtado de Amézaga, director general técnico de Riscal y descendiente directo de la familia fundadora. Las guerras mundiales y la sed nazi arrasaron la memoria histórica de las bodegas francesas, por lo que ni tan siquiera los míticos chateaux bordeleses podrían ofrecer una retrospectiva tan amplia. En España, Elciego no sufrió especialmente las consecuencias de la Guerra Civil y el botellero de Riscal permaneció intacto.
Los comienzos no fueron fáciles. El vino riojano era malo, casi de solemnidad, hasta bien mediado el XIX. Los hermanos Quintano intentaron un siglo antes introducir la crianza y el despalillado en la elaboración. Tras un primer conato de éxito, el vino moderno choca contra los intereses de los propios cosecheros de Labastida y el espíritu renovador sucumbe en un temporal olvido. 

Los inicios. 

Unas décadas más tarde, Camilio Hurtado de Amézaga diplomático y casado en abundancia invierte y reinvierte en la nueva bodega, que, ahora sí, impulsada por los vientos ilustrados y el asesoramiento del enólogo francés Jean Pineau daría lugar al rioja moderno del que hoy disfrutamos: «No fue fácil, los primeros años supusieron enormes inversiones y fue la fortuna de la mujer de Camilo la que permitió sacar la bodega adelante», recuerdan sus descendientes. 

Los vinos del siglo XIX son, sencillamente, gloriosos. Colores sorprendentes por su viveza y limpieza, aromas insospechados y la duda de si sencillamente aquellos primeros vinos de Rioja serán eternos: «En muy pocas zonas vitícolas del mundo se pueden hacer», apunta el enólogo. Hurtado de Amézaga admite que afortunadamente «en Rioja pasan pocas cosas», aunque una de ellas sí tuvo trascendencia fundamental: la infección de los viñedos por la filoxera, que a partir de 1900 provocó arranques masivos. En los primeros años del XX, los vinos de Riscal, como los de cualquier otra bodega de la etapa, bajan de escalón hasta que poco a poco recuperan altura a medida que avanza la longevidad del viñedo: «En general, la primera mitad del siglo XX es sensacional para Rioja; tenemos viñedo cada vez más antiguo, pocas plantaciones y se elaboran grandiosos vinos». Algo volvió a pasar a finales de los años sesenta: «Llegan los jerezanos, inversiones extranjeras, Rumasa...». «Hay necesidad de producir más uvas, lo que trajo nuevas plantaciones en terrenos que no eran los mejores», apunta Hurtado de Amézaga. 

Esos nuevos viñedos nada tenían que ver con los antiguos: de laderas y tierras pobres, con una viticultura que ni precisaba de productos químicos, se pasa a suelos que antes ocupaban patatas, remolachas y cereales, cultivos que hasta entonces alimentaban una sociedad de posguerra. De hecho, los Hurtado de Amézaga acabaron la cata de los históricos con el Marqués de Riscal de 1964, la mítica añada del siglo XX, que trajo mucha uva y excelente, pero pocas perras para los viticultores: «A partir de ahí hubo un cambio muy fuerte que supuso una bajada de calidad drástica en los setenta y los ochenta, pero desde entonces Barón de Chirel supuso precisamente un punto de inflexión en 1986 se empezaron a plantar mejores viñas, a trabajarlas mejor, y quien quiere hacer hoy las cosas bien puede hacerlas», indica el director técnico de Riscal. En este sentido, Francisco Hurtado de Amézaga es optimista, si bien realista: «Volver a hacer aquellos vinos es muy difícil, no por el clima, hoy más benigno, sino porque no existen aquellos viñedos que se labraban con caballerías, se trabajaban con azada y, en lo alto de las laderas, producían gloria pura».

Beberlos para creer

XLSemanal se 'coló' en una tanda de la histórica cita de Marqués de Riscal. Vinos de 1886 a 1909, con dos perfiles: los esplendorosos prefiloxéricos y los más 'ligeros', de comienzos del XX de las primeras replantaciones. Veinte vinos más que centenarios e increíblemente ninguno con el supuesto etanal (rancio) ante una longevidad tan extrema. La cata del XIX se despidió con vinos gloriosos (los de 1893, 1895 y 1899), con un color vivo y brillante, con una potencia y carga frutal en elaboraciones del XIX que dejan a algún moderno de hoy en evidencia. El inicio del XX está marcado por la filoxera. Por la plantación de nuevos viñedos en sustitución de los viejos: los vinos siguen vivos, pero carecen de la estructura y la persistente equilibrada acidez de la tanda previa. 

 Tras un magnífico, profundo y delicado 1909, los años veinte inician otra etapa grandiosa para los vinos finos de Riscal, que llegará hasta los setenta. Añadas míticas de ese periodo (la 1924 o 1945), duermen aún en el cementerio de Marqués de Riscal.



Los expertos

Estos han sido los participantes de la selecta e inédita cata de Marqués de Riscal. Desde la izda.: Steven Spurrier (Reino Unido); Pedro Ballesteros (España); Markus del Monego (Alemania); Mª Isabel Mijares (Esp.); Yoshiji Sato (Japón); Juancho Asenjo (Esp.); Andrew Caillard (Australia); Huang San (China); Anatoly Korneev (Rusia); Anders Levander (Suecia); Katie Kelly Bell (Estados Unidos), y Rafael Ansón (Esp.).

Orígen información:  Finanzas

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

Un menú real a principios del siglo XX en España

The menu offered to king Alfonso XIII (Spain) in 1904

El menú ofert al rei Alfons XIII el 1904

Todo cambia canta Mercedes Sosa y el deseo de personas y empresas es permanecer y a ser posible con cierta dignidad personal y empresarial

Gracias al blog libroscocina conozco el menú que le ofrecieron a el rey Alfonso XIII en su visita a las cavas Codorniu en 1904.

Aparecen bodegas señeras como Codorniu -hoy el paso de los años separó en dos empresas la primigenia: Codorniu y Raventòs Blanc- , González Byass, Marqués de Riscal, Domecq y uno de los clientes de nuestra web Marqués de Camps , que con grandes propiedades rurales en Cataluña y toda España recientemente ha reiniciado el embotellado de vino.

Por el contrario otros productos y empresas pasaron a mejor vida comn Calisay que tenía su centro de producción en Arenys de Mar (Barcelona) y que hoy en día es un centro cultural

Almuerzo que en honor de S.M. el Rey D. Alfonso XIII
da la Casa Codorníu en sus cavas.
San Sadurni de Noya
15 Abril 1904

Caldo en taza y entremeses
Jerez González Byass y C.ª

Salmón a la riojana
Torre del Remey (blanco)

Filete de buey a la Real
Extra seco Codorníu

Galantina de pavo, jamón en dulce y espárragos al natural
Marqués de Riscal

Capón del Prat asado
Non Plus Ultra Codorníu

Bizcocho helado
Ensalada de frutas
Dulces
Rancio Marqués de Camps

Café
Coñac Domeqc
Cinamomo
Calisay

Origen información: Buenos alimentos en España

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

A visit to the new Rioja

A visit to the new Rioja. Wineries and restaurants update a long tradition

By Christian L. Wright
Published: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005
Heading east from Santo Domingo de la Calzada, south of Bilbao, the landscape of the Rioja is covered in grape vines. There are poppies in bloom, 14th-and 15th-century towns along the way, small tractors zipping through the fields, men in white shirts bent over tending rows, and vines planted unevenly on every available patch of land. At a Cepsa gas station just outside Logroño, the region's capital, the convenience store is stocked - not with Twix bars and Diet Coke, but with vintage Rioja wines, baguettes, chorizo, cheeses and artichoke hearts. This is a place that takes its wine and food seriously.
The Rioja is known for its wines - the world-famous reds and, increasingly, its crisp, modern and oak-aged whites - and has had a long time to build its reputation. Grapes were introduced by the Romans, and exports to France and Italy began in the 16th century. But now some ripples of change are spreading across this small autonomous region just below the northern coast of Spain. Native chefs who have been toiling in kitchens across Europe are coming home; established wineries (or bodegas, in Spanish) experiment with new technologies, while new ones are winning awards; and some distinctly progressive architects are leaving their mark among the countryside's many church steeples, ancient ruins, sudden cliffs and rolling valleys.
Next summer, the Marqués de Riscal, the 150-year-old winery in Elciego, will open what it calls a city of wine. The bodega has managed to redirect the street through the small town so it doesn't cut through its property anymore. And now the original stone buildings surround a pedestrian area, above which hovers a stunning stone and titanium hotel by Frank Gehry, whose gleaming Guggenheim Museum transformed the industrial city of Bilbao.
Inspired by the vines growing all around, the building sprouts from the soil; three columns support the metal canopies that spread out like grape leaves at harvest time. The titanium of the canopies is tinted to symbolize the bodega: pink for red wine, gold for the wire netting around the bottle, and silver for the capsule. When it opens, the hotel will have 14 rooms in the main building and 29 more in an annex, a wine library, tasting rooms, a Caudalie Vinothérapie spa (where guests can literally soak in a vat of wine in the name of health), meeting rooms, a cooking school and two restaurants.
Guests will be able to wander around the ivy-covered complex to visit all aspects of the winery (which produces 4.5 million bottles in the Rioja every year), from the "cathedral" - an ancient subterranean vault that stores one of every bottle Marqués de Riscal has ever produced since the first in 1862 - to the vast modern fermentation hall, with its polished wood beams, huge stainless-steel tanks and imposing computer terminal that controls the process.
Though the region is small and easily covered in a few days by car, it's a good idea to enlist the help of a local guide, because a tour requires some planning. Roads are circuitous; the hours of operation at wineries, churches and museums can be sporadic (many places require appointments); some doors will open only when strings are pulled; and while you'll find some Riojans who can converse in a charmingly approximate English, the locals generally speak only Spanish.
A good place to start is Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a quiet town in the northwestern corner of the region; it was named for an 11th-century hermit who took part in building a bridge over the Oja River to help pilgrims on their way along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. (A tributary of the Ebro, the Rio Oja is the river from which the Rioja takes its name.) These days, Santo Domingo de la Calzada is full of agricultural workers, wine people and storks. There is a huge population of storks in the northern part of the Rioja, and their awkward prehistoric gait looks like some fantastic link to the age of the dinosaurs.
About 19 kilometers, or about 12 miles, north in Haro, popularly known as the capital of Rioja wine, more than 20 wineries are clustered together in town, many of them (Muga, CVNE, Martínez Lacuesta) open for tours and tastings. In their midst, there are two renegades. The chef Juan Nales has opened Las Duelas, a remarkably sleek blond, beige and steel restaurant across from a former monastery on Monseñor Florentino Rodriguez Square. He serves sophisticated dishes based on the culinary traditions of the region. "Believe me," said Nales, "to make a good and tasteful traditional dish is not so easy for many young chefs."

The other upstart in Haro is Bodegas Roda, a modern winery started in 1987 by Mario Rollant and Carmen Daurella, a couple of successful wine importers from Barcelona. "They wanted their own vineyard," said the manager, Gonzalo Lainez Gutierrez, as we stood among the vines, none less than 30 years old, that grow the local grape varieties tempranillo, garnacha and graciano. "And they didn't mind to spend money." Indeed, the pristine malo-lactic fermentation lounge (with a wall of windows, a catwalk and a climate that is controlled by radiant heat from the floor) looks a bit like a modern art gallery, except that it's filled with 1,000 barrels made of French oak.
The winery has already made itself known, with high marks from the wine critic Robert Parker for its 100 percent tempranillo, Cirsion 2001; five stars from Decanter magazine for Roda I 2001; and "best olive oil in Spain" from Gourmet magazine for its extra-virgin Dauro Emporda. A tour of Roda, by appointment, is a good lesson in contemporary winemaking and an interesting contrast to the more traditional practices at Marqués de Riscal.
En route east is the Bronze Age village of La Hoya. First occupied 3,400 years ago, the settlement is a remarkable remnant, with houses arranged in blocks in the plain below the medieval city of Laguardia.
Perched high on a hill in the Rioja Alavesa, Laguardia was originally built as fortification against the Castilian aggression in the 12th century; its walls, towers and gates are still intact. Within the town, narrow streets are lined with little stalls and barn doors.
Calle Páganos opens onto a lovely square by the bishop's tower. On one corner of the main square (Plaza Mayor) is La Vinoteca, a sister wine shop to the restaurant Marixa, just outside the Puerta San Juan, where excellent grilled meats are served in a dining room overlooking the lagoons, or salt lakes, that give way to the Sierra de Cantabria mountains in the distance.
In the old section of Logroño - on the southern banks of the Ebro, where a big square is home to a Baroque cathedral, a 16th-century Parliament building that's still in use and cafés filled with townspeople drinking aperitifs - there are several narrow streets lined with bars serving tapas and smooth crianzas by the glass. La Gota de Vino at the top of Calle Traversia de Laurel is a cool new spot with white rubber chairs and a zinc bar where you can get a little bite of spinach with anchovy or a red pepper stuffed with meat and spicy tomato sauce.
Farther along is Bar Soriano, a small, skinny, more traditional place that specializes in mushrooms. The tapas to choose is the tiny tower of three champinones, sautéed in garlic, topped with a grilled shrimp and pierced through by a toothpick.
An hour's drive southwest, the landscape changes dramatically in Ezcaray, a modest skiing and hiking village at the foot of the Sierra de la Demanda mountain range. There are stone and wood porticoes around the main town square; a 15th-century Gothic church with a balcony over the entrance and bells that call the townsfolk to Mass at all kinds of unpredictable hours; and a blanket-maker, Hijos de Cecilio Valgañón, where you can buy the same cashmere shawls that are sold at Carolina Herrera and Loewe, only for a fraction of the price.
Across from the church sits Echaurren, an enchanted country inn, owned and run by a local family, that's housed in a 400-year-old former postal stop. While it has just 25 rooms, it has two restaurants.
One is the famous Echaurren, the main dining room overseen by the matriarch Marisa Sánchez, which serves traditional food, such as croquettes and artichokes with ham. On the other side of the shared stainless-steel kitchen is El Portal, the stylish new restaurant overseen by Francis Paniego. He studied cooking at school in France and has done apprenticeships at the Michelin three-star restaurants Arzak in San Sebastian and El Bulli in Rosas.
Paniego came home in 1994 with ideas about updating his mother's recipes and finally opened El Portal to show them off. On the strength of his pork snout on cabbage, with a cream of foie gras, and other successful inventions, he won a Michelin star in November 2004 and, in turn, the top job at the new restaurant in the Gehry hotel at the Marqués de Riscal winery.

appointment is a perfect example of the mood in the region: focused on local resource and loyal to its traditions but, finally, with an eye to the future.
"I'm proud to be from the Rioja," Paniego said. "I consider it another ingredient in my food."

Origin: International Herald Tribune