Rioja Looks Back and Ahead

BY JOSH RAYNOLDS | FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Traditionally made Riojas are having a moment. Old-school, elegant Riojas, made with a light hand, have caught the attention of collectors and sommeliers around the world, putting pressure on the supply of some of the region’s most famous wines. At the same time, a number of modern-leaning producers have begun to throttle back on assertive oak, extraction and alcohol levels, which is a highly welcome development, in this Rioja lover’s opinion. The recent 2016, 2015 and 2014 vintages have been very good to outstanding, with healthy yields that ensure there’s plenty of wine to go around.

Rioja's beneficial microclimate owes a great deal to the Sierra Cantabria mountain range, which shelters the vineyards from rain and cold winds that pour down from the Atlantic Ocean

The long-standing Rioja classification system is based on how long the wines are aged (or not aged) in oak barrels, with Joven or young wines, usually simply called “Rioja” or sometimes “Tinto,” getting very little age prior to bottling, more often than not in non-oak vessels, especially stainless steel tanks. The next step up, Crianza, is for wines that have been aged for two years, with at least a year of that in oak for reds and at least six months in oak for white and pink wines. Moving up the ladder, Reserva wines are reds that have been aged for at least three years, with at least a year of that time in oak, and white and pink wines that are a minimum of two years old, with six month aging in oak. At the theoretical top end is Gran Reserva, which designates red wines that have been kept in oak for at least two years and in bottle for another three, and for whites and pinks with at least four years of age and with one of those years in oak.