Live 24-Seven -Wining & Dining
Patricia Terry lets have a nice bottle of rioja…
Unbelievable that we have come to the end of September already! Mornings are darker and the evenings are shorter, but it would be hard to complain really, as the weather continues in the main to be wonderful – almost an old-fashioned Indian summer.
Patricia Terry of Patricia Terry Wine has, according to several industry experts, one of the finest noses in the country, her list of quality clients is absolute proof of this.
We are delighted she is writing for Live 24-Seven; wonderful
comments received regarding her features hint that you appreciate and enjoy Trish’s style…
However, it’s also true that I am finding myself increasingly drawn to and looking longingly (and lovingly) at my woodburner! It’s as if there is an invisible bond between us and the urge to pick up my axe, don an oversized checked lumberjack shirt and chop for England is becoming hard to ignore – I find chopping wood quite therapeutic, not sure what that says about my personality, but that’s another story – and when I do eventually give in and light my fire, my wine of choice to go with it will be Rioja.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard friends, family, strangers on the table next to me in a restaurant, come out with the (almost) immortal words, “Let’s have a nice bottle of Rioja”. Rioja is unusual in the wine trade in that it is not associated with class, tradition, or any sort of snobbery, it’s always just good old Rioja, a wine for everyone, any time. There is a valid argument that it is the UK’s favourite red and is a safe, reliable choice. Does ‘reliable’ mean boring? Absolutely not!
A large part of Rioja’s appeal is consistency. It’s seen as less risky than Bordeaux, Chianti or Burgundy, all three of which have higher levels of acidity and, in the case of the first two, tannins. This is partly due to the grapes (Tempranillo, the region’s dominant variety, tends to be relatively approachable, even in its youth), but also to the way the wines are made. The traditional recipe, which continues to this day, is to blend grapes across the region’s three sub-regions (Alta, Alavesa and Baja) to minimise the differences between vintages. The very warm Rioja Baja, where most of Garnacha is grown, supplies alcohol and texture, while the cooler Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa, provide fruit, acidity, colour and a degree of backbone, mostly from Tempranillo, but also from the rarer Mazuelo
90
and Graciano. Age the wines in sweet American Oak – Quercas Alba – and the resulting wine is lovely, soft and ready to drink. As an aside…if you can find single varietal Graciano Rioja (a rare beast, but it’s out there), then treat yourself to a bottle, it’s absolutely stunning.
It is easy to distinguish between different styles of Rioja, merely on the basis of how long it has spent in oak. This is not as straightforward as it may seem. Nearly half of Rioja produced is ‘sin crianza’ (unoaked) well, at least according to the label, even if in the glass you can detect more than a whiff of oak! This is because if a wine spends 11 months and 29 days in oak, it still has to be labelled as ‘sin crianza’, while ‘crianza’ needs a minimum of 12 months in barrel. There is also a general (and understandable) assumption that the more time a wine has in bottle and barrel – right up to Gran Reserva level, which has to be five years old on release – the better. This is actually rarely the case.
It’s entirely personal, but I find it far easier to classify the region’s wines into two camps – traditional and modern. As a general rule, modernists tend to pick later, ferment on grape skins for longer, use more new oak (often French) and are wines to cellar for longer than the usual, more traditional camp.
Then, of course, there are some wineries, for example Muga and Marques de Riscal, that make wines that fit both styles! Perhaps though, the simpler, but in my opinion closer to the truth, way to make the distinction easier, would be to compare the slightly ‘industrial’ (for want of a better description) and something altogether more interesting. Although it is comforting for many consumers to enjoy wines that taste similar from one
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