Great Value Wines: 7 Riojas for Under $20

Rioja is Spain’s most recognizable winemaking region and for good reason. Rioja wines are distinct within the country’s wine world and carry with them a lot of recognizable Spanish DNA.  There are also many practices that make Rioja uniquely identifiable – from the particular blending of tempranillo and garnacha to the use of extended wood and bottle aging. While popularity in the wine world generally brings with it a higher price point, Rioja is special in that its high-value wines often come at a low cost.

Rioja has a long history of winemaking dating back centuries, but the Rioja as we know it today really came into focus in the 1970s. It was at this time that the Spanish wine control board, Consejo Regulador, first began to directly connect the use of wood and extended maturation to the value of wine. Rules around labeling wines Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva, among other designations, were ironed out and directly related to the use of wood and extended maturation in wood and aging in bottle. These oxidative winemaking practices became the region’s calling card and were seen as traditional, distinctive and highly valued.

As time has gone on, however, there has been a movement away from the “traditional” wines of Rioja. Many of the newer offerings simply ignore the classification systems, the heavy use of oak and extended aging. Instead, they focus on riper fruit with more fleshiness and opulence, and, perhaps most important, freshness.

To go along with the movement, Rioja’s classification system was amended in 2019 to take into account the provenance of the these non-traditional offerings. Most important for Rioja reds, subregions and villages can be specified on wine labels. This may not sound like a big deal, but for many years Rioja wines were simply labeled Rioja, even if they came from specific subregions like Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental (Baja).

It’s a radical step for a region that values tradition, but winemakers have for some time been moving away from stylistically driven wines and turning toward terroir and quality. Producers who used to prefer one style or another now run the gamut, blurring the lines between old school and present day. These wines are marked by their unique character.

For example, the well-respected producer Cune uses plenty of traditional winemaking practices, but it also has a sublabel, Real, that takes a more modern approach. Our list below includes two wines from Cune: the CUNE Rioja Crianza 2017, which exemplifies old-school Rioja, and the CUNE Rioja Viña Real Crianza 2017, which embodies the more commonplace melding of old and new. Each is rated 93 points and costs less than $15.

In fact, all the wines in the list below are rated 93 points and all cost $20 or less from any reputable wine merchant, with four of them under $15. Even at that price point, each of  these wines offers a real expression of Rioja rivaling many of their more costly counterparts. From more modern examples with polished tannins and rounded fruit to the more traditional wines with age and oak integration, we hope this list works as an introduction to all that Rioja wines have to offer without breaking the bank.

– Nathan Slone, Associate Editor

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Bodegas Ramírez de la Piscina Rioja Crianza 2018 – JS93
Wine.com: $14.99

CUNE Rioja Crianza 2017 – JS93
KLWines.com: $12.99

CUNE Rioja Viña Real Crianza 2017 – JS93
KLWines.com: $13.99

Eguren Ugarte Rioja Cincuenta 2016 – JS93
Vivino.com: $19.83

Izadi Rioja Reserva 2017 – JS93
Zachys.com: $20.00

Marqués de Riscal Rioja Reserva 2017 – JS93
Wine.com: $17.99

Sierra Cantabría Rioja Selección 2019 – JS93
Sokolin.com: $12.99