Like many wine regions in the world today, Rioja faces the challenge of excess vineyards and an oversupply of wines. But this hasn’t stopped it from becoming more dynamic and diverse, fueled by a small group of new-generation producers and winemakers who dare to challenge convention while reviving lost traditions, varieties and terroirs in their never-ending quest for quality.
This year, the JamesSuckling.com tasting team rated close to 900 wines from Rioja – a range of new releases from the warmer vintages of 2022 and 2023 as well as the cooler 2021 – and I traveled to the region to visit producers both big and small, including a few younger winemakers whose families used to provide grapes for the larger, well-known “houses.”
As CVNE’s Victor Urrutia and Muga’s Emmanuel Muga said, “Rioja today is more like Champagne” in terms of the relationship between the major players and the smaller, family-run businesses. Both keep the region running, but each has its own function.
From the smaller producers come a richness of diversity, even though their production levels may seem miniscule in comparison with the big houses’ output of a million or more bottles a year.
Meanwhile, some of Rioja’s major wineries, most centered around the historic train station in the town of Haro – such as La Rioja Alta, C.V.N.E, Bodegas Muga, Bodegas Roda, Lopez de Heredia, Bodegas Gomez Cruzado and Bodegas Bilbainas – are focused on honing their own house styles, which are shaped by the blending based on their own particular winemaking philosophies rather than terroir.
Roda, which is known for its arguably more modern approach, produces deeply colored reds that highlight voluptuousness and plushness. Coming from one of the cooler and best vintages of the last decade, their flagship Bodegas Roda Rioja Cirsion 2021 shows off their prowess in extracting silky tannins from meticulously selected bunches of tempranillo and graciano, and with a zesty freshness to boot. The concept here is to emphasize absolute quality over individual terroir.
La Rioja Alta, on the other hand, offers a younger take on the Rioja tradition of lengthy aging in 225-liter oak aging for designations like “Reserva” and “Gran Reserva.” Their wines offer a level of aged complexity and hedonism enriched with integrated sweet spices from the wood and are often viewed as a textbook example of what Rioja can conjure.
Then there’s Lopez de Heredia, whose specialty is making aged wines with a more austere yet deliciously complex style. Their reds often draw comparisons to some of Italy’s finest, evoking a savory depth and nuances that rival the reserved elegance of Barolo and Brunello wines.
Their latest star is the rare, exclusive 2004 vintage López de Heredia Rioja Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva Blanco – a wine that is only released in the best years. This mesmerizing offering is intriguingly youthful and earns its place as the highest-rated white from Rioja this year. A similar style can be only found in the equally exceptional but slightly oakier and more indulgent Marqués de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial Blanco.
This year, the revival of Rioja’s great white wines continues, with several achieving scores of more than 95 points. Many of these standout wines showcase the local viura grape, often blended with varieties like malvasia and garnacha blanca. Prime examples include CVNE’s most idiosyncratic viura, the sherry cask-aged CVNE Rioja Monopole Blanco Seco Gran Reserva 2017, as well as Ricardo Fernandez’ delightful Bodega Abeica Abaris Parcela Santa Ana Blanco 2022 and the consistently impressive Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Capellanía 2019, which is sourced from century-old vines.Telmo Rodriguez’s intricate blend, the Granja de Nuestra Señora de Remelluri Rioja Blanco 2021, cannot be overlooked either.
In contrast, many Rioja reds, particularly field blends, are evolving to feature spicier, more peppery profiles. This transformation has everything to do with the old-vine field blend where the graciano grape is likely to play a pivotal role.
“Graciano is a grape that gives tempranillo ‘grace,’ thus the name,” explained Maria Jose Lopez de Heredia, the co-owner of Lopez de Heredia, who touted the grape’s ability to boost freshness and natural acidity in tempranillo-based wines, especially in the face of climate change.
Jorge Navascues of Contino pointed to the resurgence of graciano as a notable development for Rioja. Contino is one of the few producers who make a varietal graciano, the Contino Graciano Rioja 2021, and it is also one of the best, with a lifted peppery profile alongside tangy rosemary herbs and fresh dark fruit.
Another standout producer for varietal graciano is Bodega Amaren, where viticulture director Ruben Jimenez is often cited for his work in reviving Rioja’s forgotten grapes, such as benedicto, cadrete, tinta velasco and garro. Amaren’s gracianos often exhibit peppery typicity with bay leaf and basil notes – punchy characteristics that can be polarizing. “Graciano is difficult with low yield but it works well with bush vines to prevent baked, sun-dried fruit, ” he explained. “Thirty years ago, there was too much planting of tempranillo, but today people are co-planting more grapes and most are bush vines. There will be more graciano, too”
Added Maria Vargas of Marques de Murrieta, who likes the grape but doesn’t like the idea of producing a monovarietal graciano: “Graciano is a very cool, resilient grape in the vineyard. Even in a hot vintage, it stands upright and tall, unlike garnacha. It is just like a soldier.”
But she is also of the opinion that it works better as part of an orchestra, since it “doesn’t create finesse on its own” or possess the pedigree that she seeks for Murrieta’s wines.
READ MORE JEREZ 2024 TASTING REPORT: REVIVING THE GOLDEN AGE OF SHERRY
Arturo Miguel of Bodegas Artuke, one of Rioja’s prominent small producers, emphasized the importance of the six hectares of graciano in his 32-hectare vineyard. “We are fortunate to have graciano, a grape that I love for its acidity, the darker side of the flavors and its aromatic profile that’s often very fresh and not too ripe,” he said.
His choice to plant more graciano instead of garnacha stems from its appealing freshness. “For me, garnacha always shows that riper side of the fruit, but graciano doesn’t.”
Still, Miguel prefers graciano as a blend, not as a solo act. “Graciano can be very polarizing – some love it, some hate it. The reason we are not interested in making a varietal wine is because for us, it’s always the blend from the field that best represents the terroir, which is so captivating.”
Today, more than 50 vigneron-style wineries, akin to Bodegas Artuke, have emerged in Rioja, and they share the philosophy of dedicating themselves to field blends as the way to best express terroir, passionately tending to their vineyards, reviving abandoned or old parcels and crafting wines that reflect greater precision and individuality.
Many have discarded the “crianza” or “reserva” labels on their bottles and instead have the names of their vineyards and villages on the labels, despite potential regulatory issues. Even some larger producers have followed suit, like Bideona, which made the exceptional Cofrade Bideona 2021 from a one-hectare parcel of old vines in the village of Leza.
The wines made by Rioja’s younger generation of producers are typically sourced from a single village, vineyard or parcel, and are often known for their freshness, tension and more “reactive” tannins. These winemakers eschew plush, exuberant wines born of small, new wooden barrels, and opt instead for larger barrels or other vessels that impart minimal cosmetics, allowing the terroir to shine through.
Two of these winemakers, Jose Gil and Ricardo Fernandez, come from families who own their own vineyards, and both pursued the winemaking path themselves because they wanted to make honest, transparent wines that showcase these vineyards.
“The movement of small producers is quite precious because these are people who look after their vines and the wines are more interesting [as a result.] People look for wines that reflect the landscape, the soil, the orientation … and the wine will speak and there is truth in the wine,” said Gil, whose floral and mineral Jose Gil Rioja Camino de Ribas 2022 springs from this philosophy.
Miguel of Artuke is also one of this cohort of about 50 to 60 small producers who, according to him, manage just 600 hectares of vineyards in total, representing less than one percent of Rioja’s total production, which in the small 2021 vintage crushed about 400 million kilograms of grapes from a grand total of 665,000 hectares.
But even though they comprise just a just a tiny fraction of Rioja’s wine output, their commitment to quality and distinctiveness is generating significant interest and producing some truly fascinating wines.
Telmo Rodriguez, one of the most vocal advocates for smaller-scale, traditional winemaking in Rioja and the recognition of its terroirs, frequently praises this emerging cohort of young winemakers, noting the immense knowledge he has gained from collaborating with them. “I have worked with some of them and I’ve learned a lot as well. These people are the future of Rioja,” he asserts.
Rodriguez is setting an example with his awe-inspiring Bodega Lanzaga Rioja Las Beatas 2021. Sourced from a “gifted” 1.9-hectare parcel, this wine is a throwback to Rioja’s winemaking traditions, showing immense depth and a bouquet-like fragrance. This is the fourth time we have given it a perfect score, and it is representative of the fabulous quality of many of the wines churned out from the 2021 vintage.
But today, the volume of production has become a pressing issue for Rioja, highlighting the disproportionate structure of its wine industry, which has resulted in a significant surplus.
Miguel, of Bodegas Artuke, said that the overhang means that big producers sell their wines at a very low price, crowding out the smaller producers. “That’s why you can still find crianzas for less than three euros and reservas for less than four or five euros in supermarkets,” he said.
Many within the winemaking industry have suggested that the solution may lie in uprooting as much as a quarter of the region’s vines. However, uncertainty looms over whether Rioja’s regulatory board will take action on the matter. For winemaker Maria Vargas of Murrieta, making the choice between quality and quantity is crucial. “We need to make a decision and not let time slip away,” she asserted.
But that may be easier said than done. Quality-focused producers would obviously be reluctant to pull their vines if it means adopting a one-size-fits-all approach – everyone plowing under a certain percentage of their vineyards. And for growers that sell grapes to the big wineries, uprooting vines represents a loss of land and livelihoods, even if subsidies are offered in exchange.
“The social implications here are very complex,” Miguel noted, suggesting that a better solution would be for the regulatory board to offer incentives to growers nearing retirement to get out of the business sooner.
Despite such challenges, Rioja today is undeniably more dynamic than it was 20 years ago. Consumers can still find great wines from both sides of divide – whether from the serious, big producers that still hew to the old, arguably outdated designations of “crianza,” “reserva” or “gran reserva,” which point more toward a certain style and are not necessarily a guarantee of quality, or from the small growers, each with their own relatively tiny parcels of vines and who prioritize vineyard health over complexity from oak and aging.
This new wave of winemaking leans toward precision, drawing inspiration from Burgundy. And if they have a business model to follow, it may resemble that of Grower Champagne, rather than the massive Champagne house producers or Bordeaux chateaux.
However, precision also comes at a cost. While many of these wines are of heightened quality, limited production from small vineyards and parcels – often fewer than 3,000 bottles – can create accessibility issues. And with the myriad smaller vineyards comes the risk that Rioja will cast such a wide net stylistically that it becomes more difficult to understand, if not esoteric.
The pressing question now is whether the market is ready for a new identity for the region – one that reflects a more diverse, precise and intellectual Rioja that is less commodified and industrialized. If you look on the horizon, you’ll see it’s coming.
– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor
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