Your humble narrator generally has no trouble selecting a Spanish wine on the shelves of my local booze merchant. My usual strategy is to just keep going until I find a Rioja, and pick the first one I see.
I use pretty much the same search strategy on eHarmony, just substituting redheaded Star Wars fans for Rioja.
However, I have had to revise my regular Rioja rummaging, after discovering the Spanish wines from the Ribera del Duero region, which was awarded the prestigious wine region of the year award in 2012.
Faithful readers may recall that the Old World wine producing countries of Europe tend to label their wines by geographic designations rather than the type of grape in the bottle.
In this case, my old faithful Rioja wines that have served me so well over the years are made primarily from the Tempranillo grape.
Interestingly, while the wines from the Ribera del Duero region are made from exactly the same Tempranillo grape varietal, the differences in terroir make the Rioja wines much different from the Ribera wines.
The Rioja wine region is around 400m above sea level, and has a mild climate moderated by warm winds blowing in from the Mediterranean Sea.
The Ribera del Duero region is much harsher, located high in the northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, with most vineyards located around 800m above sea level. The higher altitude means colder winters and hotter summers, with frost being a constant concern for the vineyards.
The Rioja region has soils comprised of primarily limestone, which forces the roots of the vines to work hard for their moisture, while the Ribera region is mostly clay, making it easier for the vines to take root.
The huge diurnal swings in temperature during the growing season in Ribera make for wines that burst with fresh fruit flavours and crisp acidity from the tannins.
After a few years of aging in oak barrels, the wines of Ribera tend to become powerfully intense, with silky smooth tannins that are moderated by the oak, picking up flavours of vanilla and old leather.
Luckily, the wines of Rioja and Ribera both use the same classification system, which sorts the wines based on how much time they spend aging in oak, making it easy for your intrepid to make like-for-like comparisons when looking at two bottles on the shelf of my friendly neighbourhood booze merchant.
Joven refers to wines that have spent between zero and six months in oak, and are bright and fresh wines that are meant to be consumed young. Most of these wines go to domestic consumption, as North American audiences have not yet fully figured out that young wines can be just as flavourful as older wines.
Crianza is the most common classification, and refers to wines that have spent at least one year in oak barrels, and at one more year of aging in the bottle before release. This is the sweet spot for price and quality, so you will find most wines sold with this classification.
Reserva are wines that have spent at least one year in oak barrels, then at least two more years aging in the bottle before release. Depending on the vintage, the winemaker may decide to turn Crianza into Reserva just by aging it a bit longer before release. Reserva wines are ready to drink at release time, and are generally more rich and intense that Crianza wines.
The Gran Reserva wines are the pinnacle of perfection, aged for at least five years, with a minimum of two years in oak. The Gran Reserva wines are only produced during exceptional vintages, making them much more expensive due to their age and scarcity. These wines will be the most complex and structured Spanish wines on the market, so your humble narrator saves these for very special occasions.
Compared to the staid old Rioja bottles that your intrepid liquor reporter usually drinks, the Ribera del Duero wines tend to have very floral aromas, with lots of violet and heather on the nose. The flavour is bursting with ripe fruit, balanced with a long and elegant finish that lingers on the palate.
So, the next time you are wandering the aisles at your friendly neighbourhood booze merchant.put down that old reliable bottle of Rioja and choose a label that shows Ribera del
Duero.
merchant, put down that old reliable bottle of Rioja and choose a label that shows Ribera del Duero.
