Rioja should “emulate Champagne”

Rioja needs to emulate Champagne by building a “hierarchy” of terroir and villages rather than relying purely on the blending and ageing of its wines, a leader producer has said.

Remelluri’s Telmo Rodriguez has previously accused Rioja’ governing body of hindering the region’s winemaking potential

Spanish winemaker Telmo Rodríguez said the country, in particular the Rioja appellation, has never had “the right debate” over Spanish wines’ complexity and diversity, which had led it to be seen as “good value”, despite being one of the most complex wine countries in Europe.

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Speaking to db at the Berry Bros. & Rudd Spanish portfolio tasting on Monday, Rodríguez said the country had not looked at the beauty and complexity of its own vineyards and needed to invest in viticulture and rediscovering lost vineyards.

“In Spain, we love to talk about smoke and mirrors, about aging and tradition, but we never did have the right debate,” he told db. He argues that Rioja needs to take inspiration from Champagne and embrace a different approach to prevent increasing commoditization.

“Champagne is a good example – it is about blends, but they know which villages are used – even Dom Perignon, which has I don’t know how many bottles, knows which villages are used and which are the Grand Cru vineyards,” Rodríguez said, pointing out that “the main problem in Rioja is that we don’t know which is a Premier Cru or even a very bad vineyard.”

He said it was “dangerous” to think it helped an appellation to create a brand without creating a hierarchy of vineyards and terroir behind it.

“One of the first things that happens is that without a hierarchy, the best places, which are usually more complicated, are abandoned – and that has been happening in Rioja for about a hundred years.”

However, he noted that a group of younger winemakers and viticulturalists were doing “amazing things”, increasingly looking at terroir and talking about particular villages and single vineyards, despite the Rioja DO’s current refusal to recognise village names, sub-zone and geographic areas on Rioja labels. However producers are hopeful the DO will soften its stance and this week the Consejo confirmed it was looking at proposal in detail, according to Wine-Searcher. Rumours have also emerged of a motion from the proposed breakaway DO Vineyards of Alava to discard the traditional ageing categories.

The next step is to form a group of growers who are ready to fight for their place, or terroir, he said, drawing “a red line” to separate industrial and artisanal wine.

“Someone who is producing 4m or 10m bottles cannot talk to me about terroir. A lot wineries buy from co-operatives so they don’t know where it is coming from.”

“Rioja is all about place and even those fantastic cellars in old companies were knowledgeable and knew where the grapes should be coming from, the blends, the terroirs and the different tannins,” he said.

Rodríguez was showing his Remelluri Blanco, Reserva and Gran Reserva and two single vineyard wines that have recently been added to the Berry Bros. & Rudd Spanish portfolio, and which he describe as the ultimate expression of the village the vineyards are situated it. These comprise the 2012 Altos Lanzaga (RRP: £85) made from old bush vines from a rescued 15ha 17^th century vineyard in Lanciego, and 2013 La Beatas (RRP: £120), a field blend from the “Premier Cru” restored 1.9ha hilltop terrace vineyard in Labastida.

Berry Bros. & Rudd’s Spanish buyer Catriona Felstead MW said the growing debate around how a blended wine relates to terroir in Spain was a very interesting development, not least because it was being discussion by a number of top level producers. However she said it would take time to filter down to the consumer, and challenge their perception of Rioja’s aging hierarchy of Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva.