Rioja rediscovered: unusually mature white wines at bargain prices

Even probably the most dispassionate wine correspondents fall out and in of affection with completely different classes. I adored the wines made in California within the Seventies, for example. Then I uninterested in the a lot much less distinctive and super-ripe fruit bombs that typified California wine within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, particularly after they appeared so costly in contrast with comparable wine. Now I’m enthused by a brand new technology of west-coast producers and their a lot better vary of types.

Likewise, there was a part within the Eighties when burgundy was typically uncomfortably tart, skinny and underripe or simply plain boring. It has grow to be way more dependable this century, in addition to costlier. Regardless of the costs, I’m significantly extra keen about burgundy — each purple and white — than I was.

One class to which I’ve been reconverted lately is white rioja. Once I first encountered it within the late Seventies, there have been memorable examples, corresponding to Castillo Ygay from Marqués de Murrieta. These have been a deep apricot color, heady with beeswax and lemon and clearly able to ageing each bit in addition to white burgundy. Then got here the novelty of cool fermentation within the Eighties. The new technique was designed to protect fruit and freshness, however typically on the expense of character. Too many white riojas turned simply crisp, gentle and featureless.

However tasting a number of present choices has rekindled my curiosity. Many examples are genuinely distinctive. They’re typically fairly mature dry whites designed for consuming with meals greater than merely quenching thirst. There’s the beeswax and lemon once more, generally a touch of lanolin along with a wealthy, creamy texture, however actual refreshment too. Like Rioja’s reds, most of the profitable wines are aged in oak barrels and a few appear (unusually) happy with it. Good white rioja seems to have the center to face as much as oak ageing.

Solely about 10 per cent of the vines in Spain’s most well-known wine area are light-skinned and Viura is by far probably the most planted. I have lengthy been a fan of this grape, which is named Macabeo in the remainder of Spain and as Maccabéo or Maccabeu in southern France. It may possibly make severe wines value ageing, as proven by the likes of Domaine Gauby, Domaine de l’Horizon, Lafage, Olivier Pithon and Le Roc des Anges in Roussillon.

Virtually half of Rioja’s Viura vines are greater than 40 years outdated and subsequently more likely to produce small portions of characterful grapes. They name Rioja’s different conventional white wine grape Malvasia. It was sometimes blended with Viura, and 40 per cent of those vines are greater than 20 years outdated.

However in 2009, the native authority in Rioja, the Consejo Regulador, determined to encourage growers to plant the worldwide varieties Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, which risked robbing white rioja of its native character. Collectively these two varieties now represent 6 per cent of all white wine grape plantings. On the identical time, the authority inspired growers to plant the extra actually Spanish varieties Garnacha Blanco (Grenache Blanc), Tempranillo Blanco, Maturana, Turruntes and Verdejo. Of those new varieties, Tempranillo Blanco has been by far the preferred, already accounting for nearly 13 per cent of all of Rioja’s white wine grapes, despite the fact that this pale‑skinned mutation of Rioja’s dominant purple wine grape was first recognized as lately as 1988.

I cherished the truth that so most of the white riojas I tasted currently had actual native character and didn’t appear “worldwide” in any respect. Essentially the most conventional of the lot — maybe too distinctive for some palates — are the 2 white bottlings produced by the López de Heredia sisters, who run the historic bodega in Haro. This bodega was based in 1877 simply beside the station, the place barrels of wine can be loaded on to trains destined for France, whose personal vineyards have been then affected by the crippling results of mildew and the phylloxera plague that solely reached Rioja in 1901.

López de Heredia’s whites are aged far longer than most wines at the moment after which launched at actually very sort costs. At current, a Hong Kong service provider is providing their 2003 Viña Tondonia Blanco Reserva for simply £40 a bottle, whereas a US service provider is providing the 2002 Gran Reserva for $85. In the UK, the 2010, 2011 and 2012 vintages of its stablemate, the single-vineyard Viña Gravonia, promote for about £24 a bottle. Attempt discovering another 10-year-old wine at this type of worth.

A great instance of Rioja’s American oaked model is supplied by Bodegas Riojanas’ Monte Actual 2020, which was fermented in barrel and nonetheless carries very apparent, if retro, traces of candy vanilla oak that mix effectively with the recent citrus character of Viura.

You would possibly anticipate the top chef of The High quality Chop Home in London, which is co-owned by my son Will Lander, to favour purple wines. However Shaun Searley is a large fan of white rioja. “For me, it’s a wine that is so complicated that not solely can it’s paired with meals, it’s good on a sizzling day simply by itself,” he says. “I really like the wealthy, nearly caramelised, buttery flavour profile and the sharp candied lemon-skin end.” He recommends it with “a giant plate of sizzling shellfish . . . or just an aged Comté”.

Certainly, restaurateurs are typically fairly eager on white rioja as a result of they’ll supply their prospects unusually mature white wines that go together with a variety of meals at cut price costs. Why not make the most of these bargains your self? I’ve listed some favorite examples in ascending order of richness and funkiness to be able to wean your self on to the model gently.

Tasting notes on Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. Extra stockists from Wine-searcher.com

Comply with Jancis on Twitter @JancisRobinson

Comply with @FTMag on Twitter to seek out out about our newest tales first