High Bang to Buck Ratio Watch: Vina Real 2005 Crianza
Tasting at Viña Real, Elciego, Spain, September 2008. Photo by Gretchen Thomas.
A weekly series devoted to Rioja wines that deliver great quality for less than $20
Although more and more wines being produced in Rioja today are opting out of D.O.Ca. Rioja’s age classification system (choosing instead to carry the standard Guarantee of Origin back label, the same designation used for young, unoaked so called joven wines), the great majority of Rioja coming into this country carries the Crianza, Reserva, or Gran Reserva stamp.
Crianzas by law must spend two years at the winery before release, including at least a year in 225 liter oak barrels. It’s the designation with the freshest, fruitiest style, and that accessibility makes them attractive everyday wines.
One of my favorites is the Viña Real Crianza from the house of CVNE, now available in the much-praised 2005 vintage. The color of the wine is somewhere between a rich garnet and light ruby, and the aromas offer lots of red fruit, especially strawberry, (very much in keeping with Tempranillo from Rioja Alavesa, where all Viña Real fruit is sourced), plus a very pleasant mineral character that hints at wet topsoil.
When I last tasted the Viña Real 2005 Crianza, which spent 14 months in a combination of American and French oak, I was particularly struck by its extraordinary balance. Acidity, fruit, mineral, oak all tied together very nicely. Super-quaffable and mouthwateringly fruity, this is about as good as entry level Rioja gets, and it would be very easy to recommend this wine, whether it’s to my mom calling from a wine shop in Virginia looking for ideas of what to buy that night for dinner (I love it when she does that) or to a diner at the restaurant looking for one of those rare “cross-over” wines, which is to say, something that could go with sauteed Tasmanian Sea Trout just as well as it would with Roast Squab.
And speaking of food, thanks to all that red fruit (i.e. cherry and strawberry), this wine would be the perfect foil for Roast Duck Breast, seared skin-side down over high heat to transform all that fat into crackling deliciousness, and finished in the oven until medium rare.
Viña Real 2005 Crianza can be purchased online at the Wine Exchange for $14.99/bottle