Blame it on Rioja

One of the great upshots of the democratization of the world of wine journalism is that every now and again, an honest and insightful voice suddenly pops up in your regualr reading that  forces your intellectual radar to register a rather large blip.

For me, one such voice is that of Tom Perry, one of those behind-the-scenes guys who, with little fanfare, can sum up a situation you’ve contemplated for months with a few pen strokes.

In one of his most recent posts on his blog, Inside Rioja, Tom takes on White Rioja, a subject that seems to be coming up frequently in conversations I have had recently about the region, despite the fact that white wine production accounts for less than 6% of the zone’s total vinified output.

I have written before that Viura, Rioja’s No. 1 planted white grape variety has it’s limitations, one reason why I think that wines that possess at least 10% Malvasia tend to make more of an impression on me when I am tasting.

But Tom breaks it down in a way that I have not seen written about or talked about quite the same way before:

What’s wrong with viura, Rioja’s most widely planted white variety?  I think there are several problems.  First of all, in traditional Rioja, some viura was vinified with the red varieties in Rioja to add acidity.  With the advent of a more modern style, this practice was not continued, so the demand for viura dropped to the point where it wasn’t allowed to plant viura in Rioja.  Secondly, the tropical fruit aromas of the verdejo and sauvignon blanc varieties from Rueda and the albariño from Rías Baixas seem to be more popular with consumers than the citrusy, green apple notes of cold fermented viura. Thirdly, the rules allow higher yields for viura (9,000 kg per hectare compared whith 6,500 kg/hectare for red varieties and growers tend to push yields to the legal limit, a practice not conducive to quality.

The Rioja Regulatory Council dropped the ball in this matter, spending much too long trying to reconcile the position of the farmers, reluctant to see their 5,000 hectares (12,350 acres) of viura lose value if more popular white varieties  were planted, and the wineries, eager to capitalize on the boom in sales of white wines in major markets.  In the middle were a group of wineries that wanted Rioja to replant local red varieties on the verge of extinction, using this as a bargaining chip.  In the meantime, other Spanish regions captured the market for white Rioja.

As with many political decisions, a compromise was reached that in my opinion, doesn’t completely satisfy anyone.  The decision was that ‘international’ white varieties (sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and verdejo) as well as rare local white varieties (turruntés, white tempranillo and white maturana) can be planted as well as the rare local red varieties maturana tinta and maturana parda.

The catch is that the ‘international’ varieties have to be blended with at least 51% viura while the  local varieties can stand alone. Rumor has it that most of the new plantings will be verdejo and the problem I see  is whether a viura and verdejo blend in Rioja will be better than the  very ordinary viura+verdejo from Rueda, sold at a discount to the highly popular 100% verdejo and sauvignon blanc styles there.

As with most topics related to wine in Rioja, an intense debate is taking place about this decision, with the traditionalists at one extreme, led by López de Heredia, defending viura, and the avant-garde on the other, wishing that experiments should be allowed with any and all varietals to see if they work in Rioja.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Consejo Regulador, General, Grape Varieties, Red Wine, Rioja on the Web, White Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.