Blame it on Rioja

James Oliver Cury, executive editor of Epicurious.com, wrote in his Epi-log blog recently, wondering, “When will wine prices go down?” It seems like in recessionary times everyone is looking for good values, and it’s been a mission of mine to track down what Rioja has to offer in that vein.

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I wanted to write a little bit about a feast-friendly wine called Seis de Luberri 2006 from winemaker Florentino Martinez Monje. This is classic Rioja Alavesa, with a modern focus. Made from 100% Tempranillo, Seis is stainless steel fermented, then aged for six months in French and American oak (hence the name, “Seis,” which is Spanish for six). It’s a super jammy wine, with strong notes of raspberries and strawberries and a great background of spicy wood tones. This is technically considered a Joven, since by law Crianzas must be aged at least twelve months in oak, but it’s definitely one of the most complex ‘quaffables’ I’ve encountered from Rioja, ever.

It’s imported here by Andre Tamers at De Maison Selections, an under-the-radar importer of French and Spanish wines who has one of the top palates in the business.

Seis de Luberri is available for online purchase at Amanti Vino in New Jersey for $19.99 a bottle.

OR, if you happen to find yourself in Brooklyn this week, and want to save on delivery costs, Seis de Luberri 2006, is one of ten featured Thanksgiving “Wines for the Feast,” at Dandelion Wine, a.k.a. Dandy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, $21/bottle. *

*Present a printed copy of this post at Dandy to receive a 10% discount on this wine, while supplies last.

Dandelion Wine is located at 153 Franklin Street, between Java and India in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Or call 347 689 4563, and ask for Lily.

Cold and overcast November days in the Northeast invariably induce cravings for robust meat dishes and, for reasons I cannot fully explain, today that craving is for venison. A couple of years ago, Chanterelle chef David Waltuck served roasted loin of venison with three purees (chestnut, parnsip, and sweet potato), and that is exactly what I have in mind (and what I would make for dinner tonight if I didn’t have to work).

Classic Rioja, which is to say, Rioja aged exclusively in American oak and possessing that beguiling aromatic trio of cigar box, cherries, and dill, is venison’s perfect foil, and the wine I have in mind today that fits that profile perfectly is one that retails for less than $15: Marqués de Tomares Crianza 2005 from the bodega formally known as Unión de Viticultores Riojanos in the town of Funemayor in Rioja Alta.

Made from 90% Tempranillo with 7% Mazuelo and 3% Graciano, with a year in American oak barrels, this particular Tomares Crianza from the warm ‘05 vintage (tasted two weeks ago), was not only highly quaffable and pleasantly fruity but also possessed as much elegance and finesse as one would expect from a Reserva.

Given its food pairing facility with any number of late fall and early winter dishes, the wine’s modest price tag argues in favor of a case purchase with reservation, a cold-weather, go-to stash to warm palate and belly on many a chilly evening to come.

Marqués de Tomares 2005 Crianza is $14.99/bottle at PJ Wine in New York City.

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 

One of these days I will use the word “summer” as a verb, and at the end of that sentence will be someplace–Shelter Island, the Catskills, Andalucia–that conjures up lazy afternoons and high-end seasonal foodstuffs, but until that day comes, I make it a point to compile a list of cool outdoor summer activities that take place in the city, which is where I’ll be summering this year.

Two of the season’s best outdoor events involve film and food, are both just a stone’s throw from the East River, and began last week: Socrates Sculpture Park’s Wednesday night Outdoor Cinema Series and The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Thursday night Movies with a View,a few miles downriver.

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SINGLE OLIVE TREE, SINGLE VINEYARD: Jesus Madrazo’s Viña del Olivo at CVNE’s Viñedos de Contino, Laserna, Spain, September 13, 2007. Photo: José Guerra.

Late last week, an email newsletter from the East Village Spanish wine shop Tinto Fino alerted me to an article that recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal monthly, SmartMoney: “Is Spain the New Bordeaux?”.

James B. Stewart’s “SmartSpending” piece chronicles an informal blind tasting he recently organized in which wines from two top Bordeaux properties, Cheateau Pape Clement 2004 ($80) and Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2004 ($275), were tasted alongside a broad range of ten Spanish wines selected by Tinto Fino’s Mani Dawes, the idea being to test Spanish mettle against a category of French wine that’s quickly becoming a stand-in for both inflated pricing and a weak dollar.

“The results confounded our expectations,” Stewart writes. “Of the many tastings we’ve done, this was perhaps the most humbling — and enjoyable.” Once the panel determined their top four wines, the labels were revealed. Viñedos de Contino’s powerhouse Viña del Olivo Rioja 2001 was the overwhelming favorite: “We couldn’t get enough of this. We found its nose elegant and its taste rich, full, a bit tannic; it boasted a long, velvety finish. It won two votes as a Bordeaux, but others found it a little too extroverted to qualify. Though steep in price [$125 for a 750ml bottle], it’s still a bargain by first-growth-Bordeaux standards.”

Next came El Bugader Montsant 2004($63), followed by Valbuena Ribera del Duero 2001 ($125). Pape Clement, the panel’s number four pick, was the sole Bordeaux to place.

Admittedly, young wines from a problematic vintage* do not a great property define. One must also consider the fact that the instant Mr. Stewart decided to ask Ms. Dawes to select the Spanish entrants, France was at an immediate disadvantage; few in the business know Spanish wines like she does, and her palate judgments, if the wine selection at Tinto Fino is any indication, are impeccable.

Still, I suspect that this is not the last time we hear about the wine cognescenti looking south towards Spain for wines that offer stunning quality without the ‘dollar hangover.’

As Spanish winemakers keep ratcheting up quality and wine consumers continue to educate themselves about killer wines made south of the Pyrenees that won’t break the bank, new and established brands in Rioja and beyond will start looking sweeter and sweeter to serious wine collectors and consumers alike.

We very well could be at the beginning of a paradigm shift. In many ways Spain has already trumped France in the world of gastronomy. Could the world of wine be far behind?

*NOTE: After the exuberant New World drink-me-now ripeness that attended the hot vintage of 2003, 2004 in Bordeaux returned to what many have called a more classic style, which is to say, one that needs years in the bottle to develop. See Jancis Robinson’s lucid comments on the matter.

Among my colleagues on the restaurant side of the wine trade, it’s become fairly axiomatic that writer Matt Kramer is the best (some say only) reason to read Wine Spectator Magazine. If you aspire to an advanced understanding of the aesthetics of wine connoisseurship, look no further than Mr. Kramer’s Making Sense of Wine, a fine example of essential reading that’s also a pleasure to read.

In this month’s Wine Spectator, devoted to the editors’ 100 most exciting wines of 2007 (Rioja shout-outs: #11,Torre Muga 2004; and #16 LAN Edición Limitada 2004), Kramer writes about his “reverie wines” of 2007 (subscription required). In typically passionate, readable prose, he explains just what he means by reverie:

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Marcos Eguren at Viñedos de Páganos in Rioja Alavesa, in front of the vineyard used to make El Puntido. Photo: Jon Stamell.

As I mentioned in my last post, Marcos Eguren is member of a family of vine growers now in its fifth generation. The Egurens have been marketing wines under their own label since 1958, when brothers Guillermo and Victorino Eguren launched Sierra Cantabria with bother-in-law Martín Cendoya, a viticulturalist.

Today, Marcos Eguren, Guillermo’s son, heads both vineyard management and winemaking, having expanded the brand not only in Rioja, with Sierra Cantabria spin-offs Señorío de San Vicente and Viñedos de Páganos, but also in other parts of Spain, most notably in Toro, where Numathia Termes has raised more than a few eyebrows among the foreign wine press.

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