Blame it on Rioja

Editor’s Note: Last year, Michael Franz, one of the editors of Winereviewonline, wrote a column largely critical of Rioja. Here is an excerpt:

In my view, Rioja has let other Spanish regions steal its thunder due to a complacent sense of entitlement.

As other regions were questioning their traditions and straining to achieve greatness during the past two decades, Rioja tended to rest on its laurels.  As the rest of Spain redoubled its efforts to improve fruit quality in vineyards, Rioja remained overly reliant on its barrels for character and complexity.  With an aristocrat’s disdain for the upstarts nipping at its heels, Rioja failed to maintain its historic position of leadership in Spanish red wine.

Then, when Rioja finally got the message that the worldwide buzz about Spain was all about Priorat, Ribera del Duero, Rias Baixas and Toro, it freaked out and over-reacted…

Shortly after the article appeared, my friend and colleague Chris Fleming sent me an email taking issue with some of Franz’s claims.  I asked Chris if I could publish his remarks here, and he assented.

Here, then, somewhat belatedly, are some of Chris’ thoughts on Michael Franz’s column, in slightly edited form.

Resurgence or Multiplicty?

In the words of our new President, it’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.  Simply put, Franz’s take on Rioja is sloppy and just doesn’t fit with the facts.

Franz makes some good points, but he’s off on some of his bigger ones, including his assertion that Rioja wineries first rested on their laurels, then “freaked out” in response to other booming regions, turning out expensive, high octane super cuvees.

I’ve seen Alice Feiring make similar, and similarly nebulous, claims about Rioja “not knowing what it wants to be” or “not knowing what its identity is.”

One of the things most prominent about Rioja is the multiplicity of voices now being expressed and heard. To reduce Rioja winemakers and their wines to simply “modern” and “traditional” betrays a lack of rigor and an essential ignorance on the part of the writer so doing.

Franz makes some interesting arguments, but in terms of “offending regions” I think the entire state of California, and many regions in Italy like Brunello di Montalcino, are far worse than Rioja in committing the modern winemaking sins he so sternly admonishes.

In short, Franz’s column props up a lot of the fallacies and erroneous assumptions many U.S. writers have made-and continue to make-about Rioja. And that’s sloppy.

Ironically, Franz ends his piece saying that Rioja is poised for resurgence.

Where has he been?

-Chris Fleming