The Cellar: Aged Rioja and a Great Chardonnay
Friday, July 04, 2014
If you think that the pleasure of pulling a decade old bottle of wine from ones basement is a privilege only the rich can afford, think again. Today I am going to tell you about one of my favorite wines in the world; a wine that is readily available, inexpensive, offers immediate pleasure but can also age for years. The wines I am talking about are the Reserve red wines from Spain’s Rioja region.
Often available for between $15 and $25 per bottle these Tempranillo based wines (often blended with Mazuelo and Garnacha) are traditionally aged in newer 60 gallon American oak barrels. This is somewhat unusual for ‘old world wines’ which are typically aged in larger, more neutral wooden vats or even in concrete. The American oak adds a very pleasant coconut and vanilla note to the wine and makes them very approachable young. With age the fruit dissipates and more savory, leathery notes appear. It is really remarkable to follow a wines development by tasting it at different stages in its life. The quality and value found in Rioja Reserva allows you to do just that.
When I started collecting wine I the early 2000’s some of the first wines I purchased were Reserve Riojas. I remember blind tasting a bunch and purchasing 6 of the ones I liked the most. I recently opened a 2004 (Reserva from Bodegas Ondarre) and was blown away by the delicious savory flavors, the vibrant acidity and sweet mellow tannins. I was also reminded of how good values these wines are. A Rioja Reserva must have been aged for 3 years prior to its release, of which 1 must have been spent in oak. For the purpose of this experiment skip the basic Riojas and those labeled ‘Crianza’, as they are often thinner in flavor and lighter in style. Open a bottle every 2 years and keep notes.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTI also want to give a shout-out to a great Chardonnay I recently sampled: the 2012 Waterstone. The grapes for this wine are sourced from two different vineyards in Carneros, California. The grapes were not de-stemmed but pressed whole cluster and fermented in a barrel. After fermentation the wine spent 6 months (in the same barrels) aging on the dead yeasts with routine stirring. Blending the parts of the Chardonnay that are in contact with the yeasts and the oak with the rest of the juice increases the complexity of the flavors and adds richness to the wine.
Reading the way this wine is made one would think that this has to be a super oaky and over-the-top buttery Chardonnay (did I mention that half the barrels used were new?). Well, it is not! This wine manages to get the balance of bright concentrated fruit, richness, acidity and oak just right. The reason is the climate where the fruit is grown. While Carneros AVA technically includes parts of Sonoma and Napa counties, the regions proximity to the San Pablo Bay (with its cooling fogs and breezes) makes it much more moderate than for example Napa Valley AVA which is further inland. The fruit is less ripe at harvest which means that the grapes retains much of their acidity – a key ingredient to any wine, especially one that is barrel-fermented and aged in (partially) new oak. This wine is absolutely delicious and very well-made. For under $20 this wine is absolutely a steal!
Cheers!
Steffen Rasch is a Certified Sommelier and Specialist of Wine. Feel free to email him at [email protected] with any wine-related question or learn about wine in person by signing up for one of his tastings through the Providence Wine Academy.
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