Viña Real - age before beauty

Viña Real (pronounced 'vinya ray-al') is a producer I've recently come to appreciate, with my first experience being the 1951 Rioja Gran Reserva that we drank to celebrate my mother-in-law's 60th birthday. On my recent trip to Spain, my husband and I visited a few wineries in Rioja, including this one. A modern structure built to resemble a huge wine vat (large tank) reminiscent of the old wooden vats from traditional winemaking, it's the recent home of a not-so-new label that was previously housed in the C.V.N.E. property in Haro, the winemaking city in the Rioja Alta sub-region. Compania Vinicola del Norte de España, also known as 'Cune,' is the winery where the company began in 1879. Viña Real's separate facility made of wood, concrete, and stainless steel opened in 2004 in the Rioja Alavesa sub-region and exclusively makes that label. In addition to the impressive structure and the feeling that we were inside a huge wine vat, the technology employed in this winery was like nothing I'd seen before. A huge crane works its way around the winery and transports what they call IFOs, identifiable flying objects, which are silver vessels that receive the grapes and then carry them over and into the stainless steel tanks for fermentation, enabling gravity-flow winemaking.

After alcoholic fermentation in the tanks the wine is transferred by gravity through hoses to the barrels on the lower level for aging. Once in barrel the Reserva wines will remain there for 18 months, being racked off the sediment every 6 months. A barrel washer speeds up the racking process, cleaning something like 200 barrels in a day. The most I could clean by hand was 17 in a day and after 2 days of that I was out of commission for a week! The winery has 2 long caves the size of 2 football field each built into the hill for barrel and bottle aging. Made of limestone, they remain cool and humid; they were built by the same outfit that constructed the subway tunnels in Bilbao, Spain. Penicillin mold grows all along the caves and barrels and bottles, and they believe this helps keep bacteria out of the winery and protect the wine from light and temperature variances.

And now, the wine... at the winery we tasted their Crianza 2009, which was very pleasant with flavors of berries and balsamic. We bought a Magnum (double bottle) of the 2005 Gran Reserva (for 38 Euros! cheap!) to age it, since we know from experience that this wine ages tremendously. This may be our silver anniversary wine... but we could probably save it for the golden. Their Gran Reservas, not made every year, spend 7 years in the winery before release. At a restaurant in San Sebastian called Rekondo, known for its wine cellar, we ordered a bottle of Viña Real Rioja Gran Reserva 1966. The wine director uses heated metal to cut these older bottles off at the neck, just under the cork, rather than dealing with cork removal, which can be tricky in older wines. He also refuses to decant the wines, believing that drinking the wine from the bottle it aged in, with its sediment, is part of the experience. He brought us a small glass to try. Jeremy didn't even taste it; he gave it a brief swirl and sniff and then a knowing smile. The wine guy said, "that is all I need, that expression of pure joy on your face." We were so excited to try it.  At 47 years old, the wine was bright, fruity, leathery, spicy. Not at all stewed, oxidized, or tired. Perfect with the huge steak they put in front of us. Balanced, complex, smooth and alive, we couldn't believe how it shined.

After dinner we asked to see the wine cellar. The wine guy, from Argentina, explained that he is not a Sommelier or wine certified in any way. He just became interested in wine and learned everything he could about it, falling into this job by luck. The restaurant has an amazing wine collection, perhaps the best in Europe, and they source all their wines directly from the wineries so they know exactly where they came from and how they were stored. They have wines going back to the early 1920s. They have large format bottles - I don't even know if they have names for bottles so big - and I have no idea how you would pour from one. 

Truly an amazing experience, having seen the modernity of the new Viña Real space and experiencing the preserved age of the wines that preceded that space. I can't wait to see what our Magnum holds in store for us in the years to come.

Rioja en Rioja

On a recent trip to Spain I spent 3 days in the famous wine region of Rioja, touring the vineyards and enjoying the wines. In the past I've described Rioja as my go-to wine. Drinkable, interesting, ageable, and versatile with a lot of foods, it is perhaps most importantly affordable.

In Rioja, wine laws dictate the aging and labeling of the wines, with the reds always being made from majority Tempranillo. Sometimes other grapes (Graciano, Mazuelo, Garnacha (Garnacha is the same grape as Grenache in France)) are included in small percentages (less than 15% of the wine). Minimum aging for a Rioja wine labeled Rioja Crianza is 2 years in the winery, of which 1 year must be in barrel. Rioja Reserva wines must be aged for at least 3 years in the winery, with 1 year being in barrel, and Rioja Gran Reserva must be aged for 5 years in the winery, with at least 2 of those years in barrel. This aging makes the wines both ready to drink and worthy of cellar time. The funny thing about these aging rules is that most wineries age their wines for longer, so either their Crianza ages for longer than required but still shorter than their Reserva, or they just don't make a Crianza.

White Rioja is generally made with a combination of Viura, Malvasia, and Garnacha Blanca, though Viura is by far the dominant grape. It is also known as Macabeo and stars prominently in Cava sparkling wine, Spain's version of Champagne, made in the Cava region. White Rioja is largely unknown in most of the world, but the Spaniards drink it up, and it's easy to see why. Some crisp and refreshing, others deep and complex, it was fun experiencing this wine as well.

When we planned to go to Rioja we had a vision in our heads that everything would be old, given the tradition of winemaking has been going on in Europe for way longer than the United States. But, the first winery we went to looked like this:

Very cool, but not old. Bodegas Ysios opened in 2001, setting a trend in avante-garde winery style. The name Ysios pays "homage to Isis and Osiris, two Egyptian gods closely related to the world of wine." Ysios produces only Rioja Reserva made only from Tempranillo, aged for 14 months in oak and a total of 3 years in the winery. 

Another super-modern winery that we visited, called Bodegas Baigorri, does a great tour and lunch tasting. The main tasting room is enclosed in a glass cube visible from the road, and the winery and restaurant reside in 7 floors below, built into the hill, with the winery operating by gravity-flow. Building underground provides for natural temperature and humidity control in the winery; concrete helps too. 

Lunch was delicious, and I particularly enjoyed the white and pink wines.

I like how they infused their wines in certain dishes... especially the dessert:

While modern in both their facilities and practices, these wineries uphold the traditions of the land. Not a bad way to start our visit in Rioja. 

More to come...  Salud!

Txakoli - this is a wine

I discovered Txakoli on a recent trip to Spain's Basque country. Pronounced "cha-ko-lee," it's a refreshing, slightly sparkling wine made from native grapes in northern Spain. I visited the winery Txomin Etxaniz in the coastal Basque town of Getaria at the recommendation of a friend. Perched high in the hills, the views are amazing. We had a private tour and tasting with the young Aitor, son of the winemaker. Txomin is a family winery that has been traced all the way back to 1649. In 1989 they played a leading role in establishing the quality designation Denomination of Origin "Getariako Txakolina." In European countries wine is regulated by quality standards set by the government. Regulations may include the type of grapes allowed in specified regions made by certain winemaking techniques.  In order for Txakoli to carry the Denomination de Origin "Getariako Txakolina," it must be made from the native grapes Hondarrabi Zuri (white) and Hondarrabi Beltza (red) in Getaria. Each bottle carries a quality designation sticker like this:

The vineyards are trellised about 6 feet above the ground, forming a canopy that is really fun to walk under. It allows constant air flow beneath the vines, preventing mold and diseases from festering in the humid climate so close to the sea. Harvest usually occurs in October, and the grapes at Txomin are cooled before they are pressed. Fermentation is temperature controlled and the wine remains on its lees (dead yeast cells) for its entire life in the tank before bottling. Before fermentation is complete, the tank is closed off to allow some of the resultant carbon dioxide from the fermentation process to be trapped in the wine - this provides the light effervescence that Txakoli is known for. Cold stabilization precipitates out the tartrate crystals (from the high acidity) and then the wine is ready for bottling. Aitor described it as a "young wine," one that is meant for consumption within 1-2 years. Alcohol level is usually around 10-11%. 

Txakoli is a crisp wine that goes great with the local fish and seafood. At Txomin Etxaniz, Aitor served us a healthy sample of the wine alongside anchovies prepared in their kitchen. Then we went to the Getaria marina for lunch and had a bottle with Turbot, a delicious white fish.

To enjoy later on our trip, we got a bottle of their sparkling wine, which is made in the traditional Champagne method. Fittingly, we enjoyed that with some Basque cheese and baguette on the French side of Basque Country (in the beach town of Hendaye).

Continuing our trip around Basque country, I found that Txakoli went great with the pintxos (tapas) that we enjoyed in San Sebastian as we bar-hopped our way through dinner. And at 2 euros a glass, it was ok to try one at at each place.

Gracias, Aitor, for introducing us to this wine!