Valenciso Tasting

 Valenciso is a favourite producer from Rioja Alta. In Rioja, most Tempranillo is doused in American oak. The thoughtful couple from Valenciso wants the fruit to shine, and when oak is used, it is French. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a rare tasting of a number of their wines. 

White wines from Rioja are underestimated. The 2020 Valenciso Blanco is a blend of 70% Viura and 30% Grenache Blanc. After a wild ferment, the wine is aged in untoasted Russian oak barrels for nine months. It is very fresh, but has depth in its balanced mouthfeel. There are subtle spices on the palate, and the zesty acidity leads to a focused finish. This is quite a serious and flavoured wine (93 points).

The first red is a new wine, the 2018 Valenciso Cemento. The fruit comes from 55 year old vines, grown at 550m altitude. As the name suggests, and the picture below shows, this wine is fermented and matured for 30 months in concrete tanks. It sees no oak. The wine is very fresh, with great purity, and red plum and blueberry flavours. It is a wine of medium intensity, with fine tannins and a medium finish (92 points).

I then tasted four Reserva wines. These are the Valenciso flagship wines. The vines come from a number of estate owned vineyards, with a minimum of 60 years old. They all are managed organically. The winery treatment is interesting: fermentation in concrete, then matured 18 months in low-toasted French oak (20% new). Then, the wine is transferred back to concrete tanks for 12 to 24 months. Because the wine clarifies so well in concrete, it is neither fined nor filtered before bottling.

I tasted from old to newer. The first wine is the 2001 Reserva. From a great vintage, this is now a beautiful mature and mellow wine. The concentrated fruit, mainly of dark plum, is still very present. Smoky flavours add to complexity. The mouthfeel is soft and silky, leading to a smooth and long finish. This is a beauty (96 points). 

The 2008 Reserva has a much younger feel. Cherry and subtle spice flavours are supported by fine tannins, but this wine does not have the depth or length of the earlier and later wines (92 points).

The 2011 Reserva from a warm year is a standout. Many Rioja wines from this year were very ripe, but this wine is perfectly balanced. It is deeply flavoured, with more volume than the 2008. Dark cherry and plum flavours are elegant and lead to a long and satisfying finish (95 points).

The 2014 Reserva does not have the same depth, but it delivers pure and beautiful fruit flavours of raspberry and black cherry. Minerality develops on the back palate, giving away the calcareous and limestone soils of the vineyards. The finish is not quite as penetrating as the 2011 (94 points).

If you are interested in drinking fresh and pure Tempranillo, Valenciso should be on your list.

Rioja, Part 5

 Bodegas Bilbainas control 250ha in 50 plots in Rioja Alta. This points to a typical Rioja blending operation. Two aspects stand out. Bilbainas is organic, and it has vineyards in limestone soil.   

I tasted a white wine and a rosé under the Viña Pomal brand. The white was made predominantly from Viura, the rosé from Tempranillo, of course. These were ok wines, but nothing special.

I then had the classical line-up of Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva. The 2016 Crianza is matured in American oak, and tastes of fresh fruit and vanilla. 80,000 cases of this are drunk mainly in bars in the afternoon, with something to nibble on. The 2014 Reserva is half this volume and sells for an astonishing 12 €. It has more intensity and firm tannins. Then we have the 2011 Gran Reserva. It is a 90/10 Tempranillo/Graciano blend, spends three years in barrel, then three in bottle, before it is marketed. Only 2500 cases are made of this, at 26 € per bottle. This is a more rounded an elegant wine, still quite fresh, with silky tannins.

If you want to experience traditional Rioja winemaking at good quality, this is the winery for you. But now we step it up a bit.

Muga is sometimes described as Rioja's First Growth, and I got to experience why. The winery was founded in 1932. It owns 150ha, and contracts another 150ha. One special feature is its own cooperage.

They build 900 casks per year, 90% from French, 10% from American oak. It is a very laborious process. To start with, the wood gets dried for 5! years. The big advantage is that you can customize the building and toasting to your requirements. And Muga does not do things by halves. They also own 250 large American vats, which have been in use for 50 years for alcoholic fermentation. Total production is 130,000 to 170,000 cases per year.

The 2018 Muga White, made from 90% Viura is fresh and harmonious, with medium acidity. With red wines, Muga makes traditional wines, but also modern ones.

The 2015 Reserva is made in the traditional style. It is a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Granacha, 10% Mazuelo and Graciano. It is matured in their own light to medium toasted barrels. 60,000 cases made. The wine is red fruited, with some spice, smoke and vanilla. I found the finish a little rough. The 2014 Reserva Seleccion Especial is a similar blend. This wine is matured for over two years in French oak (40% new), 15,000 cases made. The red fruit is more concentrated, and the spice and mocca flavours more intense. This is a more elegant and silky wine.

The next wine, the 2011 Prado Enea Gran Reserva is a step up and really a great wine. It comes from special clay-limestone vineyards at high altitude. The wine is picked late. The wine is aged for one year in American oak, then for three years in French oak. This wine tastes of blackberry fruit, with forest floor and cocoa notes rounding out a ripe, yet elegant flavour. The wine provides a big mouthfeel. It is still fresh and balanced with a lingering finish. You have to put 70 € on the table for this.

The 2015 Torre is a blend of 75% Tempranillo, 15% Mazuelo (Carignan), 10% Graciano. The wine is aged for 18 months in 100% new French oak. This wine is a bit of a monster, very concentrated and not totally balanced at this point. It needs time.

Overall, Muga is a very impressive winery. The blending adds to the complexity of the wines, and the oak treatment, while substantial, is quite light.

The last winery visit is at CVNE, sometimes called Cune.  It is one of the original railway station wineries in Haro. So I come back to where I started. It is another large winery with 500,000 cases from many plots in Rioja Alta and Alavesa. It includes in fact five wineries.

Most of the wines made are in the traditional style, but the Contino winery has branched out into single vineyard wines. The first wine I taste is the Viña Real Crianza, a fresh, simple wine of dark cherry fruit. This is followed by the 2015 Contino Reserva. This wine is quite concentrated with strong tannins. The 2012 Cune Gran Reserva is made in the old style with American oak quite prominent.

The Imperial winery is kind of the premium winery with a smaller production of 18,000 cases. The Imperial Gran Reserva is the only Spanish wine which was named number 1 in the Wine Spectator Top 100. It was in 2013, but for a different vintage from the one I taste, which is 2012. This is a very good wine. The vineyards have different soil profiles, adding to complexity. The blend is 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo. This is similar to the other wines. Maturation took place in old French and American oak. Black cherry and forest fruits form the flavour. The tannins are velvety and soft, delivering an elegant mouthfeel.

I then taste the Contino single vineyard wines. This is the chateau concept with a large vineyard surrounding the winery. The wines are made from this 62ha vineyard.

 

The 2017 Contino Granacha is fermented in concrete eggs and then matured  in used large French oak vessels. The result is a raspberry fruity, quite sweet wine. The 2015 Contino Graciano is the last to be harvested. The grapes are thick skinned with intense colour. This wine needs medium to high toasted French oak. Black cherry and eucalypt flavours are packaged in firm tannins and high acidity. It is not easy to make a very pleasing wine from 100% Graciano. This variety is usually added to give Tempranillo additional structure, but on its own, it is pretty tough. 

The final wine is the 2016 Contino Viña del Olivo, a 90/10 blend of Tempranillo/Graciano. The wine is matured for 18 months in  French oak. Dark cherry and blackberry fruit is dominant, but there is also black pepper, anise and mint. This is a very smooth wine of great length. When I tasted the previous two wines, I could not quite see the benefit of the single vineyard concept, but this wine is something special.

OVERALL CONCLUSION: I only touched the surface of the Rioja region. It delivers incredible value for money; Crianza wines at 12 to 15 €, 5-10 year old Reservas and even Gran Reservas at 20 to 30 €. I actually preferred the fruit forward Crianzas in most cases. But a modern style Reserva, such as from Muga can still be fresh, and deliver good complexity. When it comes to single vineyard wines, there is a great variety of styles. I liked the precision of Valenciso, and the modernity of Altari. Pricing varies dramatically, from 20 € up to 300 € for the Altari El Pison. 

THE END 

 

 

 

Rioja, Part 4

 Artadi is a young winery based in Rioja Altavesa, founded in 1985. It is not steeped in tradition. It left the Rioja Appelation in 2015. Today, it is one of  Rioja's, in fact Spain's icon producers. The man behind this is winemaker Juan Carlos Lopez de Lacalle.

He described that when he made El Pison, their flagship wine, it was meant as a wine for his grandfather, not as a single vineyard wine. But in any event, they went single vineyard in 2009 and stopped blending in 2014. Today, they make El Pison (which I did not get to taste) plus five single vineyard wines plus three village wines for local consumption from 80ha of 80 plots. They are all 100% Tempranillo. Ageing is no more than 10-12 months.

The 2.4ha El Pison vineyard; yield 3t/ha

The village wine 2016 Viñas de Gain White is based on the Viura grape, small parcels of 25 to 100 year old vines. The flavours are complex; citrus, orange blossom, hazelnut. This wine has quite a big mouthfeel, but balanced with good acidity. The 2017 Viñas de Gain Red is a fresh and aromatic wine. It is a little foward, but has a good tannic backbone.

The 2016 Valdegines comes from a 30 year old 4ha vineyard with sandstone rock in part, and clay-limestone in another part. The wine is quite floral and fresh tasting. The red berry fruit is delicate, and the wine quite elegant. Gentle tannins and good acidity complete the picture. The 2016 La Poza is quite different. The vines from this 1.2ha vineyard are 60 years old. The soil is silty-clay. This explains the much bigger palate. The wine is black fruited, peppery and with elegant mocca notes. Round and dense tannins make this a much more powerful proposition.

It was fascinating to experience such different tastes from the same grape variety and vineyards not far from each other. Altari is clearly right to explore and show this.

A brief visit at Viñedos de Paganos showed the differences with sister winery Sierra Cantabria. Sierra Cantabria makes 50,000 cases of traditional wine. I tasted the 2015 Crianza, which is typical of this style. It is fresh, showing pure Tempranillo fruit, backed by American oak. The 2014 Colleccion Privada is from older vineyards. It is made 50% by carbonic maceration and 50% traditional methods. Maturation 50% in French, 50% American oak. This is a big wine. I found it a bit unbalanced and the finish harsh.

In front of the Paganos winery is the 25ha El Puntido vineyard. It was planted in 1975 and is organic. The company makes small volume special wines from here plus the Calados del Puntido, which actually takes fruit from three vineyards (yes, the Spanish can be a bit confusing).

The 2014 Calados del Puntido is matured for 14 months in used French oak barriques. The red fruit tastes very pure. The wine has a good drive with medium intensity. The finish is a bit thick and tannic.

A visit to Valenciso was an absolute highlight. His wines are all about finesse. I reviewed my visit on this blog before, so I will skip it here.

Three more wineries to go!! 

Valenciso

Valenciso is a small, 21 year old winery in Rioja Alta. It produces 150,000 bottles per year from 19 plots of mainly calcareous soil. It is now in its first year of organic production. Like with many vineyards in Rioja, some are bush vines, some are trellised vines. There does not seem a pronounced preference of one over the other.

Valenciso stands out, because everything about these wines is about finesse. The very smart and reflective owner Luis Valentin took me through the wines shown above, except the 10 year old wine was the 2007. The 2018 Rioja Blanco was the best white wine I tasted on this trip - and what a wine this is! 70% Viura, 30% Grenache Blanc and fermented in Russian oak, creates a delicate wine with excellent depth. The acidity is firm, but does not distract from the harmonious citrus flavours.

The Rosé is produced in the saignée method. Melon and strawberry flavours are built on a solid foundation of minerality. This is a really smart wine.

The flagship is the Rioja Reserva, based on Tempranillo. But in contrast to many producers, this is not about how long the wine has spent in barrel, but reflecting where the wine comes from. The primary fruit in the 2002 wine is almost gone.  Exotic spices now characterize the wine, and the acidity gives it a good structure. Maturing took place in light and medium toasted French oak. The 2012 shows great purity, with red and black cherry character. The focus here is on the fruit, and the finish is very long and balanced. 

The top wine is the 2007 '10 years postres'. This wine was aged 50/50 in Russian oak and concrete vats. The ageing is about adding to the texture of the wine, not to impart flavour. According to Luis, the concrete stabilizes the colour of the wine. The fruit here is absolutely delicious, backed by firm tannins.

Try to get your hands on some of these wines. They are a revelation. Rioja never tasted this good.