‘Ten wines, ten different aspects of Rioja.’ Such was Andrew Halliwell’s pitch when he came to talk to Club members at St Cross College (a new and very successful venue for the Club).

And ten wines there were: a sparkling Rioja, a rare Tempranillo Blanco, a rosé made by Andrew himself at Bodega Obalo, and then seven reds ranging from examples of new wave, fruit-driven wines from Garnacha and Maturano Tinto to more traditional, Tempranillo- and oak-dominated wines.

 Andrew himself came to the wine after spending a happy few years at New College studying engineering and getting seriously into rowing. In fact, we only managed to book this tasting by making sure it coincided with Eights Week. After ten years of engineering he switched careers to wine, doing first a conversion course in Adelaide and then a range of harvests all over the world. He’s now been in Rioja, at Logroño, for eighteen months and preparing to make the most of the pretty free hand he’s been given. ‘Match the colour of the rosado’ (wine no 3) appears to be the only instruction – apart from making sure he’s producing wines that sell.

And that, in a changing Rioja, poses problems. The big question is this: do you follow the taste of the consumers in Spain (who he tells us are very traditional and loyal to Spanish wines) or of those elsewhere, or do you follow the wine critics? Just as the Rioja region is subject to three competing wind patterns, so the wine has to battle the competing pressures of climate change, the consumers’ love of the familiar vanilla oak dominated traditional wines and the critics’ pressure for non-traditional varieties and wine-making styles that showcase fruit and terroir.

“A hundred kilometres of diversity” is one way of characterising Rioja. The three sub-regions of this beautiful mountainous area – Rioja Alta to the west, Rioja Alavesa to the north and west and Rioja Orientales (previously known as Rioja Baja) to the east – get rain on the northern slopes from Atlantic winds coming south, hot, dry air from the Spain’s central southern belt and damp, warm winds from the Med coming in from the south-east. As the climate gets hotter the challenges increase. Tempranillo, the central grape of Rioja for 150 years and more, doesn’t do too well in the heat. This is less of a problem for other grapes such as Garnacha – but they bring their own challenges. Garnacha can deliver more alcohol than the market wants and doesn’t take that well to vanilla oak treatment, the style that made Rioja’s name and still sells well both in Spain and in the UK, which is Rioja’s no 1 export market. The sheer scale of the region adds to its diversity. 65,000 ha of vines, 567 wineries with DO accreditation and another 150 without, nearly 15,000 growers and an astonishing 1.3 million barrels of oak – a collective investment of £650 million pounds. Even today, it’s not really one region – and tomorrow that will be even less true as terroir-drive producers stake their claim and make their fame.

So how did Andrew express this diversity in a single tasting?

Wine 1 Conde de Haro Cava, 2019 Wine Society, £13.95

We started with a Sparkling Rioja from Muga. Technically this is a traditional method Cava, though made from Viura and Chardonnay rather than the usual Xarel·lo, Viura (aka Macabeu) and Parellada, with bright autolytic character from fermenting in oak. Cava, however, has had an image problem – and a geography problem – for many years. Certainly 95% of Cava is made in Penedes (Catalonia) but there’s little to stop any Spanish sparkling producer using the name.  The nationalist ferment in Catalonia a few years ago led to some consumer boycotts and a chance for other producers to establish their own regional identity.  

Wine 2 Cor de Mei, Martina 2016 14.5%abv, c 15 Euros direct from Bodega

Made by a small, quality-oriented family producer in Rioja Alta, which switched from a 400 year-long heritage of grape-growing to making their own wine in 2015. They only make ‘Reserva’ wines – that is wines with age and this, their 2016, comes from the rare Tempranillo Blanco, discovered only in 1988 when a red Tempranillo vine went rogue. The white bunches were spotted, subjected to massal cloning and is now becoming an increasingly important player in the Riojan scene. A touch of butterscotch and caramel on the nose with grapefruit and grapefruit peel flavours and a waxy/lanolin character. This is a non-DO wine but, as Andrew said, DO certification is pretty lax if you want that accreditation. Yield limits and approved grapes are all that’s needed. Irrigation is accepted but limited simply by lack of water – an increasingly important issue. In response to a question, Andrew said that in his view dry farmed wines were not necessarily better.

Wine 3 Bodega Obalo 2022 Rosado  14% abv C8 Euros direct from Bodega

Of Andrew’s own making this is 100% Tempranillo is produced using the ‘sangrado’ method – that is, grapes are piled into the vat for eight hours and left to drain under their own weight. The free-run juice makes the rosado; the residue on the damp skins is pressed to go into red wine. 2022 was an ‘insanely hot’ year and the alcohol is a touch higher than Andrew would have liked – this year he will be picking earlier. The colour – not the pale pink of Provence, nor the deeper red of Cinsault wines – is a marker for the Bodega and maintaining it was the sole stipulation on Andrew from the winery owners. Some very slight reductive notes with red fruit and a touch of fennel in the finish. All we lacked was the yacht in Menorca…

Wine 4 Eguren Ugarte’s Maceración Carbónica 2022 13.5%abv £11.95 Butlers Wine Cellar

With wine no 4 we moved on to red wines. First up was from the Rioja Alavesa. This is a wine for drinking young (like Beaujolais Nouveau in many ways) and a very traditional style in the Rioja region, though it had some years out of fashion when it was seen as a symbol of Basque independence. 100% Tempranillo and – as the label makes clear – 100% carbonic maceration of whole grape bunches. This delivers a low tannin, vividly coloured and early release red wine with a hint of candied banana that’s low cost and very likeable. Made in a hot dry year, the grapes were picked early so there is some evidence of green tannins.

Wine 5  Sierra de Toloño, La Dula  2021 14% abv £20.95 Ultracomida.com

This wine is definitely not traditional. Made by Sandra Bravo, one of the ‘new faces’ of Rioja who are ‘shaking things up’ it is made from 100% Garnacha grown on 75-year-old old wines  at 650 metres, in the western Rioja, on a plot with vines dating back to 1944. This is borderline country for Garnacha which is usually found further south. Made in clay tinajas, there’s no oak here and the result is an unfiltered wine with blue tints, a pink rim and huge amounts of sweet fruit, a touch of spice and savoury / farmyard character (perhaps a spot of Brettanomyces) and bags of energy. Not for ageing though. Definitely in the ‘drink now’ category.

Wine 6 Kármán’ Tinto 2021 14.5%abv £11.95 Butlers Wine Cellar

This wine comes with a fine ‘Urban Spaceman’ label to complement the name – apparently the Kármán line marks the edge of space! Once such a design would have bene unthinkable but now ‘anything goes’. This is another new project aimed at a new generation of younger drinkers. 88% Garnacha with 12% Tempranillo, fermented in stainless steel with some partial carbonic maceration. The result is smooth and juicy with sweet red fruit from the southern edge of the Rioja Alta and an old established winery. The ‘rosé of red wines’ was Andrew’s brief summation and, as promised, it went down very easily.

Wine 7 Leza Garcia’s Nube 2021  14%abv 8 Euros direct from Bodega

This is another tradition-buster. Made with Maturana Tinta, (described by Andrew as ‘a cabernet franc type of grape’) very dark red / purple, almost fiery in its attack with the bell / green pepper notes of pyrazine complementing rich black fruit. Maturana Tinta is only grown in Rioja. Despite (or because of) mainly maturation in stainless steel and only a few months in American oak, there was nothing vanilla about this wine. Made by a small winery.

Wine 8 Navajas’ Crianza 2017 14%abv £9.25 The Wine Society

With this wine we moved for the first time into more traditional Rioja territory.  Produced on the north-western edge of Rioja Alta from 95% Tempranillo and 5% of other varieties and aged in American and French oak, this a fairly traditional Rioja blend rather than the increasingly terroir-inflected wines we had tasted to this point. This, said Andrew, is currently a rather unfashionable stye. Customers like it – but the critics don’t. However this was many members’ favourite among the reds. It’s probably at its peak now but currently the blackberry fruit is appealing with vanilla notes on the nose and just a hint of farmyard to add complexity. After 2-3 years the fruits will fade.

Wine 9 Lopez Heredia’s Vins Cubillo 2014 13.5%abv £18.00 The Wine Society

From a very traditional house with a great reputation, and a stylish architect designed tasting room, this is classic Rioja to the nth degree. The firm, based in Haro’s famous ‘Barrio de la Estación’, ages its wines far longer than most – Andrew had a story of a bin of 1970 white Rioja that the house still refused to release on the grounds that it was not ready! Slightly oxidative character, less fruit than most of the other wines we had been tasting but very fine – smooth and with notes of game and leather. The firm has its own coopers to prepare and maintain its old American oak barrels and Andrew pointed out the price advantage of American – 600 euros a barrel versus 900-1000 euros for French.

The Barrio de la Estación, which calls itself the ‘greatest concentration of historic bodegas in the world’ hosts an annual tasting called La Cata which, Andrew reckoned, was well worth its 75 euro price – given the quality of the wines from producers such as Muga, Bodegas Bilbaínas, Gomez Cruzado and CVNE (producers of the last wine of the evening), and the gourmet quality of the snacks on offer.  

Wine 10 CVNE, Imperial Reserva 2017 14%abv £26.95 Ultracomida.com

We closed with CVNE’s (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España, erroneously but generally pronounced ‘Cune’)’s Imperial Reserva. This wine, which is made only in good years, is a blend of 85% Tempranillo, with 15% of Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha. Designed to last and improve for a minimum of 5-10 years, it represents the apex of the traditional style of Riojan wine-making with huge amounts of care taken over each component of the blend and the final assemblage taking place only when the aging process (in both American and French oak) is complete. Still tasting youthful with mulberry and vanilla on the nose and powerful cassis in the mouth, which powered a long and elegant finish.

Andrew had taken questions from the floor throughout the night but there were still plenty of more voices and hands raised as we quizzed him about the future of the region. Should producers follow critical taste and diminish the oak and the emphasis on quality as determined by length of aging or should they go more for less extraction, cooler ferments and lower alcohol. In terms of our tasting was Kármán’ Tinto the future or is Navajas’s Crianza the way to go. And what should growers do? For them, uncertainty is a big issue. Some – like Bodegas Familiares (wine no 2) – have moved into wine-making; others look for the security of long-term contracts with the bigger houses. For the houses the best policy seems to be ‘grow some, buy some’ and this philosophy is the one that Andrew’s own bodega espouses.

Giving a very well-deserved vote of thanks, Leah Maclean spoke of the range of the tasting, the wonderful way in which Andrew had identified and explored the tensions in the region and the approachability of his explanations.

  GH: 26/5/23