White Rioja

So often, customers come into the shop and say, "I'd like a Rioja." But what type of Rioja? Lots of oak, no oak, or something in between? Traditional or modern? Red, rosé, or white?!

After Bordeaux and Burgundy, Rioja is the most recognised wine region in the UK, yet so little is understood about it. When I was studying the WSET Level 3, even the tutor found the old, traditional Rioja we tasted "disturbing." Terms such as Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva, vital for understanding the style of the wine, mean little to the average customer - which is one reason why many modern winemakers don't loudly advertise these terms on their labels.

And then there's white Rioja. It's understandable that white Rioja is still a mystery to most drinkers, as historically it's not a common style. I love hearing the joy in people's reactions when they say, "I've never had a white Rioja before!" They know the name Rioja and are therefore open to trying something they might not otherwise consider. But the term white Rioja doesn't pin it down to something specific; just like a red, it could be very young or very old, designed to be drunk immediately and/or a long time in the distant future, aged in lots of oak or none at all.

so what is white Rioja?

White Rioja used to be made from the Malvasia grape, which is common in Italy; although some Malvasia is still used, the main grape now is Viura. In Catalunya, this is called Macabeo, also known over the border in Roussillon and Languedoc as Maccabeu. It's a fairly bland grape, producing crisp, fresh wines with high acidity. Unoaked white Rioja is no different - it's when oak comes into play that things begin to get interesting. This oaky style falls into two categories - the modern, which might be compared to oaky Chardonnay, and the traditional, which is like nothing else. Here are two examples I've had recently.

the traditional

López de Heredia Viña Gravonia 2003 Crianza (Wine Society, £13.95, no longer available) I tasted this wine with @bleuettextiles, who was tasting it completely blind. Her first sniff elicited a sharply raised eyebrow; looking at the wine again, she asked, "Is it acceptable to put urine as a description?" Not a promising start, but she ended up ranking the wine as outstanding. When asked to guess what it was, the response was a perplexed, "Chardonnay with Sauvignon Blanc maybe?"

"What is this?!"

This wine really is unique. It's not just like an oaky Chardonnay: you can actually taste the wood (it was aged for four years in oak). Its flavours aren't merely autolytic: it's like there's still yeast in the wine. An extraordinary combination of yoghurt and cream; vanilla and bonfire smoke; bananas and potato skins; bread and white pepper. A ten-year-old white that feels so alive and vibrant.

The next night I tasted it again with @winebizkid. Again the raised eyebrow; again the puzzled silence; again the conclusion: "that is just spectacular."

López de Heredia is one of the great traditional Rioja wineries. Run by two sisters continuing the family heritage, it's often referred to as Tondonia, which is their flagship wine for reds, whites, and rosés. Having tried this white Crianza, I really want to try the white Gran Reserva; and as for the Rosado Gran Reserva, I can only try and imagine what that must taste like...

the modern

Allende 2011 (hangingditch, £22.50) Drinking and describing this wine is much more straightforward and anyone familiar with white Burgundy, or its New World equivalent, will feel at home. Compared to Burgundy, though, this wine is much bigger and fuller: butter, cream, and cheese from the MLF; vanilla, smoke, and toast from the oak; and lots of citrus and tropical fruits, with a spicy, cinnamon finish.

This wine demonstrates just how rich and powerful white Rioja can be, and how it's possible to take a traditional style that is difficult to sell and make it into something contemporary and appealing. This isn't a wine, though, that rejects tradition - it's 20% Malvasia, and will age for another ten years.

That fusion of modern and tradition is characteristic of the winemaker, Miguel Angel de Gregorio. Against tradition, he uses new French oak instead of American; he makes single-vineyard wines suited to each vintage; and he refuses to use the terms Crianza, Reserva, or Gran Reserva. Yet with the use of oak and indigenous grapes, the wines are distinctly Rioja; and he's traditional enough not to have a functioning website.

the future

Due to the popularity in general of Rioja, its white versions definitely have a large market to tap into. A wine such as the López de Heredia is never going to have a large following, but rich, powerful, oaky wines like the Allende make a punchy statement for those who like their wines big and upfront. Young, unoaked wines will likewise appeal to those looking for easy-going, everyday drinking wines. These variety of styles make white Rioja a style to watch.

the terms

These indicate how long a wine has been aged, and refer to the style of wine and not necessarily the quality. The terms apply throughout Spain, though they are not always used (and the ageing requirements for Crianzas are less in the rest of Spain than in Rioja or Ribero del Deuro).

	white/rosé	red
joven	no minimum ageing requirement	no minimum ageing requirement
crianza	aged 18 months before release	aged 2 years before release, minimum 12 months in oak
reserva	aged 18 months before release, minimum 6 months in oak	aged 3 years before release, minimum 24 months in oak
gran reserva	aged 4 years before release, minimum 12 months in oak	aged 5 years before release, minimum 36 months in oak

Matching food and wine: cheese and meat

Wondering about the theme of food and wine matching, @winebizkid and I found ourselves at the Bakerie in Manchester, where we tested a wine against three different cheeses and three different meats.

what we drank

Lagrein Cantina Tramin 2011 (Alto Adige, £29.95). Indigenous to the Alto Adige region (a heavily Germanic area also called Südtirol), Lagrein is a grape described by Oz Clarke in Grapes and Wines as having "a flavour of sour plums...bitter cherries, some black chocolate richness and deep, dark colour, but it is not very tannic," which sums up the wine we tasted well. Despite that lack of tannins, the chocolately dark fruits and its high acidity meant that it was strong enough to stand up to the cheeses and meats, and indeed overpowered some of them.

a table of wine, cheeses, and meat, with accoutrements

 

what we ate

three meats

chorizo - hot, spicy chorizo with a wine from Teutonic Italy: there was enough depth of flavour to the wine to hold up to the powerful tastes of chorizo cooked in a wine sauce, but it needed more of the oaky tannins of a Spanish wine to soak up the juicy, spicy meat.

lamb kofta - the high acidity of the wine added a needed juiciness to this Mediterranean lamb skewer; however, the minty lamb and the wine's chocolate fruit were an interesting but not quite convincing contrast.

serrano - the beautiful, soft, gorgeous flavours of the ham were lost in the dark fruits of the wine: both fantastic food and drink, but to be tried separately. (This is where I started eulogising about sherry, and how fino would be a perfect partner to this ham.)

three cheeses

lancashire - this was my favourite of the cheeses: soft and crumbly with a dry, salty finish. The wine added acidity and fruitiness to the cheese, but the cheese's subtle finish ended up being dominated by the wine. This is a cheese that would go well with the mature, red fruit flavours of a Burgundy Pinot Noir.

halloumi - with halloumi, the cheese squeaks in the mouth, pops, and then disappears. It's great, but a unique sensation. Tasting it with the wine was something similar: an immediate satsifaction followed by confusion at the competing flavours.

smoked cheddar - such a smoky cheese can dominate a wine that lacks body or intensity, but the Lagrein perfectly complemented the cheese's smokiness with its earthy fruitiness. This was a wine and cheese match that just kept on giving, demonstrating that a food and a wine from different parts of Europe can have attributes that work very well together.

smoked cheddar and Lagrein: a perfect pairing

overall

The wine, made from the Lagrein grape, high in acidity, relatively low in tannin, went better with the cheeses than the meat, yet it was the cheese with the strongest flavour that it worked best with, and one that wasn't a regional pairing. This showed the purpose, and fun, of experimentation: finding out which foods and wines unexpectedly go together, in this case English smoked cheddar and Alto Adige Lagrein. Of course, the experiment would have been more complete if we had tried more wines, but there were only two of us...

A Vegetarian Christmas

Christmas can't be an ideal time to be a vegetarian; all that turkey and when it's not turkey it's goose, or some other game. However, there are plenty of vegetarian food options - the BBC, Jamie Oliver, and the Vegetarian Society have some good recipes - which can be as rich and decadent as a traditional Christmas meal - and, after all, all those side dishes are meat free.

Matching wine with vegetarian food is not as obvious as with meat or fish. The great wines of France, Spain, and Italy have developed in tandem with the local gastronomic culture, which has usually involved meat or fish dishes, and these are countries where vegetarian food can still be difficult to find.

What this means, though, is that matching vegetarian food with wine is not based on tradition but innovation, and you can really experiment with both food and wine. Thinking about matching flavour intensity rather than specific flavours, here are some pairing recommendations based on styles of wine.

Champagne

Any Christmas meal should start with a bit of fizz, and the yeasty, bready, toasty flavours of Champagne make it a great match for canapés, pastries, tarts, bruschetta, or even poppadoms.

Sauvignon Blanc

The aromas of Sauvignon Blanc are intensely green - apple, gooseberry, green bell pepper, asparagus. Goat's cheese salad is a perfect match: this polenta and goat's cheese stacks recipe would be a much more indulgent and Christmassy option.

Gewurztraminer

This is where you can really start to experiment. Gewurztraminer is often off-dry (particularly if it's from Alsace) and has rich, opulent flavours of tropical fruits (think lychee and mango) that makes it a great pairing for spicy Asian food, particularly Thai or Vietnamese. It may not sound that Christmassy, but that just depends on what you want to eat on Christmas day.

Pinot Gris

Pinot Gris is the same grape as Pinot Grigio, but it's picked much later on in the harvest, meaning that it has much deeper, richer aromas and may be quite a bit sweeter. Whereas Pinot Grigio is an easy-drinking aperitif, Pinot Gris can accompany an array of foods. Again, like Gewurztraminer, the nutty depth of Pinot Gris can stand up to spicy food: I recently had a New Zealand Pinot Gris alongside an aubergine and cauliflower rogan josh curry (at Green's in West Didsbury) and its nutty spiciness added further complexity to the meal. This Christmas curry would similarly benefit from being paired with Pinot Gris.

Italian Reds

Due to their high acidity and high tannins, Italian reds are at their best as food wines. The reason that Italian reds are so high in acidity is to match the sauces in pasta, so it doesn't matter whether there's meat in the pasta dish or not: it's all about the rich sauce accompanying it. Jamie Oliver recommends a couple of spinach-based pasta dishes that a Chianti or Valpolicella would be great with.

Pinot Noir

A grape that tradition pairs with game, but the earthy characteristics of Pinot Noir mean that it will go perfectly with any mushroom-based dish. This vegetarian Christmas roast almost demands a bit of Burgundy.

Sweet Wine

At the end of the meal, veggies and carnivores can get together in sweet harmony and share a sherry and Christmas pudding or port and cheese. For sherries, seek out in particular the intensely sweet Pedro Ximénez style. The French may not make their wines to suit vegetarian palates, but there's one combination that works well: Sauternes and blue cheese. Now there's a way to end Christmas day...

Calvados

Calvados is not a drink you encounter that often, so it was exciting to be able to taste three examples the other day. I wasn't disappointed - these were drinks with up-front, robust, rich flavours that lingered in the mouth.

what is Calvados?

Calvados is an apple brandy from Normandy, though it can also be made from pears. There are two hundred apple varieties allowed but a producer is looking to use three styles of apples which will each offer sweetness, sourness, and acidity. It's always made using pot stills; after distillation, it's matured in new oak for a short time, before being moved to old oak barrels to limit the astringent tannins from new oak and to allow the natural aromas to develop under controlled oxidisation. This also means that older Calvados is a paler colour than Cognac of the same age.

There are three different appellations: AOC Calvados, a large area where the rules are less stringent, AOC Calvados Pays d'Auge, where the best quality Calvados is made, and the newish AOC Calvados Domfrontais, where pears are used. The three Calvados I tasted were all from Pays d'Auge.

The ageing terms aren't as important as Cognac, where they serve as part of the brand, and as with Cognac the best wines are often much older than the term suggests. All Calvados must be aged for at least two years: VSOP has to be at least four years old and Hors d'Age six.

what we tasted

VSOP Dupont (£55, hangingditch) - from Domaine Dupont, a smallish producer: gentle aromas of apple skins and cinnamon, with a robust, rustic palate and citrus fruits and sweet spices.

Dupont Hors d'Age (£75, hangingditch) - aged for around 10-12 years. Elegant aromas of rose, jasmine, and fine spice, with a rich mouth of creamy stewed apples, cinnamon, and ginger. Stunning.

Adrien Camut 12 years (NA; 6 year old, £65, hangingditch) - from an even smaller producer. Aged with more new oak than the other wines, so had a darker, caramel-brown colour. Made even more unusual in that the base drink - cider - was aged in oak for a year before distillation. Despite this longer ageing process, this Calvados had wonderful balance: cream, caramel, poached apples, cinnamon, and tarte tatin.

when to drink Calvados

The natural sweetness makes Calvados an ideal digestif, particularly after a fruity dessert or a light meat dish served in a fruit sauce. The tradition in Normandy is typically opulent: trou normand is a ten- to fifteen-course banquet where each dish is followed by a glass of Calvados, starting with the youngest and finishing with the oldest. Not sure I could survive that!

An Aromatic Flight

Apart from simply writing about what I love thinking and talking about, one of the main reasons I started this blog was to record how I progress in the WSET Diploma which I begin in January, what I learn from it, and where it leads me.

One of the many daunting aspects of the Diploma is the blind tasting, where you are asked to provide detailed tasting notes on flights of wine, including spotting the identity of a wine and its age.

To help practise this technique, the WSET recommends a series of flights to taste, such as "Full-bodied spicy reds" (Shiraz, Zinfandel, Malbec) or "Old-World Oaked Whites" (Côte de Beaune, Rioja, Cru Classé Bordeaux). The only problem with this advice is that some of the flights suggested are quite expensive - "Gamey, Strawberry-ish reds" (Burgundy, Barolo, Rioja) - and you need like-minded people to share the wines with.

For this reason - and despite tasting lots of wine in the meantime - I had until now only gone through one of the recommended flights, "Syrah/Shiraz" (Northern Rhône, South-Eastern Australia, Barossa). Here, identifying the inexpensive wine was straightforward, but less so distinguishing between the French Syrah and Barossa Shiraz, showing just far from its stereotypes premium Australian Shiraz lies.

I finally rectified this lack of flight tasting by haphazardly creating a version of the recommended flight of "Unoaked aromatic whites" (Alsace Gewurztraminer, Argentinian Torrontés, Dry Muscat). Not having two of these in the house, I opted for an Australian Viognier and a Vinho Verde, as well as an Alsace Gewurztraminer, all of which are available from the Wine Society.

Knowing what the wines were, if not which ones were which, clearly helped. The distinctive aromas of Gewurztraminer leapt out of the glass and the slight spritz pointed towards the Vinho Verde, leaving the Viognier as a process of deduction. Next, it's braving tasting wines completely blind...

what we tasted

Vinho Verde, Viognier, Gewurztraminer

 

Dócil Vinho Verde, Niepoort 2012, £9.95

Vinho Verde is the only region in Portugal known for its white wines. Possessing a floral aroma with a slight sparkle, it can be made from a variety of grapes, including, as here, Loureiro.
Dirk Niepoort is a character in the Portuguese wine scene; from an important port family, he also produces great reds and whites from the Douro, but I didn't know he also made Vinho Verde. However, this wine didn't have the character of his Douro whites I've tasted.
Tasting notes: deep lemon-green colour; citrus fruits (grapefruit, lemon) and tropical fruits (banana) on the nose, with medium(-) intensity; high acidity, medium intensity and body, and same citrus fruits on the palate, with a spicy (ginger) finish.
Overall conclusion: good. Nose lacking, but spicy finish on mouth.

Princes Abbés, Schlumberger 2011, £13.50

From an historic, and Alsace's largest, estate, you could smell the rich aromas of Gewurztraminer before you even picked up the glass.
Tasting notes: medium gold colour; pronounced intensity on the nose, with tropical fruits (lychee, mango, pineapple), stone fruits (apricot), and citrus fruits (orange peel and marmalade); on the palate, medium-dry, medium(+) acidity and intensity; fruits as above, with a medium(+) finish.
Overall conclusion: good. I felt that the acidity wasn't quite high enough to balance the sweetness.

Tahbilk Viognier 2012

Tahbilk, from Nagambie Lakes in Victoria, own the oldest Marsanne vines in the world, dating back to the 1860s. I've tasted their Marsanne wines before - nutty, danky, and weirdly ageworthy - but this is the first time I've had any of their other wines. Viognier is a grape which produces perfumed, floral wines and this was the best wine of the three.
Tasting notes: medium lemon colour; green fruits (apples and ripe pears), tropical fruits (mango, passion fruit), kernel, and possibly some MLF; medium(+) acidity, body, and flavour intensity on the palate, with pine nuts, cinnamon, white pepper, as well as green and tropical fruits, with a long finish.
Conclusion: very good. Depth of flavour and intensity, though spices dominate the finish.

Three good wines which, despite all being aromatic, were quite different: a fresh Vinho Verde, a medium-dry Gewurztraminer, and a fuller-bodied Viognier. The New World screwcap wins...

Drinking (and eating) for Christmas

Last Thursday, I celebrated my first ever Thanksgiving, followed on Friday by my second. I can now see why Americans make such a big deal of it - the cold, dark days of November are brightened by food, wine, friends, and family. It also introduces the festive season, and got me in the mood for Christmas much earlier than I usually am.

This had me reflecting on food and wine pairings for the Christmas season and what wines I should be thinking of getting in. Like Thanksgiving, Christmas is a time for rich foods and you need to find wines to match. That doesn't limit your options though; instead it increases the range of food and wine pairings you can come up with.

food & wine

 

Pairing food and wine is taken very seriously by some, with extremely specific recommendations offered. Trying to match flavours in both wine and food is great up to a point, but it's difficult to find such exact matches. It's much more fun experimenting and you'll discover surprisingly successful pairings. However, there are some guidelines that are useful to follow. Don't try and match the flavours, but think instead about their intensity: neither the wine nor the dish should overwhelm the other. Likewise, think about acidity and sweetness: the two should roughly correspond.

the line-up from Thursday's Thanksgiving, showing just how many styles of wine fit this kind of meal

turkey

 

Turkey is a food high in acidity, so you need a wine to match. But with all the sauces and side dishes that come with it at Christmas, the wine has to have enough depth of flavour. For whites, think of a dry Riesling: the crisp acidity and lively citrus flavours will cut into the turkey's richness. We had Billi Billi Riesling from Mt. Langi Ghiran in Victoria, Australia (hangingditch, £12.50); although delicate, its fresh acidity provided an invigorating contrast to the heaviness of the food. Alternatively, a full-bodied white will fit in with a weighty Christmas meal. For the second Thanksgiving celebration, we tried an aromatic blend from Prieuré de St-Jean-de-Bébian, Languedoc (Spirited Wines, Deansgate, around £18); rich, creamy, and nutty, it went well with the mash and béchamel sauce.

For reds, Pinot Noir is a classic pairing. With its high acidity and red fruits, Pinot Noir is not just a great match for turkey but also for the accompanying cranberry sauce. We tried two very different Pinot Noirs, which demonstrated how two wines can interact with food in varying ways. I brought one that I had tried on a recent trip to Oregon. White Rose Estate (unavailable UK; $60) describe themselves as "neo-classical"; the combination of upfront red fruits (New World style) and grainy tannins (Old World style) paired deliciously well with the turkey: like adding a juicy sauce to add on to the cranberry. The Digioia-Royer Chambolle-Musigny Vieille Vignes 2004 was a maturer, more reflective wine and quite a contrast (hangingditch, £35). Here, the earthy flavours acted more like a mushroom sauce. When choosing a wine, do think of its age: a youthful, fruity wine will be quite a different match than an older wine.

Oregon 2011 v Burgundy 2004

goose

 

Not something we had at Thanksgiving, goose is an increasingly popular alternative to turkey on Christmas Day in the UK. Again, acidity is all important; you also need a wine that will cut through the fat. An Alsatian Riesling will do just that, while something richer and creamier like oaky Chardonnay or aromatic Pinot Gris will add so much flavour. For reds, you can stick with Pinot Noir, but, as goose is a bigger, fattier dish than turkey, you can go big and get a wine with lots of oak and tannins - wines from South-West France, such as Madiran, are great options. A less obvious alternative could be a Portuguese red, particularly from the Douro.

pudding

 

Here, you really are spoilt for choice as there are so many great sweet wines out there. The important thing to remember is that the food should have at least the same level of sweetness as the wine. As puddings at Christmas are full of all sorts of rich, sweet flavours, that shouldn't be a problem. Pedro Ximénez sherry is the perfect option: its rich, dark, toffee flavours are sublime with Christmas pudding. And, of course, port is the ideal drink to finish off a long meal. There are two particular styles that work especially well at Christmas: the chocolate and dark fruits of a Late Bottled Vintage or the more mature fruits of a Vintage Port. Two wines I would recommend from hangingditch are Portal LBV 2008 (£20) and Delaforce 1994 (£55), the latter of which we tried with our dessert at Thanksgiving: the balanced fruity sweetness went so well with the pumpkin pie. Quite simply, there is no better way to end a meal than with a decadent dessert and a sumptuous sweet wine: roll on Christmas!