Mature Riojas 1956-1976: López de Heredia, Cune, Franco-Españolas, Riojanas
Contigo Restaurant, San Francisco, California
Tasted Wednesday, June 1, 2011 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 1,390 views
Introduction
Rare Wine Co.'s Mannie Berk
I really enjoy Rare Wine Co.’s occasional wine dinners, and am glad they’ve started doing more of them in recent years. Mannie Berk, the founder and owner of RWC, usually presides, and he knows how the typically older wines served at these dinners should be handled (e.g., vintage Madeiras, decant and air for a day or two to eliminate bottle stink; old Barolos, decant for three to four hours, both for bottle stink and to give those firm tannins a proper airing; old Riojas, decant for sediment and return immediately to bottle). He also picks great venues for the tastings, which proceed in a logical order, accompanied by informative comments. This time we had the benefit, as we did at the old Barolo tasting in January, of wine writer John Gilman’s presence, as well as Mannie’s knowledgeable comments. Contigo is a very good Catalan tapas restaurant, and our covered patio space for this dinner and the excellent food paired very well with our wines.
Most wine geeks have heard of and tasted López de Heredia’s traditional style, long barrel and bottle aged Riojas. Many in the U.S. seem to have the impression that López de Heredia is unique in producing wines of this style, apparently imagining that their techniques and aging philosophy happened in a vacuum. Mannie reminded us that there were a number of other Rioja producers that evolved at the same time and participated in creating what became Rioja’s winemaking tradition. Some of those producers are no longer in business but a few are. From the late 1800s through the 1970s, they followed much the same winemaking and elevage processes that López de Heredia does, but they haven’t received the same recognition in our contemporary market that López de Heredia has. Of the other producers in our line up, the only one I’d really tried before, besides López de Heredia was C.V.N.E., or Cune as it is popularly known. It was therefore a real treat to try very mature Riojas from these other traditional producers, and to compare them across vintages and cuvée style.
In his introductory remarks at the tasting, Mannie acknowledged that the tasting was a bit of a departure for RWC, in that they hadn’t done a tasting focused on traditional Riojas before, but that “philosophically,” the wines fit in well with the kinds of artisanal, traditional, “wines of place” tastings–of old Barolos, Barbarescos, vintage Madeiras–that RWC has become known for. Mannie has known the López de Heredia family for about 15 years, and RWC was responsible for some of the earliest offerings and promotion of their re-released wines in the U.S. The ’42 and ’47 vintages they offered back then have, Mannie estimated, quintupled in price. López is rather unique in having stayed with the traditional style into current times, while other producers, who followed the same philosophy into the 1970s, have experimented with or changed over to more modern techniques, aimed at more accessible wines at an earlier stage. 
Mannie reminded us that the Rioja traditions owe a lot to phylloxera, and the devastation of the prime vineyards of France beginning in the late 1860s, that led top producers from Bordeaux and elsewhere to seek other sources of grapes from areas that weren’t yet experiencing the same level of devastation as France was. (Phylloxera didn’t hit Rioja until 1899.) Because northern Spain is relatively close to Bordeaux, grapes from this area were shipped during those years to Bordeaux. Bordelais winemakers and merchants around this time also helped establish new wineries, known as “bodegas,” including López de Heredia, Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (CVNE) and Bodegas Franco-Españolas. Bordeaux had a world market by this time, and the most sophisticated winemaking techniques, while Spain was a relative backwater. The French introduced the 225 liter barrique barrel at this time, and advised on planting vineyards. Unlike the model in France, especially Burgundy, the producers in Rioja were very large companies, with hundreds of planted hectares. Their production was at almost an “industrial” level, as compared to France. What is impressive is how they were able to make such good wines on such a large scale, wines that Mannie insisted “have really stood the test of time.”
Despite the Bordelais involvement, the oak used in Rioja has traditionally been American oak, generally from older barrels, or barrels that have been air dried for some years. In recent years, that has begun to change, with a number of Rioja producers using a mix of American and French oak, or even going to all French oak, which has altered the flavor profile of the wines. The long aged top Rioja cuvées have very well integrated oak, but the impact of the sweet, often dill-flavored American oak is part of the signature of these older wines.
Mannie pointed out that another distinctive aspect of the Rioja tradition is that almost every major producer had not one, but two, principal cuvées. One of them is an elegant style, while the other tends to be bigger, richer and beefier. For López de Heredia, the more elegant wine is the Tondonia, with the Viña Bosconia playing the bigger, richer role. For Cune, the more elegant styled wine is the Imperial, with the Viña Real being the bigger, beefier wine. Rather confusingly, the more elegant cuvées tend to be bottled in square shouldered Bordeaux styled bottles, while the bigger, richer ones are typically issued in Burgundy style bottles. In this tasting, we got to try mature versions of both cuvées of most these producers.
The WOTN for me, and apparently all the other attendees, was the 1959 Bodegas Unidas Rioja Fuenmayor Gran Reserva. It was stunning and surprisingly youthful, very much in the model of Marqués de Murrieta’s Castillo Ygay, which wasn’t represented in our tasting. My other top wines of the evening were the 1964 Franco-Españolas Excelso Gran Reserva and the 1976 López de Heredia Gran Reserva Viña Bosconia, which was also the only one of the following wines that I’d tried before. For more detail on the wines and producers, see the flight summaries below.
Flight 1 - Sparkling starter (1 Note)
We started with the latest sparkling wine release for Huët, for which RWC became the American distributor last year. I found it good, if very youthful, although not as complex and minerally as the '02 vintage.
Flight 2 - 1976 Flight (3 Notes)
Idiazabal flan with fava beans, jamon iberico de bellota and mint
Bodegas Riojanas was founded in 1890, and still exists as a traditional house, with a lot of older vintages still for sale. Their more elegant offering has been the Viña Albina, with the Monte Real, which we had in this flight, being the bigger, beefier wine. The current version of the Monte Real on the market is 100% Tempranillo; I don't know if the 1976 was all Tempranillo or not. Here it was up against López de Heredia's bigger wine from the same vintage, the Bosconia, and Cune's more elegant styled wine from the same vintage, the Imperial.
The Bosconia is made from a single 15 hectare vineyard, called El Bosque (much smaller than Tondonia Vineyard, which is over 100 hectares). It consists of 11 hectares of Tempranillo, two of Garnacha and one each of Mazuelo and Graciano. The Bosconia Gran Reserva is made only in exceptional years, from selected grapes, and is aged for eight to 10 years in American oak, and then another 10 years in bottle before release.
C.V.N.E., or Cune, was founded in 1879. I tasted some of their most recent offerings at the Rioja trade tasting I wrote about here, and they're excellent. Recent vintages of their Imperial Gran Reserva, at least back to 1996, have consisted of 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graziano and 5% Mazuelo. They are currently aged in a combination of French and American oak, as opposed to the exclusively American oak barrels that were used back in the '70s. The Cune website gives ratings for Rioja vintages back to 1927 with up to five diamonds for the very best vintages. 1976 is assigned only three diamonds, whereas 1964, the focus of our penultimate flight, is given five diamonds. Nonetheless, 1976 was obviously a good vintage, and our best overall flight of the night. I slightly preferred the LdH Bosconia, which still has a long life ahead of it, but the Cune Imperial was also excellent.
Flight 3 - '75 and '73 Flight (3 Notes)
seared Atlantic scallops with morel mushrooms, asparagus, melted leeks and Tempranillo sauce
In this flight we had a crianza, a wine sold young and not intended for long aging, unlike the reservas and gran reservas. The fact that it had held up this long was remarkable, but it was the weakest wine of the night. The best wine of this flight was easily the Bodegas Riojanas Viña Albina, which lived up to its billing as the more elegant cuvée produced by Bodegas Riojanas. Bodegas Riojanas currently controls over 300 hectares, most of which is planted to Tempranillo, but with a larger proportion devoted to Graciano and Mazuelo than most other Rioja producers. The 2004 version of the Viña Albina included 15% Mazuelo and 5% Graciano, and I'm guessing roughly the same proportions were included in the 1975 that we had. Franco-Españolas apparently no longer makes a Royal Gran Reserva, but their Bordón Gran Reserva is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano that is aged in American oak for 36 months, and then aged in bottle until "the desired bouquet is fully evident."
Flight 4 - 1970 Flight (3 Notes)
1970 appears to have been another very good, long lived vintage in Rioja, and the Cune site gives it four out of five diamonds. The Franco-Españolas bottling in this flight was the Cosecha Especial Bordón, another crianza wine that was made for early drinking. It was mature, but hanging in there--an impressive feat for a 40-year-old wine not marketed as being for long aging. It was the gran reservas, though, that showed their class and true ageworthiness. The Cune Viña Real, the bigger of Cune's two top offerings, was the best in this flight, with decades more of life ahead of it. Viña Real is now the name of Cune's second winery, based in Rioja Alavesa, as opposed to the original Cune, which is based in Rioja Alta. The Viña Real Gran Reservas, back to 1998 at least, have been comprised of 90-95% Tempranillo, with the rest being Graciano or a blend of Graciano, Garnacha and Mazuela. The Monte Real, the beefier offering from Bodegas Riojanas, was also very good, although drinking at or beyond its peak now.
Flight 5 - 1964 Flight (3 Notes)
Roasted Marin sun goat with rosemary, spring peas, baby turnips and romesco sauce
1964 was the greatest Rioja vintage we tasted on this evening according to the Cune website, which gives the vintage its top, five-star rating. These three wines were all good, but the Franco Españolas Excelso Gran Reserva, with its youthful and complex palate, was easily the best of the three for me. The current versions of this wine are a blend of Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano, and are aged for 36 months in American oak, and then aged for additional years in bottle.
Our other two wines in this flight were from Bodegas Bilbainas, which is one of the oldest producers in Rioja, having been established in 1859 by the French company Savignon Frères et Cie. After phylloxera was eliminated in France, the French company decided to sell to a group of businessmen from Bilbao in 1901. They were acquired by the Codorníu Group in 1997. The latest vintage of the Viña Pomal Reserva, 2005, was 100% Tempranillo, aged in American oak barrels for 14 months. Viña Pomal was their bigger, richer bottling, with the Clarete Fino being the more elegant one. As best I can tell, the Clarete Fino is no longer made.
Flight 6 - Fifties Flight (2 Notes)
Our final flight included another Viña Albina from Riojanas, their more elegant bottling. It was a good, classic Rioja, doing remarkably well for 45 years on. The real star of the flight and the night, though, was the Bodegas Unidas Fuenmayor Gran Reserva. Its youthfulness and persistent fruit reminded me of the shockingly youthful old Castillo Ygays I've had in the past, which John Gilman told us are thought to have been made in something of a "solera" style, topped up with more than a small amount of young wine, despite the vintage listed on the bottle. That was the first I'd heard of this about Ygay. John speculated that Fuenmayor might have been influenced by Marqués de Murrieta's success with Ygay, and done a little topping up of their own. I can't glean anything about our 1959 Rioja from Bodegas Unidas's website, which is focused on their current holdings in La Mancha and Manchuela. Fuenmayor happens to be the name of a town in La Rioja, located not far from the provincial capital. If any of my readers can enlighten us further about this wine and its history, I would be most appreciative. It was a delightful if mysterious blast from the past on which to end this unusual and educational tasting.
2005 Domaine Huet Vouvray Pétillant Cuvée Huet Brut 90 Points
France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray Pétillant
Light green tinged yellow color; tart apple, chalk, wet wool, tangy, tart lemon nose; tart apple, tangy, chalk, medium bodied palate with small bead, petillant; will go 7-plus years; medium-plus finish 90+ points
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