It never fails
to amaze me, the power of a brand. It’s ability to stay in peoples’ heads. Or
maybe I’m giving to much credit to the brand, maybe people just don’t make
enough of an effort to discover other brands. The brand I’m referring to is
Rioja wine. Not technically a brand perhaps but the purposes of my debate I’ll
refer to it as that.
Surely one of the world’s best known
wine regions, no wine producing country has such a solely dominant name as
Rioja. France has Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Loire etc. Italy has Chianti, Barolo and so on (not
regions of course but my point is recognizable ‘brands’. People don’t necessarily see wine in specific
terms, i.e., a region, a sub-region, a denomination, they see it in terms of
names.
Now, Spain makes a lot of wine but how
much could the average wine drinker on the street name? Cava? Sherry(at a
push)? And possibly for the aficionado, Ribero Del Duero?
I’m lucky enough to spend a fair
amount of time in Spain and when I go I always buy more Ribero than Rioja. Not to
say that it’s better, but I have a soft spot for it. Ribero is to a certain
degree, the new kid in Town (though the Vega Sicilia DO has been making fine
wines that rival Rioja’s greatest for a long, long time). The Duero river is in fact the same Douro
river that runs through Portugal where they make Port and it is similarly
rugged and harsh in climate. On a high plateau in northern central Spain near
the city of Valladolid (trying saying that a few too many glasses of Tinto), extreme
temperatures and altitude give a shorter growing season than Rioja but these
extremes, of course, help to shape the character of the wine. The good news for
you Rioja fans is that the grapes are the same; well almost, Tempranillo as it’s
widely known, the main grape of Rioja, Tinta del Pais in Ribero. It’s a variant
that has adapted to the local conditions. Essentially, Ribero wines are perhaps
a bit more robust, a bit more muscular, a bit more intense than their cousins
from Rioja.
In other words, there’s a place for
both. I love Rioja too, nothing beats the soft, velvety finish of a Gran
Reserva. Ultimately like everything it comes down to personal taste. The Spain
(Andalucía) I know is closer to Ribero in character. Hot, extreme, intense and
yet somehow also romantic. Maybe that’s all it is. Anyway, if Ribero is unknown
to you, go out and get some and decide for yourself.
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