Saturday September 21st, 2013
11am-8pm
ALL DAY LONG!
Featuring:
2000 Artadi Pagos Viejos
2001 Artadi Pagos Viejos
2005 Artadi El Pison
Rioja has been in full ferment for more than two centuries, though its wine fortunes were anything but pretty before that. The Old School of Rioja was truly Old School; as in, let's throw these grapes in a stone trough and squish them under our toes and drink what comes out as soon as it's good and alcoholic. Now let's don't get all high and mighty: this is how wine was made since time immemorial all over the world till just a few decades ago.
The concept of blending grapes was also a constant in Rioja, as in Bordeaux and all but a few blessed, special places (I'm looking at you, Burgundy, and German Riesling). The purpose of blending was hardly aesthetic (though it turns out to be a good thing aesthetically) but rather economic: since different grapes flower and ripen at different times, having different grapes offers some protection from the weather's moods.
So it was with ancient Rioja, but those different grapes included reds and whites too. Old School Rioja saw them blended together cuz if it was worth fermenting, you threw those grapes into the stew as soon as they were ripe. And in most cases, Roman and other archeological wine sites reveal only one fermentation trough - so red, white, rose, whatever, it all goes in the pot. Again, no airs please, Chianti REQUIRED white grapes to be included in its red wine blend until a few decades ago.
By the 1790s, a few people in Rioja were giving consideration to doing things a different way - like separating those white and red grapes and even using some new-fangled contraption called a wine barrel. Okay, I exaggerate here; people had been using barrels for transport (and therefore storage) since Roman times. But the authorities in Rioja did not take well to these suggestions from the Quintana brothers (we know that they at least sought permission), and these two simple improvements went untested until the 1850s, when two marquesses (Riscal and Murrieta) wanted to adopt them. Amazing how being a rich and powerful marquis makes the bureaucrats so much more accommodating.
So barrels came in, purchased from across the Pyrenees in Bordeaux. And when Bordeaux was being decimated by phylloxera in the late 19th century, the Bordelais came calling too. They shopped for wine (wait, what? Bordeaux was buying Rioja??) and some of them stayed to teach the Riojans how to make late 19th century styled wine. The format was easy: pick the grapes a bit underripe (Bordeaux's usual weather isn't so great) and because the resulting wines are too tart, put them in barrels for a long time. That time in barrel will soften that tartness for some of the wines, though most of the wines in the barrels will lose their fruit long before softness sets in. But those barrels that retain their fruit are dubbed Gran Reserva wines; they are very special indeed. Sometimes those wines are in barrels for a very long time, a decade or more. That's not how we do things today, but that's how they saw it in the 19th century.
Actually, in Rioja there are still a few brave and sturdy souls who do it this Old School way. Some of us (by that, I mean me) love these wines though they're aren't everyone's cup of Tinto. Instead, the rest of Rioja modernized in the years leading up to and after the death of the dictator Franco; not much had changed during his anti-progressive reign. By the 70s and 80s, people understood that ripe grapes make tasty wines, and too much time in barrels sucks the life out of most wines.
Most producers in Rioja follow these standard winemaking practices. I call them the Modern School. But the last decade or two has seen a new movement that I call the Internationalists. Yes, I know some of you call them Parkerized wines, but that's not fair to either Parker or the wines. Great sites in Rioja can give grapes with terrific expression and in some vintages these grapes can border on overripeness. Whether these descriptors apply or not is up to you. But amongst these vintners skilled with the International Style, Artadi is a poster child, though they would not really appreciate my saying so. It's not that there is something wrong with the International Style, but in the hands of some, the wines can be unbalanced and lack vineyard character. However, not so at Artadi. They have power, richness and character all at once.
Artadi has its nearly 200 acres of vineyards in the highest altitude region of Rioja, Rioja Alavesa, also with the highest proportion of limestone in its soils. The result are wines that have higher acids, and are distinctly longer lived. You don't have to take my word for it. We're offering three different Artadi beauties: the 2005 El Pison and the 2000 and 2001 Pagos Viejos (or old vineyards). The old vineyards in question are El Carretil, La Poza, Valdeginés, Los Olivos, Quintanilla, El Cerradillo and San Lázaro and while that won't mean much to you, these are all pretty sweet spots within Rioja.
Rioja is a region that has ageworthiness as part of its history and in its very DNA. While Artadi won't be aging their wines in barrels for a decade or two any time soon, the wines are easily capable of doing the same thing in your cellar.
And to add to the fun, each of these three wines represents a very different prospect: the 2005 El Pison is lush, juicy and full. It will age gracefully for another decade and then slowly soften and decline, I suspect. The 2000 Pagos Viejos started its life as a somewhat stingy wine, all elbows and ankles. But things have gotten very interesting for this wine over the last few years. I admit to being mystified by how it has developed. I called this wine and maybe even this vintage wrongly from the start, and I'm happy to find out how wrong I was.
But please don't let that admission make you doubt me when it comes to the 2001 Pagos Viejos. This is a spectacular vintage, a lovely, still evolving wine that I would like to follow for the next decade or two, if only I will buy enough of them to do so. You should too.
Happy tasting and we'll see you Saturday!
Cheers,
Doug Frost, MS MW
Master of Wine & Master Sommelier
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