pop & pour

Give some love to Rioja. Ramon begs you.

Back in the saddle tonight with a wine from one of my favourite red regions in the world:  Rioja, Spain.  Rioja is located in north-central Spain and is unquestionably the most historically significant wine region in the country.  It is an open question whether it is still the most relevant Spanish wine area today, with other regions like Ribera del Duero (just southwest of Rioja) and Priorat (in the far east near Barcelona) getting more press and attention these days, but I’m always still drawn to Rioja, where both traditional and modern-styled wines are made.  The traditional reds of Rioja are a rarity in the 21st century wine world because they are held and aged by their producers in barrel and bottle until they are deemed ready to drink, which in some cases is decades after harvest; there aren’t too many other industries where a manufacturer of goods would hold onto their inventory (thereby depriving themselves of sales revenue and increasing storage and maintenance costs) until they thought it was just so, but that’s what Old World style Rioja is all about.  More modern examples from this region are aged for less time and are far fruitier and more suited to mass appeal, but they can be less interesting as a result.  This Ramon Bilbao Edicion Limitada is made from 100% Tempranillo (the primary red grape of Rioja) and exhibits both the positive and negative effects of the region’s modern school of winemaking:  it is more approachable and easy to enjoy with many different kinds of food (in my case, pulled pork, a match made in gastronomic heaven), but it is also less distinctive and loses some of its Spanish-ness because of its production style, which creates a flavour profile that could almost be from anywhere. Read the rest of this entry »