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JR's notes:

WINE magazine conducts one or more blind tastings every month and this article is a report on a tasting held in the spring of 1998. I was asked to pull together the opinions of the tasters, and this article appeared in May, 1998. You can see more about WINE magazine on their website: www.wilmington.co.uk

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RIOJA: ANCIENT AND MODERN

Rioja got its long-awaited blockbusting vintage in 1994 after years of drought, frost, hail and botrytis so, as the first reserva wines come on to the market, it should be easy to tell them from the lacklustre performers of 1993, shouldn't it? Well, perhaps not. JOHN RADFORD reflects on this month's tasting of crianza and reserva wines from the 1993 and 1994 vintages.

The sliding scale of vintage quality in Spain is sledgehammer-subtle. There are five points on it: Deficiente, Regular, Buena (good), Muy Buena (very good) and Excelente. There was an Excelente vintage in 1982 and then there wasn't another one until 1994. Between these two dates (in time for the 1991 vintage, to be precise) Rioja had been elevated to the magical status of Denominación de Origen Calificada and the bodegueros were champing at the bit, desperate to prove to the world what they really could do in the brave new world of DOCa Rioja. Nature responded with a Muy Buenain 1991 and many a brave face was put on some very good wines, but it wasn't what they were really looking for. Drought affected the 1992 vintage, which managed a meagre Buena, and, when the drought finally broke, it did so in late August 1993, with the grapes still on the vines and 40 mm of rain in five days. Much of the grape which survived the d ownpour went down with Botrytis, the vintage rated another apologetic Buena, and the harvest was down to about 80% of normal. What do you do with these grapes?

In 1994, drought problem over, frost destroyed between 10% and 30% of the buds during an early flowering and some vineyards simply never caught up. However, for once the weather behaved itself during the ripening period, and the final harvest (although even smaller than that of the previous year) delivered the Excelente goods. Grape arrived at the bodegas in perfect condition: clean, healthy, fully ripe and ready to demonstrate the very best that Rioja can do. So what do you do with these grapes?

The received wisdom is that good winemakers will do the best they can with what they have. In other words it's better to make your best possible crianza than a just-made-it reserva, so we might expect the best wines from the 1993 to be crianzas, mellowing nicely now after a comfortable period of bottle-ageing, with a sprinkling of reserva wines made from the small quantity of very good grapes that are always available, whatever the vintage quality. Similarly, the best of the 1994s must, in the spring of 1998, surely still be wrapp'd in their oaken womb waiting for the release of the greatest gran reservas since 1982? Meanwhile the first crianzas will be showing their bright, bud-like fruit along with the bluebells, and the odd reserva may even have made its way here since release on New Year's Day... Probably still rich with tannins and needful of a couple more years' silent contemplation before it'll be ready to drink?

Not necessarily. It is true that more of the 1993s showed traditional Rioja style, and more of the 1994s showed the more modern, fruit-up-front Tempranillo-rich winemaking favoured by the new breed of individual winemaker, but our top six wines overall include three from each vintage, and our top twenty features seven wines from 1993 (out of a total of 23) and 13 from 1994 (out of a total of 26). It was good to see even this many 1993 reservas showing well: demonstrating that the winemakers hadn't all allowed themselves to be carried away by over-oaking, and also that bottle-ageing for the extra year or two really can make a difference. However, most of the tasters remarked on the 'thin', 'watery' or 'washed out' style of some of the wines, as well as the occasional 'dirty old barrel' nose which suggests that too many winemakers are still trying to over-extract from grapes which are simply not ripe enough to deliver, in poorer-quality years.

The 1994s, in general came in for praise, although it was surprising to see no less than ten reserva wines already on sale - bearing in mind that the official release date for these wines was January 1st, 1998 - just 37 days before the tasting. They can scarcely be representative of reservas which will be released next year and the year after, when we might expect to see some of that spectacular fruit a little further unfurl'd against a clean, oaky backdrop. However, these are what the market is currently offering and, to be sure, one of them made the top six and seven made the top 20.

However sadly and, perhaps, undeservedly, many of the tasters responded with disappointment at the range of wines on offer. Almost everybody remarked on the 'dirty barrel' and 'dilute' character of some of the wines. Some were confused at the divergence of 'post-modern' and 'traditional' styles and asked whether Rioja had abandoned its age-old strengths to pursue an internationalist chimæra - others admired the choice offered by the differing styles and the individualism of the smaller, new-wave bodegas. Richard Mayson and Derek Smedley picked up on some 'over-extracted wines' from the 1994 vintage, although Derek remarked that some of the 1994s were obviously too young and should not yet have been released; Debby Collinson and Lena Inger lamented the lack of finesse in many of the wines; Annette Duce found a lack of personality; Chris Losh found the 1993 wines 'grotesquely over-oxidised' and some of the 1994s 'only average... In a great vintage'; David Grandorge felt that t he style had wandered from what people expect and that, whilst Tempranillo-rich wines with plenty of fruit might be good on the market they didn't have the complexity of the real thing; and Caspar Auchterlonie found 'a very worrying trend' that 'regional style is becoming sacrificed on the altar of international style'; Richard James agreed that the style was 'rather indefinable', but found a 'mixed bag' had a selection of 'fair to good' in it.

On a more positive note, Ian Latchford found 'lots of basic wine faults' but still confessed himself 'pleasantly surprised'; Neil Courtier agreed that some of the 1994s were too young for release but seemed pleased to detect a 'house/bodega style' of winemaking which offered an alternative to the traditional style; Charles Metcalfe noted the divergence between old and new but admired this as 'a good pointer to changing styles in Rioja'; Constantine Lazarakis 'came across wines which show how Rioja became a world-class wine'; Andrew Chapman found 'a number of top-flight wines... (which) did a lot to restore Rioja's reputation'; François de Broglio commented that 'the top wines (of the 1994 vintage) will be fabulous'; Richard Nunn found 'some good wines that were a joy to taste now and showed promise for the future'; Stephen Barrett came out as a 'fruitie' demanding a change to the regulations with a demand for 'fresh, juicy, lipsmacking Riojas, any time'; and Nigel Room, in a rather more measured response, described the range as 'fair to average wines with a few stars... Depending on the price, I would be... Quite pleased to purchase these wines as a consumer'.

So, were the wines any good? The top twenty scored 83+ and the top nine 85+ so, in spite of the moans, the wines certainly seem to have done the business. Perhaps it's because Rioja has become such a close friend over the years that, like a member of the family, we feel free to criticise it more readily (and more often) than we would with a stranger. Certainly there's work to be done, and poor winemaking is still to be found, although it seems to be in decline. Equally certainly there's no shortage of choice in style amongst the wines tasted here and, as for value for money - well, the prices speak for themselves. Ancient or modern? I'll take both.

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