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JR's notes:

After the good but not outstanding tasting by WINE magazine of Rioja wines in May, 1998 (see RIOJA TASTING - May, 1998), the editor asked me to take a look at some really great vintages from the region and to see how they were shaping up, and how they compared with the modern vintages we'd recently tried. This is a run-through of the great vintages and a description of what they are supposed to represent, published in WINE in July, 1998). There's also a 'postscript' explaining the philosophy of gran reserva wines (see GRAN RESERVA - July, 1998). The WINE magazine website is at www.wilmington.co.uk

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Vintage Times: The Riojan Rôle Years

John Radford looks back - and forward - at the great vintages of Rioja

The official line is that Gran Reserva Rioja is only made 'in outstanding years'. On that basis, the standard method of classifying vintages as used by the Consejo Regulador is not a lot of help. Even in poor vintages somebody, somewhere, will have top-quality grapes with the potential to become great wines and, even in great vintages, somebody will manage to louse it up. Putting together a cuvée of wines which will come to its peak in twenty or thirty years' time is not something you learn at œnology school, and nature is notoriously wilful when it comes to providing the perfect conditions to produce those perfect grapes.

However, to take a short cut we'll just consider the years which have been classified as Excelente (E) or Muy Buena (MB) under the standard Spanish system, and see how they run. The years in question are: 1995 (E); 1994 (E); 1991 (MB); 1987 (MB); 1982 (E); 1981 (MB); 1978 (MB); 1970 (MB); 1968 (MB); 1964 (E). Just ten vintages in the final third of the twentieth century (pace the 1998s and 1999s, of course) made the grade. How are they drinking and, perhaps more importantly, how do the older ones compare with the later vintages?

The Crianza laws concerning ageing of Rioja changed during the 1970s to reflect a perceived resistance in export markets to the 'excessive oakiness' of the wine. Some houses chose to ignore the new, shorter maturation times, whilst others welcomed them and, indeed, brought us the 'new-style' Rioja wines which made much of the running in the 1970s and early 1980s - Marqués de Cáceres was one of the foremost amongst them.

But back to our ten great vintages - which or what of them (and from whom) has survived from the past, and what of the blockbusting 90s vintages? Until a year or so ago 1964 was being heralded as the greatest vintage of the century. If you can find examples of the wine (they are few and expensive, but Riscal, for example, may still be found) it's still performing well - starting to fade a little, to be sure, but nevertheless a great vintage. It's often compared with the 1959 which was almost as good (indeed, a few bodegas will tell you that their 1959 was better and that it, not the 1964, is the vintage of the century).

The 1968 showed well and soon but has now virtually disappeared. In any case it was an early-maturing vintage and drank splendidly at ten years old, which probably explains why it's (virtually) no longer with us. The 1970 was more of a stayer and the 1970 Tondonia, for example is still available, certainly in the restaurants of Rioja itself. A recent bottle showed tremendous style and a delicious, slightly-faded grandeur which shows no sign of diminishing. Tondonia, of course, was one of the bodegas which ignored the 'new' Crianza regulations, and this wine probably had anything up to eight years in (old) oak before going into the bottle.

The 1978 and 1981 vintages are often quoted as a pair (rather in the manner of 1959 and 1964) as different bodegas disagree as to the better of the two. For many houses, 1978 was the last of the 'old-style' wines with enormous amounts of oak, and 1981 one of the earliest of the 'new-style' wines, and yet... And yet they have both aged with consummate grace. What few 1978 wines survive show tremendous style - Tondonia (again) is still listing this vintage which is drinking at its absolute peak, with that gentle, floral 'rose-petal' aroma and a perfect balance. It isn't going anywhere but, after twenty years, is still in full sail.

My fondest memories of the 1981 are of CVNE's Imperial Gran Reserva, which is made mainly from Rioja Alta grape. Some seriously judicious winemaking and ageing went into this vintage, and those bottles (and, especially magnums, if you can find them) which are still around are drinking at their peak - again with those 'dried flowers' aromas but an elegant balance between fruit and tannin which should see them through for some time yet.

The same could be said of the last great Excelente vintage before the modern 'era': in 1982 almost everyone made great wine. La Rioja Alta and CVNE in particular made outstanding wines which matured early - perhaps a vindication of the 'new' Crianza regulations with their gentle nudge away from cask-ageing and towards bottle-ageing. In any case these wines are still splendid - if you can find them.

So, are the post-1982 wines as good? Do they age as well? Shall we be singing the praises of the 1994s in thirty years' time as enthusiastically as we remember the 1964s?

In some ways 1987 and 1991 proved to be 'rehearsal years' for many bodegas. Splendid Reservas were made (most notably, perhaps, by La Rioja Alta) but many of the 1987s were peaking in the mid-1990s, and most bodegas released their best wines from the 1989 vintage to fill the gap. The 1991 wines were better - riper grapes with altogether more extract, more tannin and more staying-power, but after the relatively lightweight 1990s they were called into action a bit early and many were snapped up. The traditional bodegas - La Rioja Alta, Tondonia and CVNE again - produced some exemplary wines which are still on the market and still waiting to achieve their peak, eclipsing the disappointing vintages of 1992 and 1993 when both quality and quantity were heavily reduced by frosts and subsequent drought.

What was desperately needed now was a cracking-good vintage to show off just how well the wines were able to perform, and nature obliged not once, but twice, with the outstanding 1994 and the outstanding and copious 1995. Opinions differ as to which of the two is the better, and in any case it's probably too soon to say. The grapes were fully-ripe and spotlessly clean, and the wines are showing deep, dark, full colour with plenty of tannin and extract and the prospect of many years' development. The first 1994 Reservas appeared a few weeks ago and, quite frankly, are nowhere near ready for drinking. Cask samples of the Gran Reservas, which will be released on the 1st February, 2000 are also showing rich, powerful, long-lived style.

The 1995s of both vintages are still in the tank or cask and show remarkably similar characteristics. These are destined to be great vintages - not just from the traditional houses but from more modern wineries, too. The general consensus is that wines from traditional houses will surpass the 1964s in longevity and quality, and those from modern houses will drink from ten tears old with all the fire and brilliance that is Rioja at its best. No-one is prepared to agree, however, on which of the two years is the better: each bodega has its own preference.

So, in spite of all the revolutions in winemaking, marketing and new thinking in the vineyard and the bodega, the Rioja style still shines through - rich, powerful wines with enormous fruit and tannin, ripeness and weight, which will age to an elegant, spicy, lingering maturity over twenty to thirty years... If there's any left. Shortage of supply and very average quality in the 1992s and 1993s means that some bodegas have had to ask for a special dispensation from the Consejo Regulador to release their 1994 Reservas early. It is a crime to drink them. It would be a bigger crime to miss them.

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