Wine & Spirits - December 2013 - (Page 92)

YEAR'S BEST RIOJA Our blind panels tasted 284 new-release Rioja wines over the past 12 months. Joshua Greene, our critic for Rioja, rated 36 as exceptional (90+) and 32 as Best Buys. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com. 90 | Cune RIOJA W H I T E 191801 95 | R. López de Heredia $52 1998 Rioja Reserva Viña Tondonia ^ This blend of viura with ten percent malvasia from the López de Heredia family's historic vineyard in Haro has become a wine geek obsession. It's a wine out of time, a throwback to a different era when old vines produced fruit with a concentrated mineral essence of its place, when growers left the fruit to ferment in old wood without adding yeast, then aged it in cellars thick with black mold, first in old barrels, then in bottle, tending the wine until it was just reaching maturity, and selling it for what you might spend on a simple, one-year-old Burgundy. Open this traditional white Rioja and you'll find a fresh and fragrant wine, the vibrant fruit flavors hinting at white raspberry and kumquat, the wood age lending a buzz of ginger, cinnamon and honeycomb. The detail in the flavor grows more precise as the wine gains luscious, creamy textures with a day of air. Delicious. § Think Global, Santa Barbara, CA $13 90 | Conde de Valdemar $15 2012 Rioja Monopole (Best Buy) ^ One of the most reliable values in Rioja white, this viura offers tart green apple scents and richer stone fruit flavors, lasting on clean nectarine freshness. A great white for tapas, particularly pulpo a la gallega. § Europvin USA, Van Nuys, CA 191123 2012 Rioja Viura (Best Buy) ^ Warm scents of orange, grapefruit and lanolin play off this wine's talc-like acidity. The flavors turn juicy and bright with air, ripe with pineapple notes, finishing clean. Decant this for any roast fish. § CIV (USA), Sacramento, CA 192168 91 | Conde de Valdemar $16 2012 Rioja Finca Alto Cantabria (Best Buy) ^ Alto Cantabria is a high, flat, sandstone mesa overlooking Logroño, several hundred feet below. The Martinez-Bujanda family planted viura here in 1974, and ferments the fruit of those mature vines in barrique to produce a rich, creamy, mineral-inflected white. The oak plays a background role, hinting at toasted pine nut flavors, a contrast to the cool, jasmine-scented fruit. Suited to aging, or for decanting now with grilled salmon. § CIV (USA), Sacramento, CA 192624 92 WINE & SPIRITS DECEMBER 2013 $15 88 | Conde de Valdemar 193264 90 | Dinastía Vivanco $15 86 | Tobia in the company's Viña Real winery, located between Logroño and Laguardia. The style of the wine is conservative and aristocratic, with a mineral spine of tannins that keeps the fruit standing straight, and yet it feels completely relaxed in all of its intensity and power. The sweetness and fatness of the fruit cushions the tannins so that their soil-driven strength becomes supple. Dynamic and remarkably long in flavor, this is a Rioja for the ages. § Europvin USA, Van Nuys, CA 192169 94 | Dinastía Vivanco $110 2008 Rioja Colección Vivanco Parcelas de Graciano ^ The Vivanco family farms 740 acres of estate vines, mostly in Briones and Haro, in La Rioja Alta. Their top selection of graciano is a wine you should buy for the smell alone-a crazy aroma that grinds green peppercorn, tobacco, fresh herbs and spicy grape skins into something extraordinary. And then there's the juice, which is almost as complex, with dark cherry depths and stoniness that makes it mouthwatering. This is a gripping young wine, a varietal singularity that breaks from the traditional taste of Rioja while remaining firmly grounded in the place. § Opici Wines, Glen Rock, NJ $11 2012 Rioja Viura-Malvasia-Tempranillo Blanco (Best Buy) ^ Quince and green pear flavors fill out this wine's golden velvet nap, while dusty acidity keeps those rich flavors dry. A simple white, finely balanced, ready to serve with roast hake. § Opici Wines, Glen Rock, NJ 189322 2011 Rioja Finca Alto Cantabria (Best Buy) ^ Scents of pine nuts and clean pineapple flavors mirror the character of the 2012 (also recommended here), though this vintage feels simpler, a clean and juicy white with leesiness in the finish. It may develop more complexity with a few years of bottle age. § CIV (USA), Sacramento, CA 192026 2012 Rioja Forever Young (Best Buy) ^ A lively blend of viura with verdejo, malvasia, tempranillo blanco and sauvignon blanc, this is creamy in its modest weight, and sparkling clean. Chill it for grilled calamari. § Patagonia Wine and Imports, Greenville, SC RIOJA RED 192632 95 | Cune $100 2004 Rioja Pagos de Viña Real ^ A selection of tempranillo grapes from Cune's estate vineyards in Rioja Alavesa, this is produced 192470 94 | Marqués de Murrieta $89 2005 Rioja Gran Reserva Especial Castillo Ygay ^ From 45-year-old vines at La Plana, a plateau of limestone and river rocks at 1,600 feet on Murrieta's Finca Ygay, this vintage blends tempranillo with 11 percent mazuelo. It's a Super Rioja, physically more powerful though perhaps less immediately terroir expressive than the 2004. The detail is all incipient in the wine, sparkling with acid- http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com http://www.civusa.com/portfolio-wine-list/conde-de-valdemar-d-o-ca-rioja/ http://www.mmdusa.net/Marques-de-Murrieta/index

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - December 2013

Wine & Spirits - December 2013
Editor’s Note
Happenings
Contents
Fined & Filtered
Acid Trips
The Great Whiskey Shortage of 2013
Spirits
Gadgets and Gi
New Destinations
Where to Eat & Drink in Seattle
Turning Champagne into Wine
Barolo & Formaggio
Douro, No Apologies
Walla Walla Cabernet
The Best for $10 or Less
Overview
Champagne
US Sparkling Wine
US Cabernet Sauvignon
Alsace
German Riesling
2011 Vintage Port
Barolo & Barbaresco
Rioja
US New Releases
International New Releases
Wine & Spirits Top 100

Wine & Spirits - December 2013