We
live in troubled times. It seems that everyone is quarrelling with
each other, co-operation appears to be a swear word, and working together for a
greater good is a mere pipe-dream of out-of-touch hippies. Against this
backdrop it was wonderfully refreshing to visit somewhere in the world that represents the antithesis of this; the Haro region of
Rioja Alta. In the picturesque, slightly sleepy town of Haro you find
the premises of the sub-region’s seven wine producers: Viña Pomal,
CVNE, Gómez Cruzado, López de Heredia, Roda, Muga and La Rioja Alta. All
of these producers are to be found in the town’s Barrio de la Estación (neighbourhood around the station) as they back onto the local railway station due to the historical
importance of being able to load the wine for distribution across the
country, and indeed, the world.
Each of these producers are renowned in
their own right for producing wonderful Rioja wine and are fiercely
proud of their products and their provenance. Against this backdrop,
you’d expect to find a sharp rivalry, or perhaps even open hostility
between the producers. Au contraire! Instead, the producers have decided
in recent times that their strength lies in their combined value as a
sub-region and, building on this, committed to putting on a combined
event that showcased the glory of their wines, their terroir and their region. The event is known as the “La Cata del Barrio de la Estación” which translates as "the tasting of the neighbourhood around the station"
and takes place biennially. The main event is held over a weekend,
where around 3,500 people visit the celebration and partake in the
wines. On the Monday afterwards, there is a private tasting for 800 or
so sommeliers, wine journalists, wine bloggers. I was lucky enough to be
invited to this year’s event, which was the third time that they have
held it. Previously I had not tried anything better than mid-level Rioja
and was familiar with their pleasant, if somewhat uninteresting,
coconut and vanilla sweetness from those oak barrels. I suspected that
there was more to Rioja than this and was keen to see if my suspicions
would be confirmed!
A celebratory meal to start
After
the three hour bus ride from Madrid to Haro (note to potential
visitors, Bilbao is a much more conveniently situated airport than Madrid for
visiting Rioja) we were brought to the La Vieja Bodega restaurant where a
stylish canapé reception got the event underway, with speeches from
Agustín Santolaya, the current President of Cata Estación wine
experience (and MD of Bodegas RODA), as well as the incoming President.
We were also treated to an advance preview from Sarah Jane Evans MW,
one of the pre-eminent voices on Spanish wine and, in particular, Rioja,
who as “Maquinista del Año” (the engine driver for the year, keeping the rail theme going) was to give a master-class the next day.
The audience very much represented the great and the good of the wine
making community from Haro, as well as from the gastronomic scene and
local and international press; an impressive bunch!
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| You know this will be a serious dinner! |
Dinner
was served shortly after the speeches concluded and we were shown to
our tables, where the number of glasses on the table told us that we
were due to get down to some serious tasting! Each producer selected a
bottle from their collection to present at the table, the offerings
were: 2009 Viña Ardanza, 2011 Muga Reserva Selección Especial, 2005 RODA
I, 2014 CVNE Imperial Reserva, 2012 Alto de la Caseta, 2014 Montes
Obarenes Selección Terroir and 2005 Viña Tondonia Tinto Reserva.
I was
immediately impressed with the quality, elegance and beauty of these
wines; gone were the heavy, over-used oak notes that are essentially used
to disguise poor wine-making. Instead, we were tasting balanced, subtle
and delicate, yet powerful wines. Each had its own character and charm,
however I had a couple of favourites from the selection. 2005 Viña Tondonia
Tinto Reserva from López de Heredia, which had an absolutely dynamite
aroma in the glass, really complex with dark black fruit and tobacco
notes accompanied by an intriguing smoky profile. On the palate it had
touches of ripe strawberry and a bit of cranberry bite. This is a wine
that is still young and will only improve with time. I also really
enjoyed the 2011 Muga Reserva Selección Especial which had a more
elegant and perfumed nose than the López de Heredia; I felt it was
almost Burgundian in profile with clove and rose aromas coming to the
fore. To taste it had juicy flavours of red cherry and lush plums, all
carried off with a beautifully supple elegance. I had been particularly
looking forward to the 2014 CVNE Imperial Reserva as I had heard a lot about this
particular vineyard; it had a warm, generous, rich and smoky nose that
really excited. When tasted it had a front end burst of fruit and spice
and a really power and body to the wine, however we were all a little
surprised that they chose to showcase a wine so young still - this has
20+ years ahead of it and I would dearly have loved to have seen a wine
with a bit more maturity to feel its development and additional
complexity.
The food that we had alongside the wines was also excellent;
for a starter we had slices of cod in a Riojan Pisto (obviously!) and a
Pimiento Choricero sauce; for main course we were served a slow-cooked
tail of beef with a mushroom and foie gras sauce; for dessert we were
treated to a caramelised French toast that was rich and decadent (picture on the right).
Cooking for an entire restaurant on this kind of scale and to this level
is a special skill and was carried off with aplomb.
During
the meal I had the pleasure of company from some of the international
press corp with whom I was sharing the meal, but also Victor Charcan
(Sales Director, RODA) who was very generous in telling us all about the
wines that they make, the challenges that they face in the region and
his hopes for the future. It was truly illuminating and helped me to
appreciate his wines even more. This was a really excellent evening and a
great aperitif before the real business of the following day.
The main event
The
main event started relatively early the next day and commenced for us
with something that I was really looking forward to - Sarah Jane Evans
MW’s masterclass. This took us through 14 different wines (two from each
producer) with some nice variations, including some older vintages and
some whites. It wasn’t done as a tutored tasting, i.e. everyone
tasting their way through at the same time; instead, Sarah Jane hosted a
number of guest speakers whom she interviewed on varying topics whilst
we were making our way through our wines and taking our notes. I should
also note, that it was very impressive that Sarah Jane conducted all of
these interviews in Spanish - we were given an earpiece which had live
translations of the interviews so that we could keep up to speed as they
went along; all very technologically impressive! Here is a summary of
my notes from the tasting:
2010
Viña Pomal Gran Reserva - a pleasant, warm nose with black fruit and
some sweet spice. Rich and opulent on the palate with a great balance to
the wine.
2010
CVNE Imperial Gran Reserva - notably darker and richer than the Pomal,
more plummy and damson notes. Really powerful and weighty wine, with a
fair amount of heat to it from some pretty intense tannins. Will be a
great wine, but needs five to ten more years.
2014
Gómez Cruzado Honorable - pleasant nose with compote-style fruit and a
touch of perfume. Notably simpler than the previous wines, lighter in
style with more delicate fruit notes. Well balanced, if not overly
complex.
2006
López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Tinto Reserva - a relatively quiet nose,
with nice ripe strawberry notes. On tasting, I felt that the acidity
was quite high, as were the tannins. This felt like it needed another
five years to really express itself properly.
2010
Roda 107 - heady and brooding nose, with dark fruit (black cherry and
blackcurrant) and sweet spice notes. A really joyful wine to drink, full
of ripeness and richness. There were bags of blackcurrant and
clackberry flavours, underpinned by some still fairly insistent tannins.
This was pleasurable to drink now, but give it longer and it will
reward you for your patience.
2015
Torre Muga - an expressive nose with plenty of energy. I noted that
this tasted like a “coiled spring”, it was full of potential and ready
to go! Lots of dark fruit flavours, along with high tannins that gave it
a rather grippy mouth feel.
2017
La Rioja Alta Garnacha de Finca La Pedriza - this was a complete
curveball for me; a 100% Garnacha wine and only one year old. It had a
beguiling nose that was smoky and sweet with dominant notes of cloves
and cinnamon. On tasting, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this
wine - it was full to brimming with rich, red cherry notes; there were
tannins, but they weren’t too prevalent. This was a beautifully, elegant
wine and one that really surprised me.
2001
López de Heredia Viña Tondonia - at first this had a slight funk to the
nose, but after a bit of time in the glass the aroma got better and
better and BETTER! I kept a bit of this one in the glass right to the
end, just so I could keep smelling it - beautifully heady mix of dark
fruits, along with some woody elements (Hawthorne?); as it evolved it
presented sweet spices and then increasingly rose and dark chocolate.
Just phenomenal! On the mouth it was a wonderfully elegant wine, that is
showing perfectly right now. It still possessed a firm tannic grip, which
retained its structure and then lad a long, glorious finish. My
favourite wine of the tasting!
2001
La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial - another beautiful nose to
this wine, expressive and elegant with touches of floral elements to
it. On tasting, there was slightly more body to this wine than the
Tondonia, which meant that it retained a real power and weight. This
felt like it still had a few years of development ahead of it before it
hit its sweet spot. This will be a phenomenal wine.
2001
Muga Prado Enea Gran Reserva - this was another wine that really
grabbed me when I smelled it; plenty of brooding power to it with a dark
and stormy profile full of black cherry, blackcurrant, smoky bacon and
forest floor notes. On the palate it was pure hedonism from the first
sip, silky smooth, rich and opulent, tannins well integrated into the
wine, and a finish that went on for well over a minute. An exciting wine
that showed how great Muga can be - loved it!
2001
Roda II - a quiet and understated power to the nose on this wine,
slight primary notes of fruit but soon replaced by secondary, more
savoury, notes. Another really decadent wine to drink, full of luxuriant
blackberry compote notes; all set off with a wonderful balance and a
long finish. A beautiful wine now, and one suspects it will still
improve with more time.
Whites:
2017
Viña Pomal Vinos Singulares Maturana Blanca - a refreshing wine with a
pleasant gooseberry and elderflower nose and bags of lemons brightness
and vitality on the mouth.
2015
Gómez Cruzado Montes Obarenes - rich, broad nose with a pie-crust style
depth to it. On tasting it possessed a definite oakiness, which gave it
a beautiful decadence. This reminded me of a well-made Burgundian
Chardonnay - high praise indeed!
2014
CVNE Monopole Clásico - one of the more interesting wines of the
tasting; as well as having a classic grape (Viura), it also had a slight
dosage of Manzanilla. The nose was intriguing, plenty of
mango/pineapple brightness, but also definite notes of buttery richness.
On the mouth it possessed pleasing acidity and balance, with juicy,
Amalfi-lemon vibrancy.
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| More mornings should be like this... |
Following
the masterclass, we moved to a food tent where we were given some
vouchers that would allow us to purchase food from an array of food
stalls. Now, these weren’t just any food stalls, these were food stalls
manned (and womanned) by some of the greatest chefs from the Spanish
gastronomic scene and had been conceived by such Michelin-starred
luminaries such as La Rioja Michelin Star chefs Francis Paniego (from El
Portal del Echaurren) and the Echapresto brothers (from Venta
Moncalvillo).
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| Michelin-starred croquettes! |
Of particular note were some absolutely incredible ham and
chicken croquettes which were as smooth and creamy as you could hope
for. I also particularly enjoyed a local speciality which is known as
“shepherds’ bread shavings” served with La Rioja sausage, grapes and an
egg yolk (to bind it all together). I had heard about this dish and it
had a lovely simplicity to it, yet it was satisfying, rich and just what
was needed after a morning wine tasting. We finished our lunch with a
dessert, which was the complete opposite of the last dish: complex,
thought-provoking and decadent. Created by Juan Angel Rodrigalvarez his
“Maravi de Chocolate” dessert was made from delicious, rich dark
chocolate, but offset against sea salt and olive oil to add to the
flavour profile. It also had some nice textural elements that again
served as a good counterpoint against the smooth and luxuriant
chocolate.
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| Oh! To get in behind that gate... |
In
the afternoon, the Bodegas opened up their doors and hosted tastings of
their own where you could explore their offerings further. I chose to
spend a fair amount of time exploring CVNE’s wines and was pleased to
find my way onto a tour around their wine cellars, which included
discovering a fascinating section of their cellars which was used to
mark their centennial (1879 - 1979),
they put a bottle of wine from each of the vintages from these years
into a vault and then locked it up and threw the key into the local
river! Anyone up for trying to find that key??
As we were exploring the
vaults, we were truly honoured when the Sales Director opened a bottle
of 1976 CVNE Imperial for us to try; if you recall, I had been very keen
to try an aged wine from this vineyard and where better to try it?! The
wine had lost that weight and heaviness from the young wines, but it
still possessed a noticeably vibrant burst of acidity. The flavour
profile had both softened and evolved with its age, leaving a more
complex and interesting wine that really showed how top Riojas benefit
from giving them some time.
Conclusion
I
think it should go without saying, but I feel very lucky and honoured
to have been invited to this wonderful event. It was beautiful to see
these producers coming together to put on this showcase for their wines
and their region. As ever, visiting wine regions helps me to understand
and appreciate them more; I see the pride and passion of the people who
make the wines; I get to know the landscape, the topography, the
environment and the terroir; and you start to understand the history and
the provenance of the wines and the region. I will now be a lifelong
fan of the wines from this region and am already looking out for them on
the wine lists of restaurants that I visit.
Thank
you so much to the organisers - especially Blanca and Maria, who did a
phenomenal job in looking after us, both before and during our stay.
In
the spirit of full disclosure; I did not pay for this trip, however nor
was I paid to write the article. The opinions within this article are,
nonetheless, my honest opinions.
