For this week only the Rioja Government (not Rioja wines alone this time) is sponsoring a showcase of food and wine (and olive oil) at the amazing National Geographic store. There is a tasting table by the door that starts pouring samples at 4pm and also gives you sample tapas. I believe that at 6:30pm there is also a proper wine tasting upstairs. Last night it was being hosted by John Radford (he literally wrote the book on Spanish wines).

The people behind this seemed very nice and genuine, although I think the pouring staff from National Geographic were not quite ready for all the questions they imediately received from grateful shoppers. I enjoyed stepping in to help – there were Americans, Italians, Brits and more all at the table within 5 minutes.

If you go along, look out for the wines from Dinastia Vivanco and Carlos Serres that are supporting this event. The wines change every day so no idea what you will get!

Have fun, and Happy Christmas!

Here area selection of my photos from Tapas Fantasticas London 2009. A proper round up coming soon.

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The conclusion is inescapabale – even Nature loves Rioja!

Thousands of people made it to Brick Lane for the show and even waited in line to get in. I’d take my hat off to them, except I had forgotten it at home.

The Monte Clavijo, Castillo de Clavijo and the Castillo San Lorenzo wines all performed well, but in the intense sun the white and red were the best performers. I even had several people tell me that the Monte Clavijo Rosado (the 2008) was their favourite wine of the event which is nice to hear.

In fact, it was so hot, we had to put even the Crianza and Reserva red wines in the ice bucket. Most were happy with the results (it is much more refreshing to have a red wine that is cool enough to taste compared to a flabby, warm wine) even if they were a bit shocked at first.

Lots more to come tomorrow.

I’ll post lots of great photos later in the week, but here are a couple favourites:

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You can read my 2008 Tapas Fantasticas review or check out some of the photos.

Unfortunately, last year I was rather preoccupied with the imminent birth of my son so I was only there briefly so I didn’t get a chance to really make the most of it. This year I will be there pouring the wines from Criadores de Rioja, including the Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Reserva 2004.

This year’s edition is this weekend – 27 & 28 June 2009 (11:30 – 17:30) in Brick Lane Yard, 146 Brick Lane. There are over 20 wineries and more than a dozen restaurants attending. All the information on where it is being held, what restaurants are participating from Rioja and London, and which wineries will be pouring their wines, is on the Wines from Rioja site:

http://www.winesfromrioja.co.uk/tapasfantasticas2009/london.html

Forget Glastonbury! Ignore the Lions Rugby! Boycott Tweetcamp! Come to Brick Lane to eat some lovely tapas and drink Rioja instead!

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In many ways, it wasn’t a discussion as much as a series of comments around the theme of how Rioja should present itself to the world, and more importantly, how it might go about offering a broader range of wines to consumers.

[for more professional reporting on this event, read Rebecca Gibb's take]

The key fact, in terms of the topic, is that Tempranillo plantings represent 78% of ALL vineyard plantings in Rioja. Without any Tempranillo, you’d scarcely have enough for a decent dinner party, never mind to sell wines to the entire world as happens now.

The question was really interpreted as whether Rioja should attach its brand more clearly to the Tempranillo varietal/brand or not.

The strongest argument for this idea came from Maria Martínez from Bodegas Montecillo, known as the “Queen of Tempranillo”. In her opinion Tempranillo was THE vehicle for expressing the personality of Rioja, and by this I take her to mean her sense of its place, its terroir. She admitted that many other regions, and even countries, could grow Tempranillo, but the unique mix of weather, soil and historical wine making practices in Rioja gave it a real personality, whilst most other wines turned out to be “manufactured”, “Coca Cola” wines. I admire her conviction, and her wines.

However, what she is discussing is more than the varietal mix of the wine. She did not argue against using other classic grapes to blend with Tempranillo, only that it should have “personality”. Rioja’s strong, and much loved personality, is what consumers around the world love.

Follow-up presentations by Juan Carlos Sancha of Viña Ijalba and Victor Fuentes of Baron de Ley, were ostensibly a counter-argument, but in fact followed the same theme. Rioja used to grow a variety of grapes, in 1912 there were 44, but today there are only 7 – and in the case of Tempranillo, only 3 different clones. This means that the region is HIGHLY dependent on a small range of varieties, that it has lost (permanently through extinction in many cases) many indigenous varieties. It wasn’t an argument for making Rioja from something other than Tempranillo, but a plea for experimentation, to genetic diversity, to a uniqueness for Rioja that was defined by something more abstract than a single variety.

There are producers such as Dinastia Vivanco and Viña Ijalba who are trying to showcase the personality of each of the key Rioja grapes, and examples such as Baron de Ley who are even planting 28 hectares of a newly approved, but classic indigenous grape called Maturana Tinta.

Most of the assembled audience agreed that Rioja risked more by linking itself to Tempranillo than it gained – opening the doors to copycat regions selling similar grapes, confusing consumers who only have limited wine knowledge, and not doing anything to sell more white or rose wines.

The only real point of contention seemed to revolve around price. A representative from an importer with a focus on supermarket brands, and Melissa Draycott, head of wine buying at First Quench, pointed out that consumers loved Rioja and only really wanted a good Quality/Price ratio. Rioja had delivered in the past and should focus on this for the future.

The implication of this is that all the discussion of “Personality”, of genetic diversity and of new plantings of recovered indigenous or international varieties was likely to lead to more high priced, premium wines and distract from the business of selling more volume. I will look at this is depth another time as I think it is important, but most of the audience agreed that Rioja needed to be more than a provider of generic “soap bars” (comparing wine marketing to the success of P&G etc.).

All in all, it was good to have the opportunity to hear from some interesting Rioja personalities, and to taste their wines. Hopefully we can use these discussions to define a clearer path for Rioja to innovate without losing its special place in the consumer’s hearts and wallets.

More soon.

————

The full list of speakers was: Ricardo Aguiriano, Marketing Director for the Rioja Consejo; Maria Martínez from Bodegas Montecillo; Juan Carlos Sancha of Viña Ijalba; Victor Fuentes, Managing Director at Baron de Ley; and Melissa Draycott, Thresher. Rafael Vivanco from Dinastia Vivanco was supposed to join them but was unfortunately unable to attend.

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Image via Wikipedia

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and I wish everyone a great Hogmanay

I thought I’d get at least one brief post in over the holidays.

I first need to congratulate Caroline, of Caroline’s Miscellany, for winning the case of 6 bottles of Dinastia Vivanco Crianza to help make a great vinous start to 2009. Caroline was the lucky winner who posted her thoughts on the recent tasting of wines with the London Bloggers, and I’m still grateful to everyone for all the great feedback on the wines. I hope to support more such tastings in 2009, so look out for more opportunities to taste the wines of Dinastia Vivanco.

Secondly, I have to report a certain sadness that the Rioja “bug” does not seem to have taken hold in Canada YET. The selection of Rioja’s available to buy here are very limited, both in Nova Scotia and in Ottawa. There is the ubiquitous Campo Viejo of course, but not much else. However, I was lucky enough to find a Marques de Riscal Reserva 2004 ($24.70) and a Muga Reserva 2004 ($24.95) in a specialist outpost of the LCBO (How romantic is that? The Liquor Control Board of Ontario) so I could share some Rioja wines with my family at Christmas.

I think I ought to make it a mission to attract more Canadian readers to this blog so that they can be better served with selections of interesting Rioja wines, and, you never now, maybe get Dinastia Vivanco listed so you can enjoy them too?

I hope that 2008 has been a good year for you and, despite the gloomy predictions everywhere, that 2009 is better yet.

As a wine blogger and social media activist, I feel it is important to spread the word about wine, wine culture and the great stuff that wineries are doing online. Of course, one of these wineries happens to be Dinastia Vivanco.

So as well as helping out my friends, I also had a couple of wines to show, and I’m very glad to say that both the Vivanco Viura Malvasia (white) and Crianza 2004 (red) were extremely popular with the London Bloggers.

I really enjoy tasting these wines with people. Firstly the white is not what they expect – much more tropical fruit and richness and also no oak age. It is a revelation for most wine consumers, even if they are reasonably knowledgeable and gives me great pleasure to introduce it, particularly if they too are the type of person looking for something really new in wine. The Crianza is “just what the doctor ordered” (note: I am not making any health claims for these wines, that’s not allowed!) and a spectacular example of Rioja with a modern twist – a greater depth of rich fruit and 100% tempranillo.

Ember was a great venue for this sort of gathering. They were very welcoming and organised, plus we had some nice staff on hand and the room to ourselves most of the night. By some cosmic coincidence, and the fact that I have met the Chief Executive, they sell the two Dinastia Vivanco wines we tasted, so it was a place well prepared for tasting good wines.

I’m very grateful for the chance to taste these wines with a great bunch of people with many different backgrounds, and many different views on wine. I look forward to hearing what they made of these wines on the night and to introduce them to the bigger Dinastia Vivanco project as well. I will post up a round up of views and reviews as I come across them, but please feel free to drop me a note so I can talk to you about your views.

For those who are interested in more information and some stockists on these wines, check out the information on Dinastia Vivanco on this site.

Wines from Rioja is sponsoring a campaign through regional newspapers in Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham and in Scotland. You collect tokens in these newspapers and get a chance to go out for a two course dinner, including a glass of Rioja, for only £10.

The way Duty is going these days, it can’t be long before the glass of wine alone will cost you that much, so it sounds like a good deal to me. Couple that with an economy in need of a little TLC, and this sounds like a very good deal.

I’m guessing that each restaurant is offering their own Rioja in the promotion, so I can’t suggest any one in particular, but it seems like an offer worth checking out. You can read more about the offer and how long it will be running in each newspaper/area on the Wines from Rioja site (and get a bonus token).

If you come across a great restaurant, or a particularly good wine, do let us know.

It means I can sit here and blog from my favourite coffee shop in the area, FABORIT. Free WiFi, Fresh Juices, Good Coffee and up-to-date music. What a difference from 4 years ago when I started coming here on a semi-regular basis. At that time you could not get an internet connection for love or money. In fact, the only one I found was a small school opened by the local government to educate Logroñeses in how to use the internet – and no access for web-deprived travellers!

Now you’ll find WiFi all over the place and mostly free in hotels and in some places like the museum.

As I will be rather busy with the conference, I’m not sure how much Rioja blogging I will be able to do, but I have my camera at the ready and hope to take some photos of how the vintage is progressing and report back after interviewing a few local winemakers too.

Also, with temperatures well above 30 degrees, I’m a little warmer than I was when I left London this morning.

And, as this is Spain, I have been invited out to dinner; a dinner that doesn’t start until 22:00. Can’t quite imagine sending that invitation in the UK.

I was reviewing the useful site built for UK consumers at Wines from Rioja (www.winesfromrioja.co.uk) and I saw this comment on the Rioja Rocks article:

And the region itself is a blast! I remember visiting the winery at Dinastia Vivanco in Rioja Alta, I was knocked out by the collision of tradition with the state of the art winery that had been built underneath the vineyards like some giant Batcave with oodles of sexy kit and state of the art techniques. But it’s not just the wineries that are breathing modernity into this traditional wine region, there’s an increasing attention to detail in the vineyard to ensure the unique local grapes of the region.

Not only is it great to get that sort of endorsement for the Dinastia Vivanco wines, but great to see that someone as influential as Olly really gets what the whole region is doing. Rioja is often perceived as the “very traditional” region that “everyone knows” and is therefore skipped over in favour of something new and trendy, but there are all sorts of innovations happening here too, and the money and determination to make it happen.

I’m going to be organising a small series of tastings on this site in the near future, and will also be sending out reviews by twitter (it is all the rage, after all). If you are interested in seeing why Rioja Rocks, sign up to follow me on twitter, and also sign up to receive my email alerts here so I can get you interesting information and offers on Rioja wines.