La Rioja Alta Dinner in HK



The audience regaled by Daniel Pecina Lopez
with his introductory talk on Rioja, as a cultural and historic region.

 11 Nov 2011: Last night, I attended a wine dinner featuring the wines of La Rioja Alta at Olé Spanish Restaurant in Hong Kong.  Rioja Alta is one of 3 regions of Rioja, on the south side of the River Ebro.  From its start in 1890, the winery achieved a number of milestones and is now established in 3 different regions: 2 wineries in Rioja, 1 in Rias Baixas and 1 in Ribera del Duero, all with different climates.  The evening began with an introduction on some cultural and historic aspects of Rioja, by special guests from the Spanish Trade Commission.



Some of the wines from La Rioja Alta

 Despite the modern approaches adopted by various wineries in Rioja, La Rioja Alta has stuck to its traditional winemaking, while making room for some technical advances where appropriate.  The Rioja Alta area is still close enough to the Atlantic Ocean to receive a bit of the maritime influence and is well sheltered by the Cantabrian mountains.  It was the 1982 Gran Reserva 890 that had all of us unianimously voting it as the wine of the evening.  It was the epitome of finesse and elegance, with the complex bouquet of pot pourri, spice, animal, tobacco, savoury, leather with mineral nuances.  Silky texture, showing no signs of fatigue at all, instead plenty of vigour and freshness even at almost 30 years old. The resemblance to Burgundy was not lost on the keen wine lovers amongst us. Drinking now at peak and with a long way to go.  This blend apparently had some Mazuelo added to it. The more recent vintages would have a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano.  Gran Reserva 890 is really only made in the best years, going through 6 years in cask and 6 years in bottle. The 1995 vintage, which was an excellent one particularly noted for the excellent acidity, structure and aromatic intensity and complexity, was still quite angular and would definitely benefit from quite a few more years in bottle to become better integrated and harmonised.  The 1994 vintage was interestingly much more evolved (more of the leather and savoury character) than the 1995 vintage on this occasion.   I was convinced that the 1995 would eventually develop to be similar to the 1982 vintage. Both would have a score of 18/20 from me. 



Guests busily tucking into the delicious food and wine!

 Going backwards, we had 2 vintages of Gran Reserva 904 (1904 being the year La Rioja Alta merged with Bodega Ardanza): 1998 and 1995.  1995 was a clear winner here, being the more perfect vintage and having benefitted from the extra ageing in bottle.  Gran Reserva 904 is made from the same blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano, but with only 4 years in cask and 4 years in bottle.

Together with this flight, we had the 2001 Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial.  This wine is made from 80% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacha.  The result of 3 years in American oak has this wine showing a complex bouquet of strawberry, incense, vanilla and smoke. Velvety textured, with plenty of freshness and a lovely finish.  Drinking well now, with an hour of decanting, and will continue to drink well for the next 8 - 10 years.  This wine is only made as Reserva Especial in the very best vintages and the last time it was made was 1973 and before that 1964.

The first 2 reds were both from the Ribera del Duero: 2006 Aster Crianza and 2004 Aster Reserva.  The Crianza was simply delicious, already mouth-filling with 15 - 20 months in oak (mix of French and Amercian, new and old), and rather quaffable with a very approachable nose and palate of wild berries, smoke, chocolate and liquorice.  Excellent acidity from this region of extreme day and night temperatures (as much as 20 degrees Celsius diurnal range) and very good sun exposure to ensure phenolic ripeness, while retaining acidity, deepening colour and enhancing aromatic complexity.  The 2004 Aster Reserva showed slightly more astringent tannin and perhaps it should have been paired with beef casserole or roast lamb, instead of red pepper stuffed with salt cod, which received a big thumbs up by our Spanish friend as rather authentic!

We began the evening with the 2010 Albariño from Lagar de Cervero.  With the help of ageing on fine lees and partial malolactic fermentation, the wine showed a slight creamy texture, with racy acidity and a refreshing nose of grapefruit, lime peel, mineral and yeast.  Slight bitter almond on the finish.  Lovely as aperitif or with the yummy garlic prawns!



Exquisite seafood paella being served

 The restaurant did a great job with the food - the signature Seafood paella, simply grilled baby lamb rack and the succulent suckling pig were all well accompanied by the delicous wines.  The only problem was a lack of wine glasses, which caused some chaos and challenge to the pouring, especially with so many different wines and vintages! 

Well, perhaps this little bit of chaos just kept everyone on their toes and stayed interested till the very end!!  

I have tasted so much Spanish wine recently, at both the HK Wine and Spirits Fair and also at the Winefuture Conference in HK that I was left with no doubt about the future of Spanish wines.  There is some way to go and every wine dinner like this one just helps Spanish wines edge forward one step further towards their being recognised as a great wine country setting benchmarks for fabulous indigenous grape varieties such as Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, Cariñena and not forgetting the white grapes of Albariño, Verdejo, Viura, Xarel-lo, Parellada and Malvasia.   All these grape varieties are increasingly associated with various world class wines!  The future is so very exciting!!!