The Culinary Institute of America

Discovering Rioja: An Educational Documentary on the Wines of Rioja, Spain

In this first-of-its-kind Web cast initiative, Spain’s most famous wine region comes directly to you. Experience Rioja as if you were there, as you watch interviews with its leading winemakers and chefs and tour the vineyards, wineries and restaurant kitchens that make this region among the most talked-about in Spain. Discover a land of breathtaking beauty and cutting-edge architecture, where the people live for wine. America’s leading sommeliers and the professional chefs at the Culinary Institute of America weigh in with their guidance on matching Rioja’s expressive red and white wines with food. All in all, it’s a delightful immersion in the rich history, culture, flavors and terroir of this storied wine region.

Narrated by Jonathan Coleman.

Order the free DVD of this series at CIAprochef.com/rioja.

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One of Rioja’s most passionate advocates is Adrian Murcia, the young assistant sommelier at Chanterelle in New York City. Adrian has made numerous trips to the region since his college days—most memorably, with a group of young American sommeliers. Aware than many sommeliers don’t know Rioja firsthand, Adrian was eager to introduce his colleagues to the landscapes, flavors and personalities that have made the region so compelling for him.

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Situated in north-central Spain, between Madrid and Bilbao, Rioja covers a territory about the size of Delaware. For most of its 60-mile length, it follows the contours of the Ebro River, with the Sierra de Cantabria mountains defining its northwest border, and a series of mountain ranges to the south. This dramatic landscape harbors a range of microclimates and soil types, with the northwest part subject to the cooling effects of the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part more influenced by the warm Mediterranean.

Order the free DVD of this series at www.CIAprochef.com/rioja

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The mountains surrounding Rioja affect the wind and rainfall patterns and help to keep summer temperatures moderate. They also encourage the critical night-time temperature drops that preserve acidity in the ripening grapes. Thanks to the mountains, Rioja’s footprint resembles an inverted V, with the widest part facing the Mediterranean. As a result, Rioja’s vineyards are affected by three distinct climate zones: some vineyards are subject to cool, moist weather from the Atlantic; others, protected by the mountains, experience a more temperate Continental climate; and still others bask in Mediterranean warmth.

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Of course, Rioja’s moderate weather is only one factor in grape quality. Soils matter, too, and Rioja’s best winemakers have a sophisticated understanding of the region’s exceedingly complex geology. From the fertile alluvial soils near the river to the limestone bedrock in the hills, Rioja offers a wide spectrum of soil types, challenging growers to match the right clones and grape varieties to their site.

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Because Rioja’s rivers originate in its limestone-rich mountains, even the soils on the valley floor contain considerable limestone, or calcium carbonate. On the hillsides, the soils can change dramatically with modest changes in elevation, shifting from chalky limestone to soils rich in clay or iron. These diverse soils produce subtle differences in the wines a boon to the winemaker at blending time.

With these differences in altitude, climate and soil in mind, let’s look again at Rioja’s sub-regions.

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Despite all the refinement in vineyard practices in recent years, one aspect hasn’t changed. Rioja remains the kingdom of Tempranillo, the one place on earth where this noble variety expresses itself to the fullest.

Order the free DVD of this series at CIAprochef.com/rioja.

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Many red Riojas include varieties beyond Tempranillo. Three other red grapes are permitted in wines that carry the DOCa designation. Garnachaknown in France as Grenachegives strength and warmth to blends. It thrives in Rioja Baja. Mazuelo, known elsewhere as Carignane, contributes tannin and acidity. Graciano, a variety that some winemakers believe could play a bigger role in the future, adds an appealing aroma, and its acidity and tannin help Rioja age majestically.

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Certainly Rioja has a long history as a winemaking region, stretching back to Roman times. But its modern history has been uneven, the boom times alternating with periods of struggle. Victor Pascual, president of the Consejo Regulador, or regulatory council of Rioja, divides the past 150 years into three distinct phases. Fortunately, the progressive ideas sweeping Rioja today are a sign of a new, vigorous and prosperous phase underway.

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What is it that keeps Rioja’s sons and daughters rooted here and so committed to the dreams of their fathers? Perhaps that’s the price for growing up in a land synonymous with wine and with 2000 years of winemaking history.

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The two sisters who run Lopez de Heredia are the fourth generation to manage this distinguished bodega, one of the most proudly traditional wineries in Rioja. Change happens slowly here; the sisters’ respect for their family’s past is profound. Visiting the Lopez de Heredia cellars and drinking a bottle of 40-year-old Viña Tondonia, the flagship wine, a visitor can almost sense the watchful presence of past generations.

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Peruvian by birth, the first Marqués de Murrieta spent three years studying winemaking in Bordeaux in the late 1840s and absorbed many French techniques before returning to Rioja to launch his own enterprise in 1852. His was the first Rioja bodega to age wine in oak barrels, a practice considered extravagant at the time. Today, his descendants operate Marqués de Murrieta with progressive ideas but with pride in the history on view in its cellar.

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Rioja’s magnificent red wines tend to overshadow its whites, but the region’s white wines appeal to many, especially sommeliers and collectors who admire the wines’ astonishing ability to age. Made largely from the Viura grape, Rioja whites from traditional producers such as Lopez de Heredia receive oak aging and can improve in the bottle for 15 to 20 years. Other producers, such as Marques de Caceres, focus on preserving the grape’s lively aromas and freshness through stainless steel fermentation.

Order the free DVD of this series at CIAprochef.com/rioja.

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In many ways, the Rioja region is the Spain of our imagination, a sun-splashed land where leafy vines cling silently to gentle slopes, soaking up warmth and finding nourishment in rocky soils that look like they have nothing to give. As they have since time immemorial, shepherds lead their flocks down dusty roads and up to hillside pastures, where the sheep can feast on wild herbs and grasses. The massive, majestic Cantabria mountains embrace these quiet valleys, whose small, sun-baked villages have preserved their timeless charm. Bougainvillea drips from the wrought-iron balconies here, and a church spire marks the village center. Locals on daily errands navigate the narrow, shady, cobbled streets and congregate in the sun-dappled plazas.

Is it any wonder that families remain in this alluring place for centuries, passing vineyards and bodegas down through generations? For the American sommeliers visiting Rioja, the trip offered the chance to meet some of the region’s leading wine families, people passionate about carrying on the work of their fathers and grandfathers and fiercely proud of their heritage.

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Every year, more than 12,000 wine lovers come to the tiny village of Badarán to visit the bodega of David Moreno. The grandson of a vintner, Moreno left Rioja as a young man, when his prospects looked bleak, but a fascination with wine pulled him back.

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From the avant-garde restaurants of Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak and their disciples, where chefs are pioneering not just new dishes but whole new ways of cooking….to La Vieja Bodega in Casalarreina, whose deep, dim cellar holds Rioja’s history…to the boisterous men’s dining clubs of the Basque Country, where men gather regularly to cook for each other…… in all these places, Rioja wine is celebrated by people who treasure their time at the table.

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