A great Rioja Crianza

A local wine store often hosts wine tasting nights. This is common and a great way to try new and oddball stuff without a big cash outlay. And it’s smart business for the wine shop because if you find something you like, chances are good you will buy at least one bottle to enjoy at home. And this is how we ended up with a tasty bottle of 2003 Rioja Vega Crianza.

We knew just a little about Riojas when we first sampled this wine. We knew Rioja wine was from Spain and we thought it only came in red. We were right about Spain and wrong about the red part.

Rioja – like most European wine – is named for a region, not a grape. Rioja is a region in the northern part of Spain near the French border. Rioja wines can be red (tinto), white (blanco) or rosé (rosado), although most Rioja wines are red. Also like many European wines, a Rioja is comprised of more than one grape. The red version is usually a blend of 3 or 4 grapes with the Tempranillo grape being the most prominent. Tempranillo grapes are very dark, almost black. They tend to produce wines that are somewhat light with a red fruit flavor – like strawberry and cherry.

OK, so we now know what Rioja is. What does Crianza mean? Crianza is one of four categories that tell you something about how the red Rioja was made. Crianza is the second category. The first category is Rioja. This means the wine spent less than one year in an oak barrel. Crianza indicates the wine was aged for at least two years total and at least one of those years was in an oak barrel. The third category is Rioja Reserva. It is the same as Crianza but instead of a minimum of two years of aging, it has a three year minimum. The final category is Rioja Gran Reserva. These are wines that were aged at least two years in oak and three years in the bottle before being released for sale.

Enough of that! What about this wine?

As would be expected from being 50% Tempranillo grapes, this Crianza was a dark, rich, purple color. It smelled like a really good Zinfandel. There were some whiffs of dark cherry as well as blackberry and a woodiness that no doubt came from being aged in an oak barrel for at least one year. Taste-wise, our notes say “bright fruit, puckery, easy to sip.” We deemed it as lighter than a Zinfandel but heavier than a Chianti. And it went great with our Canadian bacon pizza.

We bought the Rioja Vega (that’s the name of the winery) at our local wine shop for $12. Although we had it with pizza, it could easily stand up to heartier and fancier meals. We liked this wine a lot and will be going back for more once we work through our stash.