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Leon's Winementaries, Episode 57, Part 2 Rioja.
Yesterday I already discussed some facts about Rioja and I tasted a delicious fruity Rioja Joven.
Today I am going to taste a very different type of Rioja: a Reserva from the famous winery Berberana, available at Albert Heijn's.
There are basically 4 types of red Rioja's, Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva. It is no quality classification,
but it has to do with the duration of ripening in the barrel.
The classification of duration of maturation is not uniform in all wine areas of Spain, but we can say that to be called Rioja Crianza wine,
the wine remains at least 2 years in the cellar before it is sold and the wine at least matures for 360 days in oak barrels of 225 liters.
For Reserva the total is 1080 days in Bodega and is often held in the barrel a long period, 18 months - 2 years.
Gran Reserva, a total of 1800 days, which required 720 days in the barrel.
Today's Reserva is from 2006 and matured in barrel for 2 years.
Quite different than yesterday's wine. Clear wood maturation, sultry and full, but enough fruit.
Pleasant wine, quite light actually, nice to drink with a stew or something like that.
Berberana runs for a lot of years, it was founded by Don Miguel Martínez Berberana in 1877.
Grown from a small family business into a major Spanish winery that has made a priority to quality at an affordable price.
Bodegas Berberana has become a very large manufacturer with a cellar capacity for 50,000 oak barrels.
It is the largest Spanish wine brand in Dutch supermarkets and now part of the Spanish United Wineries.
Besides Berberana brands owns Marques de Monistrol and Marques de Griñón.
More about the grape varieties used in Rioja:
The most important is the Tempranillo, 65% of the vineyards is planted with it. Is extremely versatile and suitable for balanced wines, which by long aging grow in quality.
Furthermore, Garnacha, Spanish name for the French Grenache and then a little Mazuelo and Graciano.
Mazuelo is the same as the French Carignan. There is about 2000 ha planted. Difficult race, but with good conditions, a very nice complement to the wine.
The Graciano is a native specie of the Rioja that you rarely find anywhere else. Yield is low, about 25 hectoliters per hectare, but gives structure to the wine and good acidity.
For white Rioja Viura, Malvasia and Garnacha Blanca are used.
I will come back to Rioja in the near future, because there are at least 950 different companies in Rioja.
If you go in the direction of Rioja this summer, June 29th a day the city of Haro is a city to avoid or just to visit.
On this day the "Batalla de Vino" takes place, in honor of Saint San Pedro.
The shirts show what this means.
Tomorrow we're back in France. Thanks for watching.