La Rioja Alavesa - a return to youth

In last Saturday's El País newspaper, noted wine writer Carlos Delgado, wrote about the 2005 vintage of wines from the Rioja Alavesa region made by carbonic maceration.

The D.O.C. La Rioja is famed for its subtle, well-aged wines that are in complete contrast to today's craze for fruit-forward, high alcohol wines. Mr. Delgado makes the point that the pressure of high grape prices leads producers to make aged wines (that can command higher prices), which makes for a lack of younger wines, which are the first windows onto the caracteristics of a particular vintage. The boom in popularity of young wines made by carbonic maceration is overcoming this tendency. At Primer, a show of wines made by carbonic maceration held last December in Madrid, the majority of entries came from La Rioja , and in particular, the Rioja Alavesa region.

In his article, Mr. Delgado deems 2005 to be an excellent vintage, with a greater harvest volume than 2004. 2005 has a great aromatic potential, but the possible risk of imbalance between acidity and alcohol levels; something which could affected aged wines more than the young, "CM" wines.

Of the 6 Rioja Alavesa wines featured, Mr. Delgado gave highest marks to Aladro 2005 and Nobleza 2005 for the intensity of their aromas and overall balance.

For more information on the Rioja Alavesa: http://www.rioja-alavesa.net/

And an upclose map: http://www.alava.net/agroturismo/rioja.html