Aging Rioja Wines

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Mark Middlebrook and I'm here in the Paul Marcus Wines warehouse and in this segment I'm going to talk about aging Rioja. Whether you might, whether you would want to age a particular bottle of Rioja or not depends on many instances on the style of wine that it has. Particularly how much aging that's been done for you at the winery itself. This so called Hogan style Riojas are generally arrive fresh and fruity, pretty close to the vintage date, and they're designed to be drunk young. You can hold on to them for a year or two and they should be fine, but they're generally not going to improve in the bottle, so there's not a big incentive to age those yourself. The other three classifications, the Creanca, Reserva and Grand Reserva which represent the three increasing amounts of aging, required aging, done for you by the winery before they ship the bottle. Many of those do repay aging if you have the patience to do it. Put the bottles in a cool place that doesn't have a lot of temperature swings like a basement, a closet, a wine cellar if you've got one. Many of these will take on additional complexity as they sit there, sleeping, more or less. Typically, if I'm going to age a Rioja, I'll choose either a Reserva or Grand Reserva. Some of the Creancers do certainly improve with age, but these are the big boys. These are the guys that are generally made from the best grapes that the producer has picked. They're lavished with the most care in the winery, and they're going to be the wines that really have the material, the stuffing, the structure, that tannen and acidity to improve as they sit there in your basement. I've had wines from this producer Lopez Deaverio, one of the great classic producers of Rioja, going back to the 1940's it was still just amazingly, amazingly vibrant. But the nice thing about Rioja is that it comes to you with, these three classifications come to you with already a fair amount aging done for you by the Bodega, by the winery. So, you get a, the bottle you paid for and walked out of the wine shop or drinking restaurant already has some decent complexity that comes from the aging the Bodegas done.

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