Rioja

[RaisaB]

I enjoy Rioja wines, but I am mostly familiar with what we have in the US and moderately priced ones at that. Suppose you were going to La Rioja region, next week, and wanted to visit some bodegas that had exceptional wines, maybe available, maybe not, here in the states. And suppose for a moment you have been given a credit card to buy and ship back some of these wines to the US, by someone who trusts you just a little too much. Where would you go, what would you buy?

[Wine Guy 23]

With all the great Spanish wine out on the market now adays how is one to know what they are about to get themself into? I was at a lunch the other day with represenative of C.V.N.E., and tasted the array of wines from them; CUNE, Vina Real, and Contino. CVNE is one of the oldest producers of Rioja, and still maintain the classic representation with a few excepetions for the popular palates out there that judge them.. The Vina Real 'Vina Real Pagos Real' which is all FRENCH OAK, and new is the idea I am leading towards. When did they decide it was okay to go ahead and just switch up the classics on us? Do you have a preference, and of which producers style?

[jparrott]

Hey, at least the space of potentially-useful Rioja producers is pretty low, so you can keep in your head who makes traditional Rioja and who makes chocolate syrup.

In Toscana, there are so many producers, and so many bottlings per producer, that it makes any large Italian list (think Otto/Babbo, etc) a complete minefield. Be careful where you tiptoe or a barrique bomb may EXPLODE!

[Wine Guy 23]

how very very true. soon to be released at a movie theater near you "cabernet: a scandal from with in montalcino"