RIOJA ALAVESA IN THE RAIN…
This day tasted everyone’s wardrobe alittle bit as we were basically told to pack for moderate weather and cool nights. It was in fact pretty chilly and rained sporadically throughout the day. The new Mike Scioscia style Angel pullover I got for my birthday was quite welcome today. It was on this mornings drive that the bus driver Jose Maria told us that there was a serious hail storm the night before in Rioja Baja. The deluge included 18 inches of golf ball sized hail that pretty much trashed the vintage for that part of Rioja, stripping the vines of tender leaves and, most important buds that would flower and then become grapes. Much of the area will likely have no crop.
Tom Puyaubert of Exopto
Our first stop was Exopto Cellar, one of the stops I was most looking forward to because this particular Rioja producer had become one of my go-tos at home for its high quality and relatively modest fare, under $30 in our place. This was an interesting stop because it was a little bit like some of the ‘sheds wineries’ in California. The winery was in an industrial park type of setting with several of the partitions containing wine operations. What was different about this place was that part of the expense was underwritten by the Spanish government. That sort of thing doesn’t happen here in the U.S. of A..
Frenchman Tom Puyaubert, general manager of barrel maker Demptos in Spain, former rugby player, and part owner of Exopto met the group. This part of the Alavesa is one of the cooler areas (as in termperature) of Rioja, giving the grapes more structure and longer hang time.
The view of the Siera Cantabrias fro the front of the business park was absolutely stunning on this day and the meteorological occurrences served to demonstrate how the climate in this part of the region was mediated by a phenomenon called the foehn effect. Cooler continental air blows over the top of the Cantabrias from the north and hits the warmer currents coming up from the south. The cooler moist air cools things off for the vineyards but the rain doesn’t get past the mountains. It all works most of the time, although 2007 proved to be maybe a little too cool.. We tasted some 2008 barrels (not bad but we’ll see) and the 2007, which was kind of edgy. The acids were a little firm and the fruit was pretty subdued on this occasion, so for now it’s not on our hit list.
The 'foehn' effect
We left the winery and headed to a little hilltop town where Tom’s mother presented a lovely lunch a light handed, French styled bites at a quaint little bed and breakfast that was owned by someone who had his own wine made for him by Tom. The skies threatened but held and we exited this pleasant respite to visit David Sampedro, who will be a recurring character from here on. David is one of the rising stars in this part of Spain and quite a character. Patrick Mata told us not to mention n that we had just left Exopto as David and Tom were not necessarily on friendly terms (David had been part of Exopto until recently, a mutual split I am sure). The second part of the day was like a day unto itself. We’ll cover that next time.
Tags: Exopto, foehn effect, Spain
I am appalled at the crass marketing strategy employed by Exopto Cellars in making and promoting its Big Bang as a Rioja Alavesa wine. The region is know for tight, deeply flavored and long-lasting wines made with primarily tempranillo grapes (80% of the entire region’s production is in this grape) and the best of its wines are 95-100% tempranillo. To make a wine out of primarily garnacha (most associated with the Rioja baja region, where it grows quite well) and then promote is as Rioja Alavesa is wrong on two counts. First, it is not at all a typical (hence honest) evocation of what Rioja Alavesa is and as such it comes dangerously close to being a fraud. It would be as if a small landholder in Margaux decided to bottle a primarily Merlot-based wine and call it Margaux. It may be from the region, but it most definitively would NOT be Margaux. Second, Mr. Puyaubert and his partners stress over and over the conditions in Rioja Alavesa that contribute to their wine’s style. The call it Rioja Alavesa, they proclaim Rioja Alavesa to be a marvelous area, then they turn around and make an assuredly non-Rioja Alavesa product. They do not even following the rules for crianza aging, etc, making a wine that is a simple DOC Rioja. There is nothing to guarantee anything they say about aging, etc. as they have opted out of a system the guarantees authenticity. They cannot have it both ways. Either make a Rioja Alavesa or make something else and do not tie your new wine to the old appelation. The Italians got around this by creating “super” Tuscans and other non-DOC wines and proclaiming them non-DOC wines. The Big Bang wine may well be marvelous to some (not to my palate, however, which is markedly non-Parkeresque) but it should have the courage to stand on its own, without trying to tie its fortunes to the reputation of a region that it haughtily thumbs its nose at. Finally, from what I have been able to learn, nothing about the vineyard cost, the production cost, or the marketing cost should result in a wine that retails in the US for $17.99. They are full of themselves in more than one way.
I just wanted to stress that Mister Puyaubert never was general manager of Demptos in Spain. He did work as a saleman for us for some years. There is absolutely no link between Demptos and Exopto and their images should never been associated, would that be regarding the products, the people, or their values and phylosophies…
Thank you to let me point out and clear this potential unexpected confusion.