by Victor de la Serna
For the first time since the Rioja appellation was established 82 years ago, new grape varieties were admitted by the Consejo Regulador, its governing council, in its first meeting of 2007. It was a long wait, but the results were
spectacular: nine new grape varieties are now legal in Spain\'s most well-known wine region - and not one of them is cabernet sauvignon.
Six of the varieties are minority cultivars in the region, some of them almost extinct, which have been recovered and propagated by the regional viticultural research center. These are the three red varieties maturana tinta, maturana parda and monastel and the three whites tempranillo blanco, maturana blanca and turruntés. The intensely colored, well-structured maturana tinta is the most promising addition. Monastel is merely the Riojan name for Somontagno\'s light-coloured moristel, not a top-notch variety. The tempranillo blanco is a mutation that was discovered a few years ago in a red tempranillo vineyard, much like Henri Gouges found a white mutation of pinot noir in Nuits-Saint-Georges in the 1930s. Like the white pinot noir, not to be confused with pinot blanc, the tempranillo blanco vines never revert to red. They give a full, interesting wine.
Then there are three foreign white varieties: chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and verdejo. These can only be a minority component in a blend dominated by native varieties, including the three newly-authorized ones.
Greater varietal wealth and the possibility to make more unique wines is the reason for the reaccreditation of the six native cultivars. In the case of the three \'foreign\' ones, the reasons are less clear: they will be used to attempt to give more body and more aromatic interest to Rioja\'s whites, which have been in the doldrums in the market. Until now, viura, southern France\'s maccabeu, grenache blanc and malvasía riojana were the accepted white varieties. Although the planting of new white vineyards has been actively discouraged for years, there are still over 9,000 hectares of them in the region. With demand for white wines rising again, the council is attempting to make Riojan whites more attractive on international markets.
The council left in limbo the so-called \'other\' red varieties that for years have been tolerated, but never mentioned by their names, in blends. These are mainly cabernet sauvignon, with some merlot and syrah. They are considered to be \'foreign\' and really don\'t add that much to the potential of Rioja reds, which are legally made with tempranillo, garnacha tinta, or grenache, graciano and mazuelo, which is carignan. But it\'s interesting to note that Marqués de Riscal\'s cabernet vineyard in Elciego was established in 1860, while the first grenache vines in the region were only brought from Aragón after phylloxera struck around 1900.
