Henceforth it is allowed for Rioja to indicate the name of the vineyard from which the grapes come from on the label. Many producers have impatiently been waiting for this. Consumers want, says the Rioja producers, to have this precise information. The traditional Rioja categories will remain: joven, crianza, reserva and gran reserva. The single vineyard name is just an addition.
But some rules must be followed. Among other things, the vineyard must have well-defined limits and belong to the producer since a certain number of years. The yield should be at least 20% below what is allowed for the region and the grapes must be picked manually.
Perhaps there will be even more geographical information on the Rioja bottles in the near future. It is now being discussed whether sub regions and villages may also be mentioned on the labels. Why is it so complicated to take these decisions? Today wine is about geography and terroir, not how long time the wine has spent in the oak barrels. It seems that everyone else except Rioja has understood this.
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