Rioja renegades

In this most famous of Spanish wine regions, the agenda has traditionally been set by the big players. But some are breaking ranks in search of self-expression. Sarah Jane Evans MW selects the 10 most influential free spirits of Rioja

Meet the winemakers who are rewriting the rules in Rioja. Sarah Jane Evans MW reports

RiojA, SpAiN’S moST famous wine region, is surely too classical and altogether too famous to have renegades. Yet depending on how you define the term, Rioja certainly does have its fair share. ‘A person who deserts and betrays an organisation, country or set of principles’ sounds a rather harsh descriptor of those producers who choose to follow their own path along the winding banks of the river Ebro. Yet the departure of juan Carlos López de Lacalle from the Denominación at the end of 2015 (see below) aroused strong feelings among winemakers in the region – though none has yet followed him. Sarah Jane Evans MW is co- Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards and author of The Wines of Northern Spain

The producers featured here have diverse reasons for qualifying as renegades. What unites them is their approach to regulation. it’s worth noting that most of the wines here are ‘generics’ – that’s to say they declare a vintage but are not aligned with the traditional barrel-ageing categories from crianza to gran reserva. These producers are choosing to make wines according to their own rules. in this way they’re one step ahead of regulatory body the Consejo Regulador, as they were with village wines and single vineyards. more tweaks to the rules are likely to come from the practices of these producers.