Rioja’s single vineyard revolution: where things stand
Introduced in 2017, the Viñedo Singular category is intended to shine a light on the top vineyards of Rioja. But is it working? Tim Atkin MW analyses the success of the classification and recommends some of the best single-vineyard wines – both with and without VS status
Bodegas Lecea’s deep underground cellars in San Asensio are some of the most beautiful in Rioja, popular with wine-loving tourists in search of good reds, a friendly family welcome and a brush with the past. Some of the concrete tanks in these cool galleries date back to the 1890s. Look closer and they bear the names of different vineyard parcels – Campillo, Cofrades, Peña La Cueva – a throwback to a time when Rioja had more in common with site-specific Burgundy than catch-all Champagne, a time before panregional blends became the norm.
The old timers knew where their best grapes came from, and not just in San Asensio. Riojans have always acknowledged the primacy of certain plots and villages, even when they blended them, and most still do today. The crazy thing is that, until recently, it was illegal to include vineyard names on labels, unless they were registered as brands. Imagine a world in which Domaine de la Romanée-Conti couldn’t sell La Tâche, or Roberto Conterno was banned from using the words ‘Cascina Francia’ in Barolo. Well, that was the law as laid down by the ruling consejo regulador body in Rioja.
Not before time, Spain’s most famous wine region has begun to remedy this ludicrous situation. In June 2017, the consejo regulador announced that it was introducing a tier of single-vineyard wines, called Viñedos Singulares, and that applications were open to any producer whose wines and vineyards met the required criteria, starting with the 2017 vintage.
Reaction & recognition
In part, this was a response to the wellpublicised decision of Artadi’s Juan Carlos
Bodegas Lecea’s deep underground cellars
López de Lacalle to leave the Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa) in January 2016, taking a handful of Rioja’s most famous singlevineyard wines with him, and to the ongoing threat by the Basque Asociación de Bodegas de Rioja Alavesa (ABRA) to set up its own Viñedos de Alava appellation. But it was also a recognition of what consumers, especially high-end ones, increasingly want from a wine: personality, authenticity and a sense of place.
The Viñedos Singulares are a reflection of a horse-already-bolted reality, in some senses. Several top producers were already flouting the rules by using the words ‘single vineyard’, ‘viñedos propios’ or even ‘vinos singulares’ on their labels, as well as the names of individual parcels that aren’t, strictly speaking, brands.
It’s possible that these producers will be forced to withdraw such descriptions in the future, but don’t hold your breath. The fallout would be considerable.
Despite fears to the contrary, and whatever one may think of the wines chosen so far, the process for approving these new Viñedos Singulares has been commendably serious. It took more than two years for Spain’s ministry of agriculture to publish the first list of 84 vineyards on 30 July 2019. Since then, the number has swelled to 103, with a further 22 under consideration. These 125 sites are owned by 94 growers or bodegas, totalling only 207.68ha.
Singular standards
What makes a Viñedo Singular? In the official jargon, they are defined as ‘minor geographical units that can comprise a single or several cadastral plots’. Permitted yields are 20% lower than for the rest of the DOCa, the
Juan Carlos Sancha