Picturesque Rioja, Spain's most prominent wine region, is a new world within a very old world. Beautifully illustrated with photographs of the people and landscape and with detailed maps, this guide ranges over a diverse area including not only Rioja but Navarra, Bierzo, Galicia, and the Basque country as it explores winemaking from the ancient to the traditional and modern. Written by a trio of experts on Spanish wine, it provides insider information on a region home to Spain's finest Tempranillo, its exciting Albarino, and many other indigenous grape varieties such as Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Viura. The authors look in depth at topics including climate and soil, grape varieties, and viticulture, and profile more than 85 individual wineries. They also include information not available elsewhere: several top ten lists plus "secret addresses" for the best restaurants and shops in which to find aged and historic vintages of Rioja.

'An intelligent and accessible guide to some great wines that non-bankers can afford' Independent on Sunday 'Authoritative, nicely illustrated and beautifully produced' Daily Express 'A good discussion of current issues in Spanish wine' Evening Standard 'Well-designed maps and fine photography' The Scotsman

To make any non-fiction book interesting the author has to intersperse dry facts with some occasionally hard-hitting personal opinions so the book will never be boring. In this case all three authors are highly qualified to write – and opine - about the subject. Very little escapes them, but the bottom line is recurrent throughout – which is best, the traditional Rioja wines or the new ones?

Rather more subtly the book is presented as ‘A Regional Guide to the Best Producers and Their Wines’, and embraces ‘The Finest Wines of Rioja and Northwest Spain’. Quite why it was thought that Spain’s supreme wine region could not fill a book on its own merits, and apparently needed to include other, very secondary in some cases, regions, is debatable.

However what is undeniable is that this book is the book for anyone who has more than a passing interest in Rioja, and we are fortunate it is published in English, and even more fortunate that the unidentified translator, or translators, have done such an outstanding job and deserve to be acknowledged.

For the wine aficionado who is savvy enough to distinguish how the different controlling bodies (Consejos Reguladores) in Spain have made their own rules, often apparently with questionable logic, the fact that when new varieties of white grapes were first permitted in Rioja, the wineries were not allowed to name them on the label, while in Ribera del Duero there were no such restrictions. But while the authors are critical of such regulations, they are also highly critical (perhaps instinctively so) of the adjacent Navarra region, that in a headlong effort to catch up with its successful neighbour, uprooted the native garnacha vines and blindly replaced them with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, and generally anything that grew well in other regions. By chance they left enough garnacha to make good rosado wine that, as it happens, saved the region from relegation to the bulk wine department of history.

This indispensable book will make any lover of Rioja wine sit up and take notice as the contestants go to their respective corners to await the decision of the judges. The authors are not however impartial. Much as they can appreciate that the new Riojas open up a new era in the history of the region with the greater emphasis on intense colour and deep fruit flavours, ‘wines of expression’ as they are known, the traditionalists win on points. More subtle, less colour, less fruit but more breeding and underlying superiority, denote class, but..... the cleverer bodegas are hedging their bets by producing both styles of Rioja.

The first part of the book deals with the Rioja area and its wines, (and the latter part wines from Navarra, Bierzo, RÍas Baixas, Ribeiro, Valdeorras and Monterrei), but the most interesting section is that composed of very brief descriptions of a small number of wineries (selected on the basis of the quality of their wines apparently) and their owners/wine makers. For any wine nut who wants to get under the skin of this business here is a mine of information that cannot be found anywhere else under one cover. It is fascinating to read that Fernando Remírez de Ganuza, having only established his bodega in 1989 after a lifetime acting as intermediary for the purchase, sale and exchange of vineyards, and who currently produces some of the best award-winning Riojas, appears to have been born a natural winemaker. Among his many quirks, he actually splits the bunches of grapes at harvest time to separate the ‘shoulders’ of the bunch from the lower part, as the better wine will come from the latter extremity.

Remírez de Ganuza makes good wine because he knows where the best vineyards are, and he kept them for himself, but repeatedly in the book the emphasis is on the location of the small plots of land, even their height above sea level, as being decisive to the end product.

There are fascinating near-footnotes, like the description of the tiny village of Villabuena de Álava where there are 40 bodegas – and seven inhabitants per bodega . And that wine producers who can sell every bottle they make year after year are looking at ways of reducing grape yield, often by as much as 50%, in order to produce even better wines. Nor will most Rioja lovers have appreciated the chasm that exists between the ‘Atlantic Riojas’ and the ‘Mediterranean Riojas’, the latter comprising the mass of the Rioja Baja area and until recently condemned to a life of bulk sales without even the benefit of a decent label.

Moving on to the other areas we learn (and this is becoming increasingly accepted) that the Albariño wines from Galicia/Rías Baixas do not have to be drunk young, and are often better after 2-3 years in the bottle.

Review by Andrew Linn. Andrew has lived in Spain for 40 years and even before shaking the dust of his native England from his shoes was an irredeemable aficionado of flamenco, bullfighting, wine, and Spanish culture. He writes regularly on wine and food in both English and Spanish-language publications and regularly visits wine regions. Rejecting descriptions of himself as an expert in his chosen fields, he claims that he is only blessed with an ability to write in a way that his readers appreciate.

To make any non-fiction book interesting the author has to intersperse dry facts with some occasionally hard-hitting personal opinions so the book will never be boring. In this case all three authors are highly qualified to write – and opine - about the subject. Very little escapes them, but the bottom line is recurrent throughout – which is best, the traditional Rioja wines or the new ones?

Rather more subtly the book is presented as ‘A Regional Guide to the Best Producers and Their Wines’, and embraces ‘The Finest Wines of Rioja and Northwest Spain’. Quite why it was thought that Spain’s supreme wine region could not fill a book on its own merits, and apparently needed to include other, very secondary in some cases, regions, is debatable.

However what is undeniable is that this book is the book for anyone who has more than a passing interest in Rioja, and we are fortunate it is published in English, and even more fortunate that the unidentified translator, or translators, have done such an outstanding job and deserve to be acknowledged.

For the wine aficionado who is savvy enough to distinguish how the different controlling bodies (Consejos Reguladores) in Spain have made their own rules, often apparently with questionable logic, the fact that when new varieties of white grapes were first permitted in Rioja, the wineries were not allowed to name them on the label, while in Ribera del Duero there were no such restrictions. But while the authors are critical of such regulations, they are also highly critical (perhaps instinctively so) of the adjacent Navarra region, that in a headlong effort to catch up with its successful neighbour, uprooted the native garnacha vines and blindly replaced them with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, and generally anything that grew well in other regions. By chance they left enough garnacha to make good rosado wine that, as it happens, saved the region from relegation to the bulk wine department of history.

This indispensable book will make any lover of Rioja wine sit up and take notice as the contestants go to their respective corners to await the decision of the judges. The authors are not however impartial. Much as they can appreciate that the new Riojas open up a new era in the history of the region with the greater emphasis on intense colour and deep fruit flavours, ‘wines of expression’ as they are known, the traditionalists win on points. More subtle, less colour, less fruit but more breeding and underlying superiority, denote class, but..... the cleverer bodegas are hedging their bets by producing both styles of Rioja.

The first part of the book deals with the Rioja area and its wines, (and the latter part wines from Navarra, Bierzo, RÍas Baixas, Ribeiro, Valdeorras and Monterrei), but the most interesting section is that composed of very brief descriptions of a small number of wineries (selected on the basis of the quality of their wines apparently) and their owners/wine makers. For any wine nut who wants to get under the skin of this business here is a mine of information that cannot be found anywhere else under one cover. It is fascinating to read that Fernando Remírez de Ganuza, having only established his bodega in 1989 after a lifetime acting as intermediary for the purchase, sale and exchange of vineyards, and who currently produces some of the best award-winning Riojas, appears to have been born a natural winemaker. Among his many quirks, he actually splits the bunches of grapes at harvest time to separate the ‘shoulders’ of the bunch from the lower part, as the better wine will come from the latter extremity.

Remírez de Ganuza makes good wine because he knows where the best vineyards are, and he kept them for himself, but repeatedly in the book the emphasis is on the location of the small plots of land, even their height above sea level, as being decisive to the end product.

There are fascinating near-footnotes, like the description of the tiny village of Villabuena de Álava where there are 40 bodegas – and seven inhabitants per bodega . And that wine producers who can sell every bottle they make year after year are looking at ways of reducing grape yield, often by as much as 50%, in order to produce even better wines. Nor will most Rioja lovers have appreciated the chasm that exists between the ‘Atlantic Riojas’ and the ‘Mediterranean Riojas’, the latter comprising the mass of the Rioja Baja area and until recently condemned to a life of bulk sales without even the benefit of a decent label.

Moving on to the other areas we learn (and this is becoming increasingly accepted) that the Albariño wines from Galicia/Rías Baixas do not have to be drunk young, and are often better after 2-3 years in the bottle.

Review by Andrew Linn.  Andrew has lived in Spain for 40 years and even before shaking the dust of his native England from his shoes was an irredeemable aficionado of flamenco, bullfighting, wine, and Spanish culture. He writes regularly on wine and food in both English and Spanish-language publications and regularly visits wine regions. Rejecting descriptions of himself as an expert in his chosen fields, he claims that he is only blessed with an ability to write in a way that his readers appreciate.

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