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Antaño Crianza 2002 Rioja, Bodegas Marqués de Carrión
| 75% Tempranillo 15% Garnacha 5% Mazuelo 5% Graciano |
| Country: Spain |
| Region: Rioja |
| Price Paid: $8.95 |
| Date Tasted: June 23, 2007 |
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APPEARANCE:
A nice, though not very deep, ruby color leaning toward rust at the edges of the tilted glass.
ON THE NOSE:
Typical Tempranillo nose of wet rocks, sun-baked clay, rich cherry and plum fruit, graphite, band-aids, smoke and that smell of a just-opened suitcase after a long journey to a hot place coupled with plenty of smooth vanilla and oak, probably American oak.
ON THE PALATE:
I love wine from the Tempranillo grape, and though this was a local cheapie at $9 it delivers with some grace those wonderful chalky, dusty tannins that bring the fruit to the mid-palate, explodes up to the top of the palate with crisp and serious acidity that threatens to bite you, but only nips at your mouth up there, and finally giving way to a moderately dry mineral finish that lingers a while before beckoning this quaffer for another go ‘round. I took this one home today to drink alone, again, as Darcey is off to a summer Solstice celebration to which I am decidedly not invited, by her mother, but THAT, my friends, is a long, long story, and once we finish writing it I will urge that you read it. In the meantime I wanted a nice Spanish Temp to partially numb my emotional body for the evening, not wanting to open one of the many nice (and more expensive) bottles I have stashed away, waiting instead for Darcey’s company and presence. This Rioja fit the bill nicely for me.
While not extremely complex, what this Tempranillo blend offers works rather well, again though, keeping in mind the $9 price-point. I was also attracted to the small blending of the other Spanish grapes, Garnacha (Grenache in France and America), Mazuelo (also known as Mazuelo Tinto, Cariñena, and Carignan in France) and Graciano (also known as Morrastel, and Courouillade in France; Xres in California). I believe that these grapes are blended not only for some added color but to help the acidity that is lacking in the Tempranillo grape. I've had some very nice 100% Tempranillo wines, but I do favor the blends.
Lots of clay present in this wine, that red clay that I find here in southern Virginia and North Carolina and that I imagine to be present in Spain as well, albeit dryer and more dusty. As this crianza opens up more and more it becomes rounder, with softer tannins and more fruit, blueberry and luscious blackberry, while still retaining that dusty clay, wet-rock profile that distinguishes these Spanish reds, at least for me. This is not a wine to write home about, but worthy of these words, so at least a wine to write something about. As I mentioned, it has fit the bill for me this evening, giving me pleasure with each whirl I give it, reminding me that it is what it is, and I respect that. Time breathing made this wine nice, as noted, but I also want to mention that this Rioja was quite good right from the start: a bold nose and very, very drinkable right out of the bottle, something that is unusual in my experience. Again, although not a killer wine and not necessarily an outstanding value, still it held its own and was good to the very last drop.
(Click here for an explanation of our ratings ...)
Our Rating: 88
Would we drink it again? 
Yeah, sure! It makes a good quaffer for those times when you want some wine but you would feel bad about opening a more expensive bottle.
Would we buy it again?
If I had no other "school-night" bottles in the house and I needed to get something locally, yes, I would buy this one again, though otherwise it is not something I would generally keep around in my collection.
Winemaker's notes
About the Grape Varieties:
Tempranillo
(pronounced: Temp-prah-neeh-you) Also known as Ull de Llebre, Cencibel, Tinto Fino. Red. The Tempranillo varietal is believed to have been brought to Spain by pilgrims during the Crusades and to be a variant of Pinot Noir. (Genetically, it has been determined that there is no relationship between Pinot Noir and Tempranillo; however, there are genetic duplications in the grape varietal - Valdepenas - of California). The name derives from the Spanish word temprana, meaning early because the grape usually is harvested during late September. It has generally been planted throughout Spain and in the Rioja region, but thrives particularly well in the Rioja Alavesa. Temparnillo prefers a soil that is rich in calcium and limestone. This varietal is thick-skinned and produces wines of deep-color, but not necessarily high in alcohol. Naturally, Tempranillo tends to be lower in acidity and more "malic," which means that wines made solely from this varietal will hold back their color but not lose fruit over time. Generally, Tempranillo is blended with small amounts of Garnacha, Mazuelo and/or Graciano to compensate for lack of acidity and longevity.
Garnacha
(Gar-nah-chah) Red. Also known as Garnacha Tito or Tina, (Grenache in France and America). This varietal, Spanish in origin, is very comfortable in arid conditions; therefore, making it a very successful grape throughout the many areas of Spain. Influenced by the Mediterranean. (It is grown in the Penedés region, where surrounding mountains keep the humid climate locked in.) More commonly used for blending, Garnacha has a relatively long-growing season, but buds break later in the Spring than Tempranillo. Its must is low in malic acid, which can cause easy oxidation. However, the wines it produces are high in alcohol , 15- to 16 percent is not unusual. The wines from Garnacha tend to have a more fruity, sweet flavor, which makes them perfect for Rosés. Red wines produced solely from this grape can be big and clumsy and are not usually produced; although there is a very small handful of bodegas that have vinified 100% Garnacha wines very successfully.
Mazuelo
(Mah-thoo-eh-lo) Red. Also known as Mazuelo Tinto, Cariñena, (Carignan in France). Originally from Aragon in Spain, this varietal is one of the most widely planted varietals in the world. In Spain, however, it is not extensively planted because of its easy tendency to powdery-mildew (a fungus that spreads rapidly). For this reason, the world knows it by Carignan and not by its Spanish name. Mazuelo buds late in the Spring, making it susceptible to frost. It produces high yields, is thick-skinned, rich in color and high in tannins and acidity. As mentioned above, the varietal is very prone to mildew and so wider plantings are not being made.
Graciano
(Grah-thee-ah-no) Red. Also known as Morrastel (Courouillade in France; Xres in California), Graciano makes a soft, subtle, aromatic wine that is long-lived; unfortunately it is very low-yielding and prone to disease. It is traditionally picked in mid-October. Today there are more French vineyards under the vines of Graciano than in Spain.
About the Rioja Region of Spain
The Rioja wine district is located in northern Spain, in the valley of the Ebro river. The vineyard area covers almost 60.000 hectares, with an average annual production of 2,130,000 hectolitres. Rioja was granted Denomination of Origin status in 1926 by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and in 1991 became the only Qualified Denomination of Origin (Denominación de Origen Calificada) in recognition of the high quality attained by its wines and the strict quality control imposed on grapes and wine in the region. In addition to its popularity in Spain, Rioja wine is sold in more than 100 countries.
Just because you see a sign by the roadside welcoming you to La Rioja, there’s no reason to believe that you’ve arrived in the Rioja DOC, even if the car window does give you an uninterrupted vista of vines. La Rioja, the autonomous region, has quite different boundaries from Rioja, the Denominación de Origen Califacada. Not all the vines that grow in the autonomous region are entitled to the name Rioja. And the Rioja DOC stretches way out into Navarra, where vines yield priority to asparagus, artichokes and spicy red peppers, all flourishing in the fertile soil, while an important part of the DOC (Rioja Alavesa) lies inside the boundaries of the Basque country (País Vasco) and there are some western patches in Castilla-León.
There is a certain logic to the Rioja DOC region taken as a whole. Named after the Rio or River Oja, a tributary of the River Ebro, the region is centred on the Ebro Valley and, for much of its length, is bounded to the north and south by dramatic chains of mountains, particularly the Sierra de Cantabria. (Take a half-hour drive south of Logroño, the wine capital of the region, through cornfields and vineyards, and you’ll suddenly find yourself amid rough-hewn mountains of spectacular beauty, dotted with half-deserted villages.) But when you get down to the three official sub-regions of Rioja—Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Baja—it soon becomes evident that the characteristics of the three regions are less clear-cut than sometimes suggested and many Riojas are a blend of wines from two or more of these regions.
The Rioja Baja (to the south-east and mostly in Navarra), accounts for 39 per cent of the Rioja DOC. Enjoying a Mediterranean climate, it is indeed as hot and dry here as books say, and much of its silt or clay soil on the flat valley floor is too fertile for good-quality grapes. The resulting wines are fatter and more alcoholic—generally from the Garnacha Tinta, which survives better than the Tempranillo in these hot conditions. But the borders between the Rioja Alavesa (which accounts for just 18 per cent of the total Rioja vineyard area) and the Rioja Alta were drawn simply along the edges of the Basque province of Alava.
The most aromatic Tempranillo red wines come from grapes grown on the yellow calcareous clay which occurs all over the Rioja Alavesa and extends well into the Alta region; Tempranillo flourishes here in the limestone, producing grapes with high acidity and a good concentration of flavours. Much more of the Alta soil is very similar to the silt and clay of the Baja and consequently grows Garnacha. But, unlike the Baja, both the Alta and the Alavesa regions have climates in which the hot, Mediterranean weather is moderated by cooler breezes from the Atlantic Ocean.
Source: Oz Clarke’s Encyclopedia of Wine
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