Izadi

Izadi is based in Villabuena in Rioja Alavesa, the highest and coolest part of Rioja. The hillside winery, whose slope is steep enough to allow gravity-assisted production, was founded in 1987 by Gonzalo Antón as a deliberate break from the traditional style his family produced elsewhere. His son Lalo, who runs the estate now, puts the intention plainly: the whole concept started around wanting to produce wine to satisfy the needs of friends over a meal.

That is a more useful description of the house style than it sounds. Rioja's classical model ages wine in American oak for years before release, producing something distinctive but distinctly of its own era. Izadi make wines with fresher fruit and firmer structure, using French oak more often than American, aimed at the table rather than the cellar shelf.

Rioja Alavesa sits on chalk-clay soils in the shadow of the Sierra Cantabria, which shelters it from the worst of the Atlantic weather while altitude keeps the nights cold. Tempranillo grown here ripens later and holds more acidity than fruit from the warmer Rioja Baja, which is exactly what a fresher style depends on.