Bodegas Ondarre Graciano Rioja 2025
£12.95
The wine
Aromas of ripe fruit are enhanced by subtle notes of balsamic, mint, aniseed and white pepper. Full bodied, with concentrated black fruit and savoury notes, this rich and robust wine has a long, satisfying finish. Graciano is rarely bottled on its own.
Graciano is Rioja's minor grape and its most valuable blending component, prized for high acidity, deep colour and a floral, peppery perfume. It is rarely bottled alone because it crops poorly and ripens late, and growers pulled it out through the twentieth century. Its revival is one of the better recent developments in the region.
The producer
Bodegas Ondarre
View all Bodegas Ondarre winesFounded in 1985 to make wines showing the distinct terroirs of the region, Bodegas Ondarre sits in the town of Viana overlooking the Rioja valley, and is the only winery in the village.
Viana lies in Rioja Oriental, the warmest and driest of Rioja's three sub-regions, formerly called Rioja Baja until the name was changed in 2018 because baja, meaning low, was doing the area no favours. It is Garnacha country as much as Tempranillo, and the heat gives riper, rounder wines than the cooler Alta and Alavesa to the west.
The house speciality is Reserva, and Rioja's ageing classifications are worth knowing: Crianza requires two years with one in oak, Reserva three years with one in oak, and Gran Reserva five years with two in oak. Almost uniquely among the world's regions, Rioja releases its wines ready to drink. Ondarre have built long relationships with the best growers in the area, working with many of them since the beginning.
