Bodegas Ondarre Rivallana Tinto Rioja 2024
£10.75
The wine
Made in a modern, easy-drinking style, this Rioja is bursting with juicy red-berried summer fruit and a touch of vanilla. Beautifully balanced, soft and approachable, and none the worse for skipping the cask.
Rioja's traditional red blend puts Tempranillo first, with Graciano for acidity and perfume and Mazuelo, which is Carignan, for colour and tannin. Unoaked and released young, this is the region's everyday style, made in enormous quantity across the valley and drunk long before the Crianzas are opened.
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.
