2022 Javier Arizcuren 'Monte Gatún' Rioja Blanco

There’s a NEW Rioja, comparable to the greatest in the world, by up-and-coming producers that make just a barrel or two.

This year, an Antonio Galloni’s Vinous article titled The Many Riojas of Rioja: A Tale of Forking Paths confirmed what Agent Noir witnessed firsthand during his most recent visit: “Today, Rioja has two speeds. The first is set by the big producers who are responsible for the region’s worldwide fame and its association with extensive oak aging. The second is the more dynamic side, where producers display pride in their place of origin and stylistic choices, more interested in bringing out individual characters than adhering to an established style.”

Perhaps Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate explains this evolution (or revolution if you will) best with this example: “Rioja had a structure that might be closer to (old) Champagne than to any of the other regions from France, where large wineries would source grapes from small growers and produce branded wines, which would more often than not be blends. But just like Champagne changed from that single model to having more vignerons, that is also happening more and more in Rioja. These grape growers stopped selling their grapes or wines and started bottling and selling them themselves.”

They fascinatingly coexist and thrive today. The most established big producers continue to ratchet up quality, while the tiniest ones redefine the region’s potential of individual terroirs.

Architect turned vigneron, Arizcuren applies the same surgical attention to detail to winemaking as he would to any of his projects. Wine Advocate further elaborates that: “The small solo project from Javier Arizcuren keeps growing in labels, markets, and quality... He now produces 12,500 bottles from an urban winery in Logroño where they keep advancing regenerative viticulture, making their wines, structured as varietal wines, village wines and single-vineyard wines.”

This is all we were allocated. What you see is what you get.

94 Points – Wine Anorak “Javier Arizcuren is producing some of Rioja’s most interesting wines, from vineyards owned by his family. But wine is a second career: he’s a celebrated architect, and it was only after doing a course in enology and viticulture in 2009 that he first began making wine – initially, a little at home, and then taking over the family vineyards in 2011. For Arizcuren, he has cherry picked the best old plots of the family’s holdings in the Serra de Yerga, which he farms organically. The wines are made in an urban winery in Logroño. This is from an old (45 years) Viura vineyard at 600 m on a north-facing slope. It’s aromatic and fine with a lovely pear and almond nose. Textured and bold with nice ripe fruit and a lovely almond and honey edge.”