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Spain Producers
Name: Spain
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Rioja is often classified into traditional and modern styles. While traditional Rioja is marked by long aging in (older) American oak, modern Rioja tends to be defined by shorter aging in often new French barriques, and a more extracted style. Like most neat divisions, it breaks down on close analysis, but nevertheless Bodegas Roda is associated with the modern camp. It certainly isn`t one of the historical bodegas; it was founded in 1986 by a married couple of wine merchants from Barcelona, Mario Rotllant and Carmen Daurella, who sought to create something special.
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Once upon a time, Rioja was all about the relationship between wineries and growers. Most bodegas didn’t have vineyards of their own and depended on growers to supply grapes, which meant that in two consecutive vintages a wine might be made from fruit from entirely different sources. Things have moved on since then. Most wineries now consider ownership of vineyards and full control of viticulture essential, and the cutting edge is all about site specificity and named vineyards.
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In the hot, dry, inland climate and sandy soils of Montilla-Morilés, Pedro Ximénez is the only grape variety tough enough to thrive. It doesn’t like fermenting to dryness, and always tries to keep back some residual sugar, but it can be used to make phenomenal sweet wines. Toro Albalá have been on the scene since 1844. In their first incarnation, they kept a small wine cellar inside an old windmill where they made wines to be served in the family tavern. A few generations later, in 1922, they were formally (re)founded as a proper winery in the tunnels of an old power station.
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Graft, care, precision, and attention to detail at a level most wineries can only dream of; not for nothing has Vega Sicilia represented the pinnacle of Spanish winemaking for over a century. Yet for a wine now regarded as among the world’s best, Vega Sicilia has obscure origins. It began in the 1860s as an attempt to make Bordeaux-style wines in Spain, but did not achieve instant renown. It went through various name changes, not becoming Vega Sicilia till the 20th century. For a long time it was sold in bulk, to be re-sold as Rioja. It wasn’t until the 1920s that it became famous.
