Fifty Years of Rioja – the Region and its Wines between 1970 and 2020

Jeremy Watson

Wine – it’s such a complicated subject. If we venture beyond the ‘either I like it or I don’t’ phase, we need an expert’s help to attempt to fathom its mysteries. Enter the wine writer. As far as I know, no other fruit has been so meticulously dissected as the grape and its fermented liquid. I tip my hat to the men and women who have worn out their elbows studying, their suitcases and salaries from traveling and their palates from tasting and reporting on the mind boggling variety of wines made around the world.

The topic of Rioja is no exception, although our output dwarfs those books written about Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. There is, however, a devoted group of journalists who specialize in our region, fighting for attention in newspapers, with publishers and in the fast-expanding world wide web.

The latest addition to this select library of publications about Rioja is Fifty Years of Rioja – The Region and its Wines between 1970 and 2020 by Jeremy Watson, who I am proud to say has been a dear friend and colleague since my earliest days in the wine business almost fifty years ago.

Watson’s book is out of the ordinary in several ways.  First, because it is a personal memoir of his countless visits to Rioja.  He lovingly portrays the charm of the region, the Riojan people, gastronomy and of course, wine. It is also an unfiltered, no holds barred look at how business is transacted in Rioja as seen through the eyes of an Englishman.

The book tells of Rioja’s triumphs, mistakes and scandals.

Watson’s book chronicles the huge changes that have taken place in Rioja’s infrastructure with the transformation of the wine business from a group of small wineries to huge conglomerates that were built, bought, sold and re-sold. Wine shipped in tanks to be bottled in the UK, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland gives way to 100% Rioja bottling, but not after a nasty court fight at the highest level in the European Union.

The book explores new categories – wines from single vineyards, single village wines and single zone wines – created to complement Rioja’s traditional classification of “guarantee of origin”, crianza, reserva and gran reserva. Watson dissects the fight over approval of new grape varieties –  do they improve the quality of Rioja or are they concessions to fads?

In addition, Watson takes a detailed look about Rioja’s acceptance through the years in the United Kingdom market and his experience of marketing Spanish wines in the UK from his post of Director of Wines from Spain.

Here you can read about

• Rioja’s fickle weather patterns and how climate change has affected grapegrowing;
• the scandal surrounding the Spanish conglomerate Rumasa and its purchase of several Rioja wineries;
• what happens when banks run wineries;
• the economics of ageing in oak barrels;
• the debate about singular vineyards;
• does Rioja still show a typical style?
• hospitality, Riojan style;
• and many other topics.

Most wine books are snapshots of wineries that eventually become outdated.  What makes Watson’s book unique is his eyewitness account of happenings in the Rioja wine business and in the region itself over a half century.

Fifty Years of Rioja: The Region and its Wines between 1970 and 2020 by Jeremy Watson is available from Amazon. In the UK, the paperback addition sells for 6.93 GBP and the Kindle edition for 3.00 GBP.  In the USA it is currently available for 3.96 USD with the paperback to follow shortly.

Photos by Tom Perry