Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture has recently approved twelve new applications for singular vineyard (Viñedo Singular) status from Rioja producers. This brings the total of singular vineyards to 133.
As a reminder, to attain singular vineyard status, the most important requirements for a vineyard are:
- It must be located entirely within the limits of a town or village,
- It must be over thirty years old,
- The owner or lessee of the vineyard must present an agro-geological and climate study that explains why the vineyard is exceptional,
- The vineyard must be harvested manually,
- Maximum yields per hectare are 5000 kg for red grapes and 6922 kg for white grapes.
Wines produced from grapes in a singular vineyard, among other requirements, must have been vinified, aged, and bottled within the same winery, use a brand name exclusively for the wine, and obtain a rating of ‘excellent’ by a tasting committee made up of winemakers and other experts in Rioja.
A slow start for Singular Vineyards
The Viñedo Singular (VS) category has gotten off to a slow start in markets because of criticism over the application and approval process. The biggest obstacle to date however is the critical attitude of wineries that are traditional favorites of wine magazines and writers. These wineries can practically be guaranteed high scores in tastings where the producer and brand are visible to the taster. In the trade, this is called label bias.
An exciting branch of economics called ‘neuromarketing’ explains label bias in the wine business. I will deal with this fascinating subject in a future post.
Álvaro Palacios
The VS category has been given a huge boost with the news that Álvaro Palacios, Rioja’s most media-savvy winemaker, has gotten approval for his vineyard Quiñón de Valmira. This is a plot planted to garnacha on the slopes of Mount Yerga in Rioja Oriental. Readers of Inside Rioja will recall that Palacios announced several years ago, even before launching the brand, that Quiñón de Valmira would be a ‘game changer’ in Rioja.
Sure enough, since the first vintage in 2016, the wine has consistently received scores in the mid-to high 90s from the Wine Advocate and other media and tasters, propelling the retail price in Spain to almost 400 euros a bottle.
I hope that Palacios’ decision to include Quiñón de Valmira in the VS category will push other media darlings in Rioja to follow suit.
Inside Rioja 
Quiñón de Valmira is pretty impressive. I gave the 2019 96+ in the tasting I did last year and I suspect it will go even higher in short order. More than anything, it shows that much, much more Grenache should be planted in these eastern regions of Rioja.
Miquel: Right on! I would only add that garnacha’s attributes have only recently been recognized. When I arrived in Rioja in the early 1980s, garnacha was disliked for its irregular fruit set and its propensity for oxidation. All a consequence of the demand for high yields. The Haro Enological Laboratory recommended that G should be grubbed up and replanted to T, in retrospect a big boo-boo. Whenever I taste the good G-based wines from Campo de Borja and Calatayud I am reminded of this huge mistake on the part of farmers in the R. Oriental.