Wine of the Week

Genolí Viura 2021 - Viña Ijalba

Region - DOCa Rioja

Varieties - 90% Viura, 10% others (not specified)

ABV - 13%

Around €6 in Spain, widely distributed

There’s been quite a lot of talk about white Rioja recently, so I thought it’d be a good idea to put one forward as wine of the week. Briefly, it has been a bit of a roller coaster for white Rioja, with the style going from long-aged oxidised, to clean and fruity, to oak-aged, to “new” varieties, to vineyard-orientated and back to basics. This one is very much from the clean and fruity school, showing that Rioja’s main white grape doesn’t deserve its neutral reputation.

I’ve long admired the producer, Viña Ijalba, for their decent value wines and for their focus on single varieties. Indeed they are pioneers, being one of the first producers to launch a straight Graciano. This spirit has continued and the varietal range now includes Tempranillo Blanco and both Maturana Tinta and Maturana Blanca. It’s a good calling card to have and a way that this fairly modern bodega (first vine planted 1975, winery founded 1991) can try to stand out.

I chanced across this wine a couple of Fridays ago. Dehydrated after a couple of days in the Pyrenees, it occurred to me that my best option would be to head straight to town and have a few drinks, rather than settle in for a quiet night. Like the rest of Spain, Logroño was still in Christmas mode, with the bars full for the last hurrah that is Reyes, whilst pretty much every other European country was already stumbling reluctantly into the January blues.

Roots is a tiny wine bar in the very centre of the city and is tucked down a side-street between the cathedral and the pintxos crawl centraal that is Calle San Juan. Arguably the most interesting bar in town, their by-the-glass list always contains at least 50% must-trys, so is always worth a look. On this evening I was surrounded by English speakers, an entire restaurant’s staff all the way from Richmond Virginia, in Rioja for a fact-finding mission. We got talking and cruised around the old town for a while. Stopping at Calle Laurel classic Bar Ángel, somebody ordered a bottle of white to go with the signature mushroom and prawn pintxos and this Viña Ijalba Genolí Viura 2021 was what turned up.

Even after several drinks and weaving unwisely between reds, Sherry, bubbles and white, this wine still stood out, we all agreed. More than anything, for the generosity of flavour and the unctuous mouthfeel. I bought a bottle a few days later to have a closer look at home. Light gold-yellow colour, there’s plenty of apricots and stone fruit on the nose with perhaps just a touch of vaseline. The palate is apricots again, cut with citrus and pretty round, yet finishes with a bitter twist of lemon pith, that makes you want to go back. No oak, no long-ageing, just fruit and texture make this straightforward white Rioja something of a bargain at this price.