Vina Olagosa Rioja Reserva is the one that seems now to typify what we think of as the Rioja style. Quite purple fruit, an explosion of sugars and damsons, then a big wrap of oak. Big, bold, a reflection of the new Spain post Franco if you like, very confident if a little wayward. It is a modern thing even if they tell you otherwise. But it floats many a boat and on a dull autumnal evening with a Roast about to be carved it certainly does the business, reliably and without too much cost. It is good value and Reserva from Perica is a good example of this style. It will not fail.

Now you don’t need a lot of historical guff to know how popular Rioja is, or really why it is. It is a comfortable friend on a list, we feel happy knowing we’ll get something reliable from it, and have done for years really. Old Hugh Johnson was saying it in 1965, reliable, nice fruit, lot of flavour, gentle oak, approachable. And this is not artificial, it’s been like this for years. In red wines at least.

Double reason for this from our hazy memory. 1. Rioja vineyards planted in 1850s by wealthy merchants/industrialists from the Basque region, which is just over a mountain range from Rioja to the coast. They wanted fragrant reds (yes reds) to serve light and chilled with the fish and meats they ate. 2. At the same time French merchants began to look across the border when Phylorexia struck their vines. There was a cross fertilisation of knowledge but it meant that the Crianza style we have today is very much the wedding of Tempranillo reds wanted by the Basques with a lick of oak ageing learnt from the French. Of course oak came to predominate in all Spanish red wines, but here it is gentle to start with. This is to simplify and not all wineries did the same things but it does to get our bearings.