Originally published on August 16, 2009.
So I was last seen in this space ranting, or maybe it was whining, about the giant sucking sound set off by Eric Asimov’s Wednesday New York Times column about old-school Rioja. I was probably being a little overly dramatic.
To start, a mention in the New York Times will certainly raise consumer interest and increase sales, but it won’t cause a nationwide feeding frenzy, as when a wine is crowned, say, the Wine Spectator’s “Wine of the Year.” And while old-school Rioja is easily one of the best values in fine, age-worthy wine, it’s still not inexpensive – and in this economy, even the big stores are watching their inventory levels and working capital expenses.
Another mitigating factor of the giant sucking sound – there just isn’t a huge amount of old-school Rioja sitting around in the distributor’s warehouses. These wineries tends to release a specific vintage when they feel it’s just entering the first phase of “ready-to-drinkness.” And from what I can gather, they only release a portion, with a fair amount of their stock held back in their cellar for release at a later date. This later date generally takes the form of a DI offering, during which retail and restaurant wine buyers get to mull over lists of old vintages and decide how much of each to buy.
I’ve written before about how these offers are like Christmas for wine buyers. For me, this is especially true for the Rioja DI offers from the traditional, old-school Rioja. These are wines that seem to age endlessly, gaining a leathery, tea-leafy complexity as the primary notes fade into a haunting whiff of exotic spices and ghostly fruits. I could go on, but you might start to laugh. These are wines best drunk slowly and quietly, because you can sound a little silly if try to describe them.
So my DI wish list can get a little crazy, with most of the bottles falling under the heading of “one for me, one for the store.” But the actual purchase order is trimmed to a more fiscally responsible level. And then the wines arrive…and I squirrel them away and drag my feet on pricing them, setting them up in the system, and putting them out on the Internet. Because I really don’t want any one to buy them. I want to keep them….all.
Such is my love of old, old-school Rioja.
But the New York Times piece, great sucking sound aside, inspired me to share the love and let my semi-secret stash be known. So every bottle of Lopez de Heredia, La Rioja Alta, and Bodegas Riojanas in the shop is priced up and ready to go.
Well, almost every bottle. Fiscal responsibility only goes so far.