Graciano Rioja, Bodegas Ondarre 2023
Decanter World Wine Awards 90 points
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Why this wine
Graciano is normally a seasoning grape, blended in a few percent at a time for colour and acidity, because it yields too little for anyone to bottle on its own. Ondarre make a few thousand cases anyway, and the result is far darker and more savoury than the Tempranillo house style Rioja is known for. A useful way to taste what the grape actually contributes.
At a glance
- Grape
- Graciano
- Region
- Rioja, Spain
- Alcohol
- 13.00%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Barbecue, Cheese
How it tastes
Gamey, savoury aromas open onto ripe black fruit, with balsamic, mint, aniseed and white pepper behind. Full-bodied and dense, with firm tannins, moderate acidity and a long, robust finish. Graciano 100%.
The producer
Bodegas Ondarre was founded in 1985 to show off Rioja's distinct terroirs and is the only winery in the village of Viana, which overlooks the Rioja valley in Rioja Oriental; it works with the same growers it started with, and puts its record on hard vineyard work and continual investment in the cellar and its barrel stock. This is one of only a few thousand cases of single-varietal Graciano, a rarity given how little the variety yields. The vineyards lie on south-facing slopes on the valley's northern hills at 550 metres, on uneven ground cut by streams running off the mountains, with vines averaging 25 years on soils just 30 to 35 centimetres deep — poor in nutrients and largely clay, high in iron and chalk, so the roots have to go looking for water. The grapes were hand-harvested at optimum maturity, fermented with selected yeasts in temperature-controlled vats at 28°C, and aged twelve months, half in new French oak and half in medium-grain Missouri oak.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16 to 18°C. It stands up to grilled lamb chops, chorizo and morcilla, barbecued beef short ribs, and a hard aged Manchego. Drinking now and over the next three to five years; half an hour in a decanter softens the tannins. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.