Vivid, velvety, Vivanco
Although Castile and León is the heartland of our authentic wine tours, La Ruta de Don Federico occasionally ventures further afield – last year offering guests the opportunity to discover the windmill-dotted Don Quixote country of Castile La Mancha, the white-walled towns and sherry bodegas of Andalusia, and of course the best known wine region of Spain, La Rioja. And whenever I pass through the vicinity of the thriving wine hub of Haro I never fail to stop at the beautiful and ingeniously-built bodega of Dinastía Vivanco, whether for a purchase, tasting or lunch in the elegant restaurant with sweeping views across the vineyards of the estate – views enhanced by the fact most of the winery is hidden underground on three space-age subterranean floors that wouldn’t be out of place as the lair of a James Bond villain.
A visit to Vivanco
Reminiscing on my last visit, I selected a Vivanco Reserva 2011 from the rack to accompany my Sunday supper, a particularly meaty pasta bolognese dish; the wine goes perfectly with all types of meat, game, stews, mushrooms and cured cheeses. I have sampled many vintages of this fine 90% tempranillo / 10% graciano blend which can occasionally be found in select British restaurants and is great value. The 2011 vintage reserva has been much fêted, garnering 92 points from both Robert Parker and Wine Spectator – and 94 from British Master of Wine Tim Atkin – among many other deserved awards.
This silky, spicy wine is the product of 35-year-old vines planted in the chalky-clay soil surrounding the pretty village of Briones in La Rioja Alta, a sub-region which produces many of the best Riojas to lay down, famed for their structure and complexity. The tempranillo grapes being the earlier ripening variety are hand picked at the beginning of October and the graciano grapes up to four weeks later, before resting in a cold room for a full 36 hours prior to crushing and gravity-feeding into French oak vats, where they ferment and macerate for 20 days in contact with the skins. Following malolactic fermentation the reserva wine spends 24 months in new and second year barrels made with French and American oak before fine-tuning for a few months exclusively in French oak and another 24 months in bottle. The Rioja governing regulator for the appellation (DOC) stipulates only 12 months of oak ageing for a reserva, which perhaps explains why this particular wine drinks in some respects like a gran reserva, which always receives a full two years maturation in wood before bottling (for a further three years).
Briones
Intensely purple red with a brick red rim, in the glass I picked up the spiciness, particularly cinnamon, and distinct aromas of cherry and black fruit. The mouthfeel is voluptuous, velvet smooth and yet more spicy but with fruit flavours far more pronounced than you might expect of such an aged wine. This wine is typical of the new movement in the region to move away from wood-pronounced character towards a more vibrant product which is readily identifiable with a distinct fruit fingerprint and estate terrain.
Subterranean cellars
Along with the modern slant on the wine, the bodega itself is futuristic yet rooted in the tradition of the land, incredibly well integrated as it is into the surrounding landscape, hidden beneath some of the estate’s 300 hectares of vines and allowing near uninterrupted vistas of the beautiful countryside and nearby hilltop village.
Buried along with the production facilities and cavernous storage and maturation chambers is a huge 6 salon wine museum, home to more than 5,000 pieces of every conceivable piece of viticultural paraphernalia assembled over 45 years from all over the globe, including giant antique presses and the world’s largest display of surprisingly curious corkscrews. The collection spans every stage of winemaking stretching back to 3000 BCE and includes not only the 18th century wine bottle which provided the model for the modern day Vivanco bottle design but an impressive wine-related art collection. Among the works on view from a pantheon of painters such as Picasso, Miró and Warhol is a piece by Juan Gris, one of the great forerunners of Cubism – a still life with wine bottle and bunch of grapes which provides the central feature on the label of Vivanco Reserva.
The artwork could be a metaphor for the wine itself, a modern classic with traditional themes, which proved a perfect accompaniment to a hearty supper. I recommend you try to seek out a bottle, especially to accompany a good chef-cooked steak, or better still join a Wine Experience with La Ruta de Don Federico and discover not only Dinastía Vivanco but many more hidden wine gems of the Spanish interior.
In the meantime, here’s family estate manager Rafael Vivanco to whet your appetite…
Video copyright of Vivanco, all photos copyright of La Ruta de Don Federico
