Ep 545: The Rioja Series - the Rioja Alavesa Zone with Tao Platón of Península Vinicultores

This is the second installment of an in-depth series on the Rioja DOCa, where I do a close look at the three major zones of Rioja. I host top producers in each show to tell us about their areas and the challenges they face.

In Episode 544, we heard about the Rioja Alta zone and this week we hear from Tao Platón of Rioja Alavesa, who presents a completely different perspective on the region.

Tao Platón graduated in Enology from the University of Valladolid, holds a WSET Diploma and is an Master of Wine (MW) candidate. He has made wine in Bordeaux, Burgundy, New Zealand, and Rioja and in 2016 he joined Península Vinicultores as head winemaker and technical director.

Photo: Tao Platón. Credit: Península Vinicultores

He leads the production of a new generation of terroir-driven wines from Rioja Alavesa at Bodega Bideona. Bideona cultivates hundreds of individual parcels and makes wine in the Burgundian model – terroir-driven, vineyard specific wines. He joins us as a representative of the zone of Alavesa and as a passionate advocate for the system of terroir-driven, single vineyard wines, a system which Rioja approved in 2018.

We discuss: 

• The Rioja Alavesa overview -- terroir, the history of the region, and how Alavesa is made up of many small, family owned wineries.

• The strengths of Alavesa, which are old vines, mainly of Tempranillo. Wineries of Alavesa don’t blend grapes from elsewhere so the wines are very terroir-driven and local in Alavesa. We discuss the various styles of wines, including the production of whites in the region.

• We get to some of the very hard questions regarding Alavesa and its Basque identity. We fill you in on the political independent movement in the Basque Country, the various ideologies and how those are playing out in the politics of the Rioja DOCa.

• The differences between business models (traditional model versus newer, terroir driven producers) in the Rioja DOCa, as well as the tension is between quality producers and those who look to make cheap wine that they can sell quickly, regardless of quality.

• The potential future for Rioja and the DOCa and various scenarios that could exist for Alavesa in the future.

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This show represents a totally different perspective from Rioja Alavesa versus Rioja Alta! Just wait until the next show with Raquel of Bodegas Ontañón from Rioja Oriental!

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