We love our BBQ here in America and quite often we pair it with American wines.  That’s cool, but what about wines from other places in the World?  Can they pair just as well, or maybe even better with your favorite grilled fare?

The theme for Wine Pairing Weekend blogging group this month is Rioja and BBQ.    We’ll be sharing our suggestions for combining wine from the renown La Rioja wine region in Spain with food from the grill.

About Rioja

Rioja has historically been considered Spain’s greatest wine region, and is especially renown for red wine made from the indigenous Tempranillo grape.

Here are some fast fact from Jeff Burrows of FoodWineClick who is hosting this month:

• Rioja is best known for its’ red wines, although white wines and rosato’s are also made
• Rioja red wines are blends, primarily of Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta (Grenache), with some Mazuelo (Mourvedre) and Graciano. Rioja wines are known for their long aging in oak barrels.
• Rioja white wines are also blends, primarily made from Viura, Malvasia, and Garnacha Blanca.
• Rioja wines are classified by their aging time, with the best grapes going into wines receiving the longest aging. Look for these notations on the label (aging listed for the red wines):
  • Joven – no aging requirements, these are simple fruit forward table wines. There’s no “Joven” on the back label, you’ll only see “Cosecha” followed by a year which indicates the vintage.
  • Crianza – 12 months minimum in cask, 24 months total
  • Reserva – 12 months minimum in cask, 36 months total
  • Gran Reserva – 24 months minimum in cask, 60 months total
• Historically, Rioja wines were held by the winery much longer than other regions of the world, the winery would wait to release until the wines were at their best. Some wineries still age and hold their wines much longer than the minimum requirements.

Crianzas tend to be easy drinking wines with vibrant flavors.  Reservas are made from better grapes from better sites, and tend to be more lush and concentrated than crianzas, and Gran reservas are only made in exceptional years and come from the very best vineyards.

The Wine

Disclosure: The  wine was provided as a media sample.    I received no compensation for this post, and all opinions presented are my own.

Fruit for this wine was from selected from vineyards with an average age of more than 25 years in the well-regarded Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa subzones of Rioja.

The wine is a blend of 92% Tempranillo and 8% Mazuelo.  The wine was aged 18 months in hybrid barrels of French and American oak.  It spent another 20 months in the bottle before release.  to complete its rounding off.

My tasting notes follow:

Color – Dark ruby
Aromas – Sour cherry, leather, dried dill, and vanilla
Body – Medium-bodied, focused and fresh with well-integrated velvety tannins
Taste – Tart black and red cherry, and mulberry with hints of dried fig and spice
Finish – Medium-long

13.5% ABV | SRP – $16 USD per winesearcher.com.

This charming wine was a tasty reminder of value offered by Rioja wines for me.   To maximize enjoyment, I recommend decanting this wine for at least 30 minutes.

The Wine and Food Pairing

When my wife and I visited Rioja several years ago, we discovered, first hand, the beauty of pairing Rioja wine with lamb when we served grilled  baby lamb chops grilled over grape-vine cuttings!

I looked for a recipe I thought would complement the Old World character of the 2012 Bodegas LAN Reserva.  I settled on the my take of  Grilled Garam Masala Lamb Chops.   It’s lamb loin chops prepared with a garam masala and ancho chile rub I had a hunch would pair well with the wine.  And since I had the Weber fired up, I also grilled some veggies.

I wish you could have smelled the lamb when I pulled it off the grilled. There was an intoxicating combination of smoke, savory and sweet spice aromas!  The wine, which has  touches of spice and leather, was wonderful paired with the lamb and grilled veggies!

About Bodegas LAN

Bodegas LAN was founded in 1972  is named after the initials of the 3 provinces in the Rioja Designation of Origin: Logrono (now La Rioja) Alava and Navarra. It is located in the heart of Rioja Alta which is synonymous with tradition and prestige.

LAN has four lines of wine;

• Viña Lanciano  – wines sourced from their estate vineyards
•  LAN D-12 – winemakers favorite tanks
• The LAN Range – wines sourced from long-standing suppliers
• LAN Xtrème – an organic wine

LAN seamlessly blends the best of Rioja tradition and modern winemaking.   For example, the winery is fitted with an automatic stacking and racking system that is unique in the world.  Additionally, they work with a wide range of different types of oak in our barrel room.  French, American, Russian, Hungarian, Pyrenean oak and hybrid barrels (American oak staves and French oak bottoms) are all used, along with different types of toast to elaborate their wines.  They tailor the ageing to each variety on a separate basis, arranging pyramids of barrels by parcel, in order to extract their maximum potential of each bottling.

Wine Pairing Weekend Rioja and BBQ Pairing Ideas
Have a look at the posts below for some great ideas for pairing Rioja wine with BBQ.

• Deanna at Asian Test Kitchen shares “Vegan BBQ: 3 Ideas to Pair with Crianza Rioja“.
• Lori at Exploring the Wine Glass shares “A Father’s Passion is Passed Down to Daughter and Expressed in Bottle“
• David from Cooking Chat shares “Grilled Paprika Pork Chops with a Rioja”
• Jane at Always Ravenous shares “Grilled Sausage Feast Paired with Rioja Crianza“
• Lauren at The Swirling Dervish shares “Paella and Bodegas LAN: Perfect for Your Summer BBQ“
• Jill at L’Occasion shares “On the Grill with Rioja Wine“
• Jennifer at Vino Travels Italy shares “Oven Roasted Italian Sausage with Rioja Riserva“
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass shares “Keep your cool with grilled steak salad and Rioja“
• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares “Robatayaki and Rioja Wines, the Perfect Summertime Party“
• Pinny at Chinese Food & Wine Pairings shares “Bodegas LAN Rioja Crianza and Thick-Cut Sirloin Steak on the Grill“
• Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm shares “Our Favorite BBQ Ribs with LAN Rioja“
• Gwen at Wine Predator shares “An American Summer BBQ with Spanish Rioja Wine: LAN Crianza and Beronia Rosado“
• Nicole at Somm’s Table shares “Cooking to the Wine: Bodegas LAN Rioja Reserva with Smoky Seared Octopus”
• Rupal at Syrah Queen shares “Bodegas LAN Rioja with Canjun Butter Steak”
• Jeff at Food Wine Click! shares “Smoking Low & Slow with Rioja Wines“

Join the Conversation
Please join our live Twitter chat on July 13 at 8am PDT. Just search for the hashtag: #WinePW and join in or search for it later and read all the posts.  Salud!