c. 1860–1900 · Rioja
Bordeaux refugees reshape Rioja
French winemakers driven south by phylloxera brought barrel ageing to Rioja, and it never left.
What happened
Phylloxera reached Bordeaux before it reached Rioja, and Bordelais merchants and winemakers crossed the Pyrenees looking for wine to sell and land to work.
They brought Bordeaux methods with them, above all systematic ageing in small oak barrels, which was not previously the Riojan practice.
Riojan producers adopted the barrel and then took it considerably further than Bordeaux ever did, developing extended ageing periods in American oak that became the region’s signature.
Those ageing periods were later codified into the Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva classification — a legal system built on a nineteenth-century borrowing.
Phylloxera arrived in Rioja eventually, in the early twentieth century, but the practice was established by then.
How firmly this is dated
Attested. Well attested, with the precise date or the attribution reconstructed rather than recorded at the time.
Bodega foundation records and contemporary trade accounts. The influence is well attested; individual attributions vary between sources.
What this follows from, and leads to
A timeline is a list; these are the links between its entries.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja — classification — Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja
- The Oxford Companion to Wine — Oxford University Press
Along the timeline
Before · 1863–1900s
The phylloxera crisis
An American aphid destroyed most of Europe's vineyards, and grafting onto American rootstock was the eventual solution.
After · 1872
Bettino Ricasoli sets down a Chianti formula
A recipe combining Sangiovese with other varieties defined Chianti for a century — including the white grapes later removed.