Graciano - Rioja’s “man behind the scenes”

Rioja is undoubtedly Spain’s oldest and most famous wine region. And most people who know a bit about Rioja also know that Tempranillo is Rioja’s signature variety, it comprising the lion’s share of most Rioja blends, and in some cases, making up 100% of the juice in the bottle. To support the Tempranillo, the Rioja statutes allow for minority percentages of Garnacha (Grenache), Mazuelo (which is the local name for Carignan) as well as our feature here, Graciano.

In this age of convenience, many Rioja grape growers opt out of cultivating any Graciano at all. Since the grape is only optional in the final blend, and since Graciano is a fairly fussy, low-yielding variety, it’s easy for growers to just not grow Graciano at all. And don’t they do (or something like that) - the majority of Rioja wines contain little to no Graciano at all.

Graciano as was already mentioned, is low yielding, but that’s not all. The variety also buds very late, is susceptible to a vine disease called downy mildew, and the variety has a distinct preference for chalk-rich soils. - three more reasons to leave Graciano out in the cold…

Graciano, despite its seeming isolation and oscurity, is actually a fairly well-traveled variety. In Portugal, the variety trades under the name Tinta Miuda, Morrastel (NOT Morristel, which is a different Aragonese variety) in Languedoc, southern France, and goes by the name of Tintilla de Rota in the Jerez region of southern Spain. Graciano also grows in parts of North Africa also under the name of Morrastel, and even in the New World Graciano has a presence, namely in California under the name of Xeres, and under the good ol’ name of Graciano in Australia. Because of this scattered presence worldwide, it is difficult to say from precisely where Graciano originates, but the common wisdom is that its home region is Rioja, or at very least somewhere in Spain.

Vinified alone, Graciano is a highly characterful variety with a deep, rich color, a certain round but tannic mouthfeel, and a perfumed, nearly aromatic bouquet. All this being said, because of the challenges the variety presents to the grower, it is rarely seen bottled unblended…

…and just so I look like a big, fat liar, the only bottling that I’m featuring if anyone is interested is a 100% Graciano (”Wait, didn’t he just say that…”) from CALIFORNIA not Spain, and the wine is labelled as “Graciano” and NOT under it’s Cali alias of Xeres - What’s a boy to do?

This is the time of the show in which I usually proffer a few food pairings, but since I’ve only ever tasted the wine below once, and since you’re unlikely to encounter another pure Graciano ever again, in addition the always welcomed tasting notes (posted here as comments), I encourage anyone who turns up a particularly felicitous pairing with this or that dish, to post those comments here as well. SALUD!

TOM CIOCCO

…se necesita un poco de Graciano