I can't stop drinking

Cold Rioja. You should get involved too. Plus, a paid subscriber giveaway coming soon.

First off, this isn’t an April Fool. There are few more tiresome things than a wine trade April Fool: stand by for scratch and sniff labels, Krug in a can and alcohol free wine that tastes nice.

Oh hold on, some people actually write that. Given the amount of booze columns currently devoted to booze that contains no booze, you’d think it was April 1st every single day.

But yes, it’s true, I genuinely can’t stop drinking cold Rioja.

It stared a couple of weeks ago when I helped launch a new wine tasting in London, called Cosecheros of Rioja. I would say ‘think Spanish Beaujolais’ but I hate comparing regions and styles in that lazy manner, so pretend I didn’t say that. It’s similar, but different and certainly not interchangeable (ie. drink both).

I don’t expect anyone to know what Cosescheros are, so let’s get up to speed: unoaked, young red wines from Rioja (usually the most recent vintage) made with carbonic maceration. I won’t over explain carbonic maceration either, but it’s basically a technique that can be used to make young wines for early drinking, that tends to ramp up the fruit factor making them extra drinkable, and packed with pure, uncomplicated pleasure.

You don’t obsess over the complexities, nor do you intellectualise these wines and thank god ‘cos we can’t be doing that all day. Sometimes you just need to drink something that tastes nice.

You gulp, you don’t sip. And you serve it chilled, anything from cold (but not ice cold) to 16 degrees cellar temp (but no warmer). I’m not expecting you to be armed with thermometer so if you don’t have a cold room where you keep your wine then just whack it in the fridge for a bit.

Trust your judgement on whether it’s too cold or too warm. If you can’t taste anything, it’s too cold. If it’s not refreshing and almost too fruity, it’s too warm. Don’t forget you can put it in and out of the fridge/ice as many times as you like to maintain gluggability. If you paid heed to my pre-Christmas piece on the only five wine gadgets you really need, you will now own a wine sleeve. This would be a good time to deploy it.

Honestly, there is nothing better than guzzling down a cool blast of red berry scented vino tinto (but maybe don’t say vino tinto out loud in the UK, it’s a bit David Brent/Alan P). It’s doubly delicious whilst devouring the type of salty, fishy, meaty, cheesy snacks they serve in the pintxos bars of the region (raw tuna toasts, jamon croquetas, tempura langoustine, bacalao, grilled chorizo, oozing tortilla, pollo al ajillo and glistening slithers of hand carved Iberico ham).

So simple but so good, and you’ll wonder what on earth you were doing before you discovered cold Rioja.

You want more good news? They’re cheap! £10-20 a bottle in the UK, with most being much closer to £10 than £20.

As soon as the London tasting was done I flew to Rioja for several days (guide coming soon) to pick up where I left off, this time on the actual ground. Returning last night, these wines are front and centre of my mind and my enthusiasm for all things Spanish is at an all time high.

And now that we’re officially in BST I have to tell you they are perfect for picnics, poolsides, beach boozing and long garden days. If you’re the type of person who feels compelled to buy anything peddled under the heading ‘BBQ Wines’ (shudder - if Andrew Tate was a wine… *insert gag about 19 Crimes*) you should absolutely give these a go instead of the usual suspects. Why on earth anyone wants to drink a massive Malbec or sloppy Shiraz in the sun is beyond me.

I’m not sure where to go from an Andrew Tate wine analogy so here’s some bottles for you to get your summer drinking gob around.

Let me know how you get on in the comments.

Ruth x

I’ve included a few links within the UK but have a google if they don’t suit.

Producer, Name of Wine, Retailer

ABEICA Chulato - Chesters Wine Merchants

Artuke - Lea & Sandeman

Abel Mendoza, Jarrate - Decantalo

Domino de Berzal, Maceración Carbónica - Raeburn Fine Wines

Hacienda Grimón, Cómo lo haría mi abuelo - Spanish Wines Online

Mitarte, MC - Field & Fawcett

Monje Amestoy - Luberri - Decantalo