Vivanco 4 Varietales 2019: four Rioja grapes

Straight from the bottle, the Vivanco 4 Varietales Rioja gave me almost nothing. Closed, warm, alcohol up front, the fruit hiding somewhere behind it. An hour in the decanter changed the whole conversation. So start there: this wine needs patience, and pouring it young and in a hurry wastes the bottle.

Colección Vivanco is the top tier from Bodegas Vivanco in Briones, a family estate best known in Rioja for something that isn’t wine at all. The Vivanco Museum of Wine Culture is one of the more serious wine museums in Europe, built on generations of collecting corkscrews, presses and art. That curator’s eye runs through this bottle too. The label reads botella 11,960 of 15,708, a deliberately small run, presented as a collectible with a terracotta bust on the front.

Four grapes, one decision

The name is the concept. Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha and Mazuelo, the four classic red Rioja grapes, in a single blend. Tempranillo gives the backbone and red fruit, Graciano the spice and acidity, Garnacha the riper round middle, Mazuelo (Carignan elsewhere) firm tannin and colour.

That is a statement. Most Rioja leans hard on Tempranillo and treats the rest as support. Vivanco lines them up side by side here, in comparable proportions, and lets the complexity carry the wine.

In the glass, after decanting: deep garnet, almost opaque. Ripe black cherry and plum, then liquorice, tobacco, a touch of cocoa and that signature Rioja vanilla from the oak. The 14.5% alcohol is present but stops short of burning once the wine has had air. The tannins are fine-grained and firm, the finish long and savoury, with a Graciano freshness that keeps the whole thing from turning heavy.

Where the blend wins, and where it gives something up

Here is the honest caveat. The four-grape approach delivers a complete, layered wine, but you pay for it in precision. A good single-vineyard Tempranillo, or a terroir-driven Graciano, tells one clear story. This 4 Varietales tells four at once, and at moments they talk over each other. If you want the taut, mineral new-wave Rioja, this isn’t it. This is richness, not edge.

Then the price position. As a numbered collector’s bottle, Vivanco sits firmly in the upper bracket, well above the classic Reservas that built Rioja’s reputation. At that level you compete with names carrying decades of track record. The 4 Varietales is good, but buy it for what it is, a rich, generous occasion wine, not as a rational value play.

When to open the Vivanco 4 Varietales

Not tonight, and not without a decanter. Give it an hour of air minimum, or lay the bottle down for another two or three years. At the table it wants something with weight: roast lamb, aged manchego, a stew with plenty of umami. Pour it next to anything delicate and it walks straight over it.

Bodegas Vivanco is widely available, but this Colección tier is specialist stuff. Ask for it at a merchant with a serious Spanish section, and check the current price and vintage, since the run is limited.

Producer

Bodegas Vivanco

Wine

Colección Vivanco 4 Varietales

Vintage

2019

Region

Rioja DOCa, Spain

Grapes

Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha, Mazuelo

Alcohol

14.5%

Production

15,708 bottles, numbered

Bottle received as a press sample from Vivanco. No payment, independent assessment.