TILIMUQUI FAIRTRADE MALBEC SCORES A HAT TRICK

2020 has really been a super year for La Riojana’s Tilimuqui Fairtrade Organic Malbec, winning a hat trick of medals in three of the world’s largest and most well-known wine competitions, as well as the much-coveted IWC Fairtrade Wine Award 2020. 

Being awarded top medals at three prestigious wine competitions, all of which were attended by some of the world’s finest wine judges, is itself no mean feat. The medals themselves are not only testament to the consistent quality of the award-winning Tilimuqui Fairtrade Organic Malbec but also to the high standard of Fairtrade wine being produced by La Riojana. 

However, this is not the only hat trick being celebrated by La Riojana co-operative. The most recent IWC Fairtrade Award makes it the third time that La Riojana has won this award in the last 7 years, with 2020 being the second year in a row after winning the same award for the Co-op Irresistible Fairtrade Organic Malbec in 2019. According to Nick Day, Europe Sales Director for La Riojana, “The fact that La Riojana has won the IWC Fairtrade Award three times really helps reaffirm the level of quality of our Fairtrade wines and interestingly all three IWC Fairtrade Awards have been for our Fairtrade Malbec, making it yet another hat trick.”

Tilimuqui Fairtrade Organic Malbec 2019 won the IWC Fairtrade Award 2020 and a Silver Medal at the International Wine Challenge 2020 Tranche 2 (results announced 26th November 2020). It also won a Bronze medal at the International Wine and Spirits Competition 2020 (results announced 5th October 2020) and a Bronze medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2020 (results announced 22nd September 2020).

MEDAL SUCCESS AT DECANTER WORLD WINE AWARDS 2020

After what has been a challenging year for the global wine industry in dealing with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, La Riojana is delighted to be celebrating its eleven medals won at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2020, the results for which were announced on 22nd September 2020. 

La Riojana’s top competition medal went to its ever-popular blend Co-op Fairtrade Torrontés-Chardonnay 2019, which was awarded a Silver Medal and 90 points. 

La Riojana also won four Bronze medals for its Tilimuqui Fairtrade Organic Malbec 2019 (87 points - available in Waitrose, UK); Co-op Fairtrade Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 (88 points), Co-op Fairtrade Bonarda-Malbec 2019 (87 points) and Ecologica Fairtrade Organic Shiraz-Malbec 2019 (87 points).

In addition to this, La Riojana won six Commended medals for its Raza Reserve Fairtrade Shiras-Malbec 2019 (84 points); Raza Reserve Fairtrade Torrontés-Chardonnay 2019 (83 points); Raza Selection Malbec-Shiraz 2016 (85 points); Ecologica Fairtrade Organic Torrontés-Chardonnay 2019 (85 points); Co-op Irresistible Fairtrade Organic Malbec 2018 (83 points) and Co-op Fairtrade Merlot 2019 (84 points).

The judging for the Decanter World Wine Awards, now in its 17th year, was held, whilst adhering to strict Covid safety guidelines and through socially distanced judging, over four consecutive weeks in August 2020. During which time, 116 expert wine judges tasted over 16,500 wines from 56 countries. South America won a total of 774 medals, with Argentina winning 383 medals, confirming its position as one of South America’s leading winemaking nations.

LA RIOJANA FAIRTRADE NEWSLETTER – SEPTEMBER 2020

LA RIOJANA CO-OPERATIVE VINTAGE REPORT 2020

For our co-operative, the 2020 harvest marked our 80th harvest, which officially started on 27th January 2020 and ended on 9th April 2020. Overall the climatic conditions experienced were similar to other years, however due to little rain, it was on the whole somewhat drier than previous years, which resulted in the grapes ripening more quickly than normal. In La Rioja, Argentina’s third largest wine-producing province, the 2020 harvest was characterized by the ripeness and healthiness of the grapes harvested which has produced good quality wines as a result. 

This year we harvested a total of 29,522,309 million kilos of wine grapes (55% white and 45% red), with the majority coming from the farms of our 360 members and our long-term contract growers. Taking into account that La Rioja province harvested a total of 54 million kilos this vintage, the lowest harvest in 40 years, La Riojana represents 54% of the viticulture production, making us the leading wine producer in the province. 

In terms of climatic conditions and how they affected the 2020 vintage, winter 2019 was fairly kind and brief with the significant cooler weather starting in June and then colder temperatures and frosts during July and August. The first few days of September saw some low temperatures which fortunately did not affect the bud break of the wine grapes and occurred satisfactorily in most of the vineyards from the middle to the end of the month. 

Spring 2019 saw low rainfall and average temperatures for the region which favoured the vegetative growth of the vineyards, with no cryptogamic diseases observed. There were some zondas (warm winds from the north) recorded which did affect the fruit set in some places but not to a major degree. 

Summer 2019 - 2020 experienced good temperatures in both December and January. In general, the nights were rather cool, with relative low humidity. The good thermal range favoured the veraison and fruit maturity. Some rain was recorded at the end of December, producing some cases of hail which affected a few vineyards in the west of La Rioja region.

The harvest began at the end of January (with the first grapes being picked in the Tilimuqui area) and was characterized by ripe, healthy grapes, which had reached the right degree of alcohol with virtually no problem. There was some rain recorded during the harvest in February and March, but it had little effect on the actual harvest. 

This year all the varieties performed well, with Torrontés Riojano standing out amongst the whites, with an excellent development of citrus, white fruit aromas and tropical notes, followed by Chardonnay which fully expressed its varietal typicity, with citrus, pear, mango aromas and a delicate touch of honey. In addition to this the Pinot Gris produced was very aromatic and fresh with citrus and white peach notes. 

Among the red varieties, Malbec, Syrah, Merlot and Bonarda stood out, with Syrah being the highest volume harvested. Most of the wines have a good level of alcohol, with intense colour, very good quality tannins (with absence of any green and dry notes) and are very aromatically expressive.