Perhaps the best praise for a documentary like Rioja, the land of a thousand wines is that it also captures that viewer who, a priori, is neither an expert nor a wine lover. And that awakens the pressing desire to pour a drink. “That was the objective,” laughs the creator of this trip to La Rioja from the big screen, José Luis López-Linares (Madrid, 1955). A wine lover with a prestigious resume behind the camera and three Goyas, as director of photography (Iberia, one of his 40 titles alongside greats like Carlos Saura, Fernando Trueba or Víctor Erice) and two others (Assault on the Skies and Extras ) in the field of documentary cinema to which he has devoted himself decades ago.
His latest documentary, produced by Morena Films, is an immersion in the Riojan DNA, dotted with vineyards and wineries, and in the magic that surrounds each step: from pampering the land and its vineyards, harvesting the grapes, stepping on them… to processes like fermentation. The spectacular landscape is another protagonist of the film. “The grapes reign there, you can’t walk a kilometer without finding a vineyard,” says the director.
The filming, during the 2022 harvest, “was extraordinary,” recalls the director and screenwriter. Calm talks “with a drink in hand”. The worst: “Leaving some signatures out of the footage.” Is there a market for so much winery? “We don’t know that. New markets are opening. Many of them, after the harvest, go to sell their own product.”
About thirty interviews give voice to farmers, restaurateurs, winemakers, prescribers… Human stories, debates (is a young or old vineyard better?), reflections on the field from experts and managers of large firms (Álvaro Palacios, Marqués de Riscal, Marqués de Murrieta, Roda) and more recent bets. Winegrowers like Berta Valgañón or Carlos Mazo, with their small wineries, David Moreno, proud that his daughters “have stayed and love wine,” or Jade Gross, from Hong Kong, who studied politics in New York and has chosen to live in La Rioja to “make wine and be happy.” Another voice is that of Tim Atkin, prestigious British prescriber and journalist, lover of La Rioja, which he called “the sleeping lion” in reference to its potential.
You breathe creativity and legacy. “This profession requires a generation that explains its secrets to you, learning at its side,” says Carlos Mazo. And he highlights the role of women, valuable, “always present in rural areas,” as well as the hospitality that wine tourism visitors, wine trips, value so much.
María Vargas, winemaker at Marqués de Murrieta, speaks of “endless learning” in the art of winemaking. And the opinion is unanimous about the emergence of this area and its wines, with great projection, about how diversity has multiplied. “We have discovered a world that we did not know, hundreds of small wineries that innovate, use forgotten grapes, that mix, there is a world there with a lot of creativity and enthusiasm,” says López-Linares. As happens with white wines. “No one thought about them when talking about Rioja and there are some extraordinary ones.”
With a didactic tone, it is remembered how in the 19th century phylloxera attacked the vineyards in France and La Rioja took over; the golden years of the area, and how the wine culture was born.
For the director, one of the gifts of filming was participating in an almost archaeological tasting of Marqués de Riscal. “Wines that are a century and a half old! I would not have imagined that a wine from 1862 was still wine, even if only for 15 minutes, as it oxidizes instantly. It was very special to uncork it and taste that old, weak wine; “It’s a wonder that he’s able to last all that time.”
