Graciano

Graciano is the grape Rioja nearly lost. It is one of the four traditional red varieties of the region, alongside Tempranillo, Garnacha and Mazuelo, and it was traditionally used in small proportions to give a blend acidity, colour and perfume that Tempranillo alone does not have.

Growers pulled it out anyway, because it crops very lightly and ripens late, and a vine that yields little and risks the autumn rain is hard to justify when the co-operative pays by weight. By the 1980s the plantings in Rioja had fallen to a few hundred hectares and the variety was close to disappearing from the region that needed it most.

It came back because the blend was worse without it. Graciano brings high acidity, firm tannin, a dark colour and a striking floral and black pepper aroma, and those are precisely the things a long aged Reserva needs to stay fresh. A handful of producers in Rioja and Navarra now bottle it alone, and Australia has taken it up in warm regions for the same reason: it holds acid in heat.