So what on earth is a Riserva ?

It is a commonly held view - perpetuated not least by the very high prices of these wines - that a label designating a wine as a “Riserva” means the wine is of higher quality than a bottle not so designated. And so, for example, in the explanation of the meaning of the term, EatalyVino says  quite succinctly - “In Italy, we use the word riserva to indicate a superior vino.”

What is clear is that if a riserva is from a selection of grapes across many parcels rather than from the entirety of the fruit harvested from a single vineyard, that selection will be of the best grapes. Nobody makes a selection of less good grapes to put into a riserva bottling. So the fruit is likely the very best available.

This fruit may then be given additional time in barrel or botti. In some cases the law requires this, though often the rules do not specify an additional period in wood but simply require the wine not to be released until a certain period of time has elapsed since harvest. But if the wine does get additional time in barrel - by regulation or winemaker choice - this wine will have received more oxygenation and perhaps some advancement in its maturity. On release these wines will benefit from being made from the highest quality fruit but will also have a softened tannin profile and perhaps a paler color than the regular bottling. My understanding is that riservas are intended to age a very long time but this is a misconception on my part. The lengthy aging in wood seems to me very often to make the wine more ready to drink than the regular bottling - a riper, more oaked, softer and lighter colored wine, with, of course, beautiful fruit.

In rarer instances, where a particular vineyard’s fruit character as a whole is judged to merit some additional aging before release, the winery may simply hold this wine back a year or two and release it after it has, say, three years in bottle.  This in effect is what Sylvia Altare has done with her Barolo Cerretta 2017. The wine, as I have it, receives no more time in barrel than any other cru from the estate, but because of the particular tannic structure of wines from the Ceretta vineyard, the winery wisely decided to hold the wine back a while in bottle so that, on release, the wine would have lost some of its sterner Serralunga character and some of the robustness of its tannin. It is labeled as a “riserva”. This is confusing because, ten years after the vintage, this wine has received absolutely no different a treatment than a wine bottled without the ‘riserva” designation. It is more properly a ‘late release”. Chateau Latour of course does the same - holding back the Grand Vin at the Chateau for an admirable ten years prior to release. So, as I understand it, does Domaine Jacques Frederic Mugnier in relation to their Musigny, which they hold at the winery in bottle for three additional years. But neither Chateau Latour nor Jacques- Frederic Mugnier label their wine as a “Reserve”.

The motivation behind the practice in all these cases is that the consumer is inclined to drink the wine too soon / almost immediately after release. Restaurants also contribute to the overly prompt consumption of newly released wine. To address this, since these wines benefit from some time in bottle, the estate holds back the wine so it will show more favorably on release and more faithfully represent its origins. This is an admirable practice. But if you keep your wines for ten years after release anyway, it is not at all clear to me why the wine should be designated “riserva” just because the wine has been held in bottle at the winery rather than in my cellar. Yet clearly in many cases the rules allow for this. And, fortunately, in my case the cost of storage is almost zero. So why pay extra to have the winery store it ?

In most cases, of course, the riserva wine will indeed have received more time in wood. And then the distinction in designation is merited, especially if a normal bottling of the same wine is also made. The gripe then is that it is not clear why in the case of wines from Tuscany in particular the price of these wines is so very much higher than the regular bottling. It seems wineries in Piedmont can age their wine a few months longer in wood than the norm and not charge double for it.  I suppose in Tuscany’s case we must pay full freight for the marginally superior fruit quality in the riserva bottling. Though it does happen, its is much rarer in Piedmont than in Tuscany to have both a regular and a riserva bottling of the same wine.

All of which is just to say - know what you are getting when you buy a ‘riserva”. The underlying fruit may be better but the additional time in oak may not in fact be justified. “Better” fruit does not necessarily need more time in barrel. Some might indeed say the opposite. And the resulting wine can be softer and more approachable than the regular bottling, which may or may not be what you want. In other instances this may not be the case - the selected fruit truly merits longer aging in wood - as is the case with Giacomo Conterno’s Monfortino or Mascarello’s Ca d’Morissio. Or, on occasion, it may be you are simply paying for the extra for time in bottle. Know what you are getting into. All Riservas are not the same.