Promesa

Rioja DOCa covers more than 66,000 hectares across three areas and nearly 600 wineries, and it works to an ageing ladder that is written into law rather than left to the producer's judgement. A red Crianza has to have a minimum two-year ageing process with at least one year in a 225-litre oak barrel. A red Reserva needs three years between barrel and bottle, at least one of them in barrel and at least six months in bottle. That matters, because it tells you something real about a bottle before you have opened it: a Crianza has had its year in oak.

Rioja's classic red country is Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa. Rioja Alta is the largest of the three areas, with calcareous-clay, ferrous-clay and alluvial soils, and enough spread of altitude that the higher sites hold their acidity and give wines with more ageing potential. Rioja Alavesa, in the south of Álava, is smaller, its soils are almost entirely clay-limestone, and that calcium is part of what gives its wines their body. Tempranillo suits both, which is why it dominates.

The range runs from young, unoaked Tempranillo to the barrel-aged classics, Crianza and Reserva, and it includes Viura. Viura is Rioja's traditional white grape and the one most people never get to, because we all think of Rioja as red.

Promesa is not a discovery. It is a dependable range that earns its place by being properly made Rioja, which is exactly what you want from a bottle you open on a weeknight.