Graciano

Graciano is Rioja's minor variety and its most useful one. It is planted in small quantities — a few per cent of the region's vineyard — and it is blended into Tempranillo for a specific purpose: it supplies the acidity, tannin, colour and aromatic lift that Tempranillo lacks, and it is the component that makes a gran reserva capable of ageing for decades.

The wine is intensely coloured and strongly aromatic, with blackberry, black cherry and a pronounced floral note of violet, along with liquorice, black pepper and a distinctly fresh, almost herbal quality. Acidity is high and tannins are firm.

It was nearly abandoned. Graciano yields poorly and erratically, ripens late, and is susceptible to disease, and through the mid-twentieth century Rioja growers pulled it out in favour of more dependable varieties. Its rehabilitation came from producers who recognised that the great old Riojas had contained more of it than the modern ones did.

Single-varietal Graciano is now made in small quantities and is worth seeking out: dense, fresh, floral and structured, quite unlike the softer, oakier profile associated with the region.

In Navarra it is more widely planted than in Rioja proper. In France's Languedoc it is Morrastel, and in Portugal Tinta Miúda, where it plays a minor role in the reds of Lisboa.

Australia has small plantings, largely in warm inland regions where its acid retention is an asset.