Introduction

For the third consecutive year, the Department of Agriculture and Economic Development of the Government of La Rioja is promoting the initiative titled Great Wines from La Rioja as a complementary activity in the World Wine Forum, which is aimed at advertising wine from La Rioja and is scheduled for 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th May.

In Great Wines from La Rioja, the interested Rioja wineries shall present the specialised press from all over the world with a wine, their star wine, selected for its quality and not for its selling capacity. Furthermore, if they are interested in taking part with a different wine, they can do so in the thematic wine tasting sessions. The areas for this year are as follows:

• Ecological wines
• Semi-aged reds (with a short period in the cask but not fully aged)
• Future wines (top-range wines in the middle of their ageing process in the cask or in the bottle)
• 2003 Vintage

The previous 2002 edition saw the participation of 58 wineries, which presented tasters with a total of 76 wines.