Whites and rosés used to be an aside, almost a curiosity, at big Rioja tastings. Mostly a pretext to cleanse the palate of pigments and tannins between long stretches of reds.
This is definitely no longer the case.
Quality beyond red
The increasing relevance of the white category – in both size and quality – is now a given, as seen in the 149 white wines we tasted for the 2025 Rioja Report. Among them are world class bottles shaping a new canon of Rioja Classics.
This we might have expected. What we didn’t anticipate was the great showing of rosados and claretes: modest in size (a total of 35 wines) but remarkably consistent in quality (only four scored less than 89 points) and with expressiveness and character across styles and price points.
Scroll down for notes and scores of the best rosados and claretes
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Rioja Report 2025: The best rosados and claretes
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