Rioja riding high

Judging by the crowds of young professionals that were crammed into London's Banking Hall one evening last October, rioja is enjoying a surge in popularity at the moment. Several hundred of them (or so it seemed) had paid £35 per ticket for a selection of tapas from Donostia accompanied by small pours of a choice of 100 riojas. Divided into ten categories, the wines were selected via a blind tasting by a panel of judges (of which I was one) earlier in the year. 

Before the evening event, the wine trade had a chance to re-taste those wines, which is...