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Last night we wanted to get a good, light meal and have a glass of wine to end the week. We headed over to Coral Tree on San Vicente in Brentwood. Coral Tree usually has a special wine of the month, discounted either by the glass or the bottle. Since there weretwo of us, we opted for the bottle special, in this case an $18 bottle of Osoti Rioja.

I had never tried Rioja before, and was impressed with what was in the bottle. The body of the wine is greater than that of a pinot, but not as full as a cabernet. I would compare it most to a Chianti, for more reasons than just the taste. Similar to bottles of Chianti, the Rioja had a seal of authenticity, intended to guarantee not only the origin and vintage of the wine, but also the ageing category.

While I do enjoy wine, I claim no expertise, but I did dig a little more into the history of Rioja. According to the Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja, Rioja pioneered the seal of guarantee of origin in 1926 and has been putting age specific labels on wines from the region since 1974. Recently, the control board has stepped up the technology on the lables to ward off conterfeits:

The Control Board de the D.O.Ca. Rioja has implemented a new security system, a first in the world of wine, in order to guarantee the authenticity of Rioja wine back labels and seals. This system involves a device called “Rioja Trustsealâ€? which is manufactured with diffractive optical technology. It consists of a small (7×22 mm) metallic-looking strip depicting parts of the logo and the word “Riojaâ€?. Its exclusive design, glossy sheen, sharply-defined edges and optical effects will enable consumers to identify the label as genuine, even under poor lighting conditions. The system, which is widely used on European banknotes, has been developed by a world leader in security systems. It will make Rioja back labels and seals virtually impossible to forge.

The obsession over wine quality and care has been well established in the region. In 1635, the Mayor of Logroño banned carriages from passing along the roads next to cellars “for fear that the vibration from these vehicles might affect the juice and the ageing of our precious wines�.

My fiancee and I both enjoyed the wine very much. In our case, the Osoti had a “Cosecha” label, the green designation that verifies that the wine is young, with a fresh and fruity flavor. Come to find out, the Osoti is also a Vegan Wine. I was unfamiliar with what that meant, but apparently most wine is filtered through animal products, much more info on vegan wines here. Coral Tree is known for using fresh, mostly organic ingredients in their food, it was nice to have a pure wine to accompany our dinner.

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.