Editor’s Note: For those of you unfamiliar with Adrian Murcia, he’s our Rioja expert with one foot planted firmly on both sides of the Atlantic. Living in New York as a sommelier, writer and educator, he’s dedicated his blog, Blame It on Rioja, to journal his experiences tasting Rioja wines, visiting the region, and generally fawning over Spanish food (who can blame him!). So what I’ve provided below is Adrian’s perception on how he, as a New Yorker, believes Americans approach Rioja wine!

In the 1970s, wines from Rioja made key inroads into American markets as bodegas like Marqués de Cáceres stepped up exports to the U.S., but let’s face it: we were a Gallo/Paul Masson/Blue Nun nation back then. That started to change in the 1980s, the so-called Chardonnay and Brie decade. I came of age at the end of that decade and began to discover wines from all over the world at a time when the entire country seemed to doing more or less the same thing. With a name almost as recognizable as that of Chianti, Rioja was a beneficiary of that change. Affordability, perceived value, and reliability—together these were Rioja’s stock-in-trade.

By the 1990s, as U.S. tastes were growing more sophisticated, per capita wine consumption began its steep ascent (from 1.96 gallons per person in 1990 to an estimated 3.02 gallons in 2007, according to one study). Similarly, the number, quality, and variety of wine options on the U.S. market exploded. Fuelled by a strong economy, an influx of EU regional funds, and a growing export market, the Spanish wine industry kicked into high gear, combining a rich endowment of native grape varieties with technological improvements and an abundance of climates …