Rioja is confusing. It is complex; it is changing fast; it is, in a word, exciting. In Spain, traditional and modern wine styles are learning to live hand in hand' creating new interest in one of the world's most famous wine regions.

A recent trip to Rioja confirmed this. I was based in The Allied Domecq Bodega, at Marqus de Arienzo, which is located in the tiny village of Elciego, in Rioja Alavesa, the smallest sub region of the area.

The Rioja is divided by terrain and climate into three sub-regions Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Baja - all situated in a broad, elevated valley running east to west about 120km long and 32km wide.

Sheltered by the saw-toothed Sierra de Cantabria Mountains to the north and west, Rioja is well protected from the Atlantic rains, known to drench the northern coast of Spain.

Elevation is higher in the north-western end at 450m, dropping down to the east (300m in the centre and 230m in the east).

The difference in elevation provides climatic diversity.

Rioja Alta and Alavesa enjoy a moderate climate, with long springs and autumns, without the scorching summer heat of other Spanish wine-growing regions.

Rioja Baja has a more Mediterranean climate with summer temperatures rising up to 35C and drought can often be a problem here in summer.

Nowhere is it very wet in Rioja and irrigation is forbidden, serving to concentrate the flavour and colour of the wines.

Part of the Allied Domecq family' of wineries is the Spanish group of Bodegas and Bebidas which owns and manages three wineries in the Rioja appellation: l Bodegas Juan Alcorta, which produce the wines Campo Viejo, (both the leading domestic and international domestic Rioja), Via Alcorta and Dominio de Montalvo.

lBodegas Age produces a range of wines including: Marqus de Romeral, the stunning Azpilicueta and ever-popular Siglo.

l Finally, the super modern winery Ysios (pictured) which produces two spectacular wines under the Ysios label.

Ysios was named after the Egyptian goddess, Isis, mother of all gods, the goddess of magic, who watched over the painstaking process of transforming the grape into wine.

Established in 1998, this impressive winery was designed by the well-known Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the building blending in with its surroundings at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria, looking towards the ancient town of Laguardia in the very heart of Rioja Alavesa.

This ultra modern winery symbolises the latest in Spanish winemaking technology and is set up to process individual parcels of wines harvested from small plots.

It was the French, bored with their own vines dying due to phyloxera, who transformed Rioja (which isn't too far from France) from a simple wine into something, well, a bit more like claret.

Extended oak ageing started and here began traditional' Rioja: pale, in varying stages of oaky oxidation, often majestic in its maturity.

That was the 19th century; the late 20th saw the advent of modern' Rioja - stainless steel for more fruit, less barrel and more bottle ageing, more French and less US oak.

The result is concentrated, fresh, modern wine which is still quite like claret.

The claret comparisons aren't just flippant - remember that all classic wine regions are constantly evolving, not just Rioja, with producers favouring traditional or modern styles, or perhaps varying combinations of both.

The traditional grape mix' for Rioja is about 75% Tempranillo (for fruit and aroma), 15% Garnacha (for warmth and spice), 7% Mazuelo (for colour and tannins) and 3% Graciano (for longevity and that final burnish').

However, Rioja today may come in a variety of guises.

A new trend in Rioja is for varietal red wines: Tempranillo has been popular for generations but there are those producers who are making single-variety wines from all three of the other grapes.

The new and the old, the single vineyard, the single varietal and the blend, French oak or American oak - the permutations are seemingly endless.

Modern Rioja is nothing if not diverse and clearer labeling gives an indication of the degree of oakiness in the wine: l Sin Crianza wines are not aged at all in oak; they are the fruitiest of the lot, along with those labelled Vino Joven or young wine'.

l Crianza are aged for a minimum of two years, with one of these in oak.

l Reserva wines have three years ageing, with at least one aged in oak.

l Gran Reserva wines have five years ageing, with a minimum of three years in oak.

by Derek Kingwell...