Gran Reserva 904 Rioja Tempranillo Graciano

Good plummy fruit. A slightly weird acetone thing on the nose. Contained

Dark plum with a hint of sweet butterscotch at the edges. Lovely purity

Quite dense and intense. A touch of sweet on the edge of inky fruit. Very good

Dark and sweet and delicious. Gnarly deep fruit but a lifted clarity and deliciousness. Really good

Gorgeous and soft and pretty. Orange rind, pluming, a sweetness. Pale in color and pure and light. Delicious

Vintage 2007 | Masterpiece. Mesmerizing smell, complex: a flower garden, scottish pipe tobacco, cinnamon, rinse applesyrup. Refinement and elegance. 😍

Ruby in color with a wide brick/ reddish rim.

Dry on the palate with medium acidity.

Showing cherries, currants, plums, oak, tobacco, licorice, earth, light vanilla, dark chocolates, spices, coffee, peppercorn and eucalyptus.

Tangy finish with fine grained tannins and tangy raspberries.

This recently released, iconic wine from Rioja, is already drinking very nicely, although still young.

Showing an elegant mouthfeel with nice complexity. Nicely balanced and tasty. A good quality wine.

Will continue to age nicely in the next 20 years.

Wine Advocate 95 points.

A great sipping wine, and good with food too.

A blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano. Aged in American oak barrels for 4 years.

14.5% alcohol by volume.

92 points.

$75..

Columbia county 2.0: end of a meal, nightcap of sorts. So so perfumed with dill & vanilla & tree sap, as if Willy Wonka decided to get into winemaking. Really just lived for a while breathing this in. On palate it’s remarkably agile & light, even though the body of red fruits is firmly medium boned. No signs of decay or slowing down- even the cork was perfect-easily can go on another several decades ( it feels). God what a treat.

Truly benchmark Rioja, La Rioja Alta’s ‘904’ Gran Reserva from the 2010 vintage - as fabled in Rioja as it is in Bordeaux - is a disarmingly gorgeous wine with superb ageing potential. I first tried this wine over two years ago, and found it a little closed at the time and was underwhelmed by the palate. The nose was terrific though, and that holds true today - it’s simply breathtaking, the sort of wine you spend ten minutes sniffing before taking your first sip. Today’s palate, however, is well and truly open for business. What a veritable explosion of flavour; a kaleidoscopic array of the best of both traditional and modern Rioja, all of it fresh, none of it tired, with a pure and ethereal presence of black and blue fruits, flowers, vanilla bean, clove, clementine and macerated cherry. When wine folk talk of a long finish, this wine gets a nod - it leaves an imprint on one’s palate that lasts minutes. I’m quite amazed by the improvement that two years has afforded this wine, both bottles bought at the same time and stored side-by-side in my cellar. At last, this has begun to show its potential and I cannot wait to see how it develops in the coming 20, 30, 40 years.

In the meantime, do not sleep on the 2010 Viña Ardanza, a wine that I have enjoyed many a time in the last two years, and one that would be included in my all-time list of value fine wines, were anyone to ask!

96+

Ruby with complex fruit aromas, spice and oak. Blend of 89% Tempranillo & 11% Graciano, aged 48 months on American oak. On the palate flavors of jammy dark berry fruits with spice & smoky earthy notes on ripe full soft tannins. Long finish, nice mouthfeel, ending with fruit, oak, cigar box spice and mineral earthy tones, a joy to Sip this Fine Wine!! Tasting great, has more aging potential!