La Rioja Alta

"Quite simply, these are some of the finest Riojas that can grace your cellar: complex, refined, classic but without compromising fruit intensity and to reiterate: wines that speak about where they come from."
The Wine Advocate

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We are delighted to release the outstanding and highly anticipated new vintages from La Rioja Alta. This features their full line up; two Rioja Reservas and three Rioja Gran Reservas. These truly iconic wines are among the most sought after from Spain's most famous growing region - with good reason.

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The vintages featured here - 2010, 2015 and 2016 - were exceptional across the Rioja region, and indeed across much of Europe. However, while these vintages from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont, and the Northern Rhone have long since been bought and sold, Rioja moves to a different rhythm.

 

La Rioja Alta deem their Gran Reserva 890 their greatest wine, making it only in the very best vintages when perfect ripeness is achieved in their most exceptional, cool, high altitude vineyards - on average two to three times each decade.

 

The ageing of the 890 is painstaking and lasts for 13 years with no expense spared. Firstly the wine is fermented in stainless steel vats and then moved to new oak barrels for six years, undergoing twelve rackings. The remaining period of ageing is in bottle, with the wine resting in the winery cellars until deemed ready for release.

 

The Gran Reserva 904 is no less prestigious, being made as infrequently as the Gran Reserva 890 but in a different style - old oak rather than new, and aged for nine years. A number of critics prefer this more immediately appealing style. Wine Enthusiast in fact named Gran Reserva 904 as their number one wine in the world in 2016. Both the 890 and 904 are released ready to drink, but also have the proven ability to age gracefully for decades.

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The third Gran Reserva by La Rioja Alta, and the most recent addition (the first vintage was 2012) is Gran Reserva Viña Arana. More accessible in terms of price and style, but made with the same care and attention to detail as 904 and 890. Aged in three year old oak for three years, followed by three years in bottle, the balance of perfect ripeness with superb concentration of flavour and complex secondary characteristics is impeccable.

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Viña Ardanza is the gold standard Rioja Reserva for traditional bodegas. As with La Rioja Alta's other wines, the Tempranillo here comes from La Rioja Alta's vineyards in the Rioja Alta region itself - known for its increasing altitude, valleys and calcareous clay soils. However, Viña Ardanza is distinct from the rest of the La Rioja Alta range due to the inclusion of a truly superb Garnacha parcel from their vineyards in Tudelilla, on the lowland rocky soils of Rioja Baja - an area particularly suited to this variety. Aging occurs in old oak barrels for 36 months (Tempranillo) and 30 months (Garnacha) respectively. After 4 years and six rackings the final wine is blended and bottled, and then rested for another two years before release. This maturation regime would actually qualify Viña Ardanza as a Gran Reserva, but it has always been released as a Reserva.

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"Viña Ardanza Reserva from La Rioja Alta is no secret, and its reputation precedes it, yet its price remains entirely affordable – especially compared with equivalent reds from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Tuscany, California, et al. Our tasting notes for this cuvée are consistently enthusiastic, as were mine when tasting a mini-vertical of the wine in May this year... they are all outstanding and I recommend them unreservedly."
Richard Hemming MW for JancisRobinson.com

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