La Rioja Alta - Gran Reserva 904 2016

Bewertungen

• 97/100

  James Suckling
  Such a deep and complex gran reserva with richness and depth. Genuinely intense and harmonious, with cigar box, pine cones, black mushrooms and high-grade wood and vanilla. Juicy, flavorful and really long. Goes on for a minute, if not more. Such a hedonistic Rioja that delivers sheer pleasure. 90% tempranillo and 10% graciano. Drink or hold.

• 96/100

  The Wine Advocate
  I tased again the stellar 2016 Gran Reserva 904, which is nothing short of being spectacular and a textbook example of the grand traditional style. It was produced with 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano from a selection of vineyards in search of balanced wines with silky tannins, good acidity, character, length and aging potential. The élevage is long, four years in used barrels that average 4.5 years of age, during which time the wine is manually racked every six months. It's ripe with 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.61 and 5.4 grams of acidity, but the wine is super fresh and complex, with aromas of cigar box, dry tea leaves, balsam, aromatic herbs, camphor, antique furniture and tobacco. It's elegant and intense, with pungent flavors and very good freshness, and it's silky-textured and nicely structured, with volume, clean, intense and long. This is a very complete year for this wine. It's ready, but it should last; it hasn't really moved an inch from last year. 120,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2021.

• 95/100

  Jeb Dunnuck
  A 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano, the 2016 Gran Reserva 904 is sourced from a selection of estate-owned vineyards from throughout the region. The vintage was high in quality and quantity and the producer could be selective in the vineyard. Aging took place four years in American barrel, most of them four years old, and four more in bottle. It tastes of coffee and dark chocolate, with high-toned acidity that underscores raspberry fruit. Still a touch grippy, the tannins are beginning to become supple. More time in bottle should be fine, drink now through 2036.

• 18/20

  Jancis Robinson
  90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano. The Tempranillo comes from vineyards in Villalba, Briñas and Rodezno, while the Graciano is sourced from Fuenmayor. 2016 was a great year for Rioja, both in quality and quantity. Hand-harvested into small boxes, followed by selection on the sorting table. Aged for four years in American oak barrels made by the winery itself, with rackings every six months. Tasted blind. Aromas of cocoa, chocolate, mocha and toasted wood. A very generous aromatic profile, already fully showing its evolved character. Silky tannins shaped by time, delivering a beautiful tertiary expression, with flavours of stewed fruit - a clearly recognisable, well-understood classic style. This kind of delight is only achieved through the slow passage of time and true mastery in the cellar.

• 93/100

  Wine Spectator
  An elegant red, balancing sweet and savory character. Offers a generous core of macerated black cherry and strawberry pâte de fruit enmeshed with bay leaf, smoked paprika, espresso crema and minerally iron and tar. Long and silky on the palate, with fine-grained, supple tannins and mandarin orange peel-infused acidity shaping the layered profile. Tempranillo and Graciano. Drink now through 2040. 10,000 cases made, 2,100 cases imported.