2005 Gran Reserva 890, Selección Especial, La Rioja Alta, Rioja, Spain

95% Tempranillo, 3% Graciano, 2% Mazuelo. 40-year-old vines from Rodezno La Rioja). Hand-harvested with bunch selection. After the alcoholic fermentation, the wines are selected for the assemblage. Ageing for 72 months in American oak barrels, 20% new. No filtration. 15,900 bottles.

A classic rioja. Endless sweet spices and very marked aromas of vanilla, coconut, nutmeg and cinnamon. Wood dominates, but that is the delicious soul of Rioja. The palate is exciting: deep, long, elegant, delicate, complex, with great class. What delicacy and softness of the palate! Its scent never ends and is at a precious stage of maturity. Very impressive. 

Drink 2020 - 2050

57,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2012.

I tasted the 2005 Gran Reserva 890 again, and I liked it better this time than in my previous review, even if I normally like the Gran Reserva 904 better than this bottling, as I find it better balanced. I tend to feel less energy in this wine, as it spends a very long time in barrel, six years in this case. 2005 was an excellent vintage, and they implemented some improvements in the harvest, introducing 350-kilo boxes and refrigerated transport to the winery, which they think provides better grapes and potentially better quality of the wines. The palate is medium-bodied, the tannins have mostly melted, and it has lively acidity that lift the wine up. This is a very classical and polished Rioja.

Drink 2019 - 2035

The aromas to this are stunning with dried strawberry, stone and fresh mushroom. Full body and very tight with incredible depth and structure. It goes on for minutes. One of the greatest ever? The new 1964?

A mature colour; garnet and red brick, hessian, deeper at the core. One is immediately distracted by aromatics of truffle, forest floor and suede, behind that laurel and lavender, then pressed blackcurrant leaf and fig. Effortlessly evocative. Vestigial fruit is shrouded in spice, herbs and a hint of game. Still evolving but already munificent. Don't bother with the Cognac, just keep going with this!

Drink 2024 - 2045

Shimmering garnet. Aromas of dried cherry, potpourri, vanilla, cigar box and exotic spices; a smoky mineral quality builds in the glass. Sweet, concentrated, and seamless on the palate, offering cherry compote, red currant, and rose pastille flavours that add weight and pick up a spicy nuance in the back half. It conveys a suave blend of power and delicacy and closes sweet and gently tannic, with superb persistence and an echo of candied flowers and red fruits. This bottling and the 2001 are the only Selección Especial versions of the 890 Gran Reserva that La Rioja Alta has produced.

Drink 2021 - 2036