2010 Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta, Rioja, Spain

2010 Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta, Rioja, Spain

Product: 20101120990
Prices start from £320.00 per case Buying options
2010 Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta, Rioja, Spain

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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Description

A frisson of excitement ripples through the office when a La Rioja Alta sample appears, and the beaming smiles from the assembled tasters indeed confirms another absolute banger of a 904. The 2010 vintage arrives in an altogether more stoic and refined fashion than last year’s instantly ravishing 2009. I shan’t mince around the euphemisms, there’s oak, lots of it and it delivers this cuvée’s trademark array of decadent aromas magnificently.

Come-hither notes of desiccated coconut, toasted walnuts and cheesecake base interplay with a core of black forest fruit so precise and detailed in profile it’s like tasting in high definition. Your palate is the proverbial kitchen of the party where things move up a level with the arrival of mocha, sour cherries, clove and a wisp of menthol freshness. I could continue with sweet tobacco, autumnal leaves and a coquettish damson thing but by now you’ve got the idea. There will be no 2012, 2013 or 2014 904 – pile in.

Drink 2020 - 2050

Berry Bros. & Rudd

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Critics reviews

Josh Raynolds, Vinous95/100

Brilliant ruby. Powerful, spice-tinged cherry, red currant, pipe tobacco, coconut and incense aromas are complemented by floral and spicy nuances, gaining volume with air. Sweet and seamless on the palate, offering deeply concentrated cherry liqueur, red berry, floral pastille, musky earth and spicecake flavors that pick up a smoky flourish on the back half. Concentrated yet lively in style, showing superb delineation, firm structure and a sexy floral quality on the extremely long, penetrating finish. Raised for four years in four-year-old American oak barrels.

One of Rioja’s most famed bodegas, this 300-hectare estate was established in the heart of Haro in 1890. All of the vineyards are in Rioja Alta, unsurprising given the name. La Rioja Alta has a long-standing reputation for producing some of the region’s best, most traditionally made wines, across the range. Solid value is the rule here, from top to bottom. The entry-level wines are among Rioja’s best values. American oak is used exclusively, and its influence on the wines can be marked, even with age. While that style isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, Tempranillo fans of the old Rioja school, and there are plenty of them, are loyal followers of the estate with good reason.

Drink 2023 - 2036

Josh Reynolds, Vinous.com (April 2021)

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Jancis Robinson MW17/20

Lots of vanilla and cream on the nose. This is the archetype of traditional Rioja! There is a touch of volatility on the nose, but plenty of juicy red fruit too. The tannins have faded into the background and the acid is soft too. Long and oak-scented on the finish, with perhaps a touch of meat juice too. Not quite a blow-away bottle, but certainly a grande dame.

Drink 2016 - 2026

Richard Hemming MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2021)

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Wine Advocate96+/100

It seems like yesterday when the superb 2001 was released, and now I already have the 2010 Gran Reserva 904 in my glass. It has to be among the greatest modern time vintages of this mythical bottling, where they aim for a wine that has a long aging potential. This is mostly Tempranillo with 10% Graciano and 13.5% alcohol, and it matured in fourth-used American oak barrels for four years, during which time the wine was racked every six months. It has the combination of elegance and power only the best vintages are capable of, with the classical aromas, great detail and nuance, very good balance and persistence.

They consider 2010 among the best years of this century, and maybe future generations will talk about 2010 like we talk about the great classical vintages of yesterday today. The palate is polished but shows plenty of energy and tension, the tannins are very fine and elegant, and the flavors are focused and clean. This has to be one of the greatest wines from the vintage. A legend in the making. 150,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2015.

Drink 2019 - 2035

Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (June 2019)

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James Suckling98/100

Fresh blueberries and brambleberries take center stage, which is striking for a wine of this age. There are also lots of roasted herbs, such as sage, not to mention floral elements, including lavender and dried violets. Then come cedar, sandalwood and tar. The tannins are incredibly round and soft, without the slightest hint of anything dry. This is among the most elegant of Riojas, where the acidity is wonderfully pronounced and cuts right through any touch of dried fruit. Long and powerful, yet subtle on the finish. 

Drink now, or hold for a very long time.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (September 2020)

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Decanter94/100

A total of 120,000 bottles produced; 904 is not made every year.

A youngster, needing five years to begin to settle in. Aromas of tobacco, liquorice and vanilla. In the mouth, the fruit arrives plump, with a punch of acidity, the typical Rioja Alta freshness, and distinct oak ageing. The 10% Graciano blended with the Tempranillo gives 904 its typical dark plum character and a firm structure that ensures cellaring potential.

Drink 2024 - 2040

Sarah Jane Evans MW, Decanter.com (February 2020)

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About this WINE

La Rioja Alta

La Rioja Alta

La Rioja Alta continues to be one of the benchmarks for traditionally produced Rioja wine. Established in 1890 at the same spot where their head office sits today, their three Reserva Wine brands, Alberdi, Arana and Ardanza are named after the founding families, all three of which remain shareholders. The company still maintains traditional Rioja winemaking practices whilst embracing many of the new technological advances.

It is unusual for a great bodega of Rioja to own vineyards, but La Rioja Alta own 360ha from which they can source top-quality grapes, resulting in excellent fruit and richness throughout their wines. Tempranillo dominates the plantings, complemented with a small proportion of Garnacha and Graciano vines.

The company is renowned for the quality of its Reservas and in particular for its Gran Reservas, the 904 and the 890. The latter are produced only in exceptional years, are amongst the finest wines being produced in Rioja today.

Gran Reserva 890  is named, rather confusingly, after the date of the creation of La Rioja Alta (1890). It is the non-plus-ultra of the family, a wine that slumbers patiently for 6 years in oak, then is allowed to rest in bottle for a few more years before its released to the suspecting market-place.

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Rioja

Rioja

Rioja is known primarily for its reds although it also makes white wines from the Viura and Malvasia grapes and rosés mainly from Garnacha. Most wineries (bodegas) have their own distinct red wine formula, but are normally a combination of Tempranillo, Garnacha and sometimes Graciano. Other red varieties recently approved into the Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa) regulations are the little-known Maturana Tinta, Maturana Parda, and Monastel (not to be confused with Monastrell). The most important of these by far is the king of native Spanish varieties, Tempranillo, which imbues the wines with complex and concentrated fruit flavours.

The Garnacha, meanwhile, bestows its wines with warm, ripe fruit and adds an alcohol punch. Graciano is an améliorateur grape (one that is added, often in small proportions, to add a little something to the final blend) and is found mainly in Reserva and Gran Reserva wines, albeit in small quantities (two to five percent), adding freshness and aroma, and enhancing the wines' ageing potential.

Crianza wines are aged for one year in oak followed by maturation for one year in bottle before being released for sale. Reservas must undergo a minimum of three years’ ageing before release, at least one of which should be in oak casks. Finally, Gran Reservas, which are only produced in the finest vintages, must spend at least five years maturing, of which at least two must be in oak.

Geographically, Rioja is divided in to three districts: Alavesa, Alta and Baja. Rioja Alavesa lies in the northwest of the La Rioja region in the Basque province of Álava. Along with Rioja Alta, it is the heartland of the Tempranillo grape. Rioja Alta, to the north-west and south of the Ebro River in the province of La Rioja, stretches as far as the city of Logroño. Elegance and poise is the hallmark of wines made here with Rioja Alta Tempranillo. Mazuelo (Carignan) is occasionally added to wines from this area to provide tannins and colour. Rioja Baja, located to the south-east, is the hottest of the three districts and specialises in Garnacha.

Rioja has witnessed a broad stylistic evolution over the years. The classic Riojas pioneered by Murrieta and Riscal in the 19thcentury were distinguished by long oak-barrel-ageing whereas the modern style, represented by Marqués de Cáceres since 1970, showcases the fruit and freshness of Tempranillo, keeping oak ageing to the legal minimum. The post-modern school that emerged in the late 1990s from producers like Palacios Remondo and Finca Allende concentrate on making wines from old vines or specific vineyard plots to accentuate the terroir, and using larger proportions of minority varietals such as Graciano.

The alta expression wines, pioneered by Finca Allende (among others) and later taken up by almost every other producer in Rioja, represent the newest flagship category in Rioja. Alongside the traditional Gran Reservas, alta expression wines are limited production and come from low-yielding vines, often from a single vineyard, and are hand-picked. Excellent examples of this style are Artadi's Pagos Viejos and El Pison.

However, modernisation has not held back the continuation of successful traditional styles as well. Happily long-established houses such La Rioja Alta, CVNE and Marques de Vargas continue to make graceful, old style wines better than ever before.

White Rioja is typically produced by the Viura grape which must comprise at least 51 percent of the blend; the rest can be made up by other, recently-authorised varieties, namely Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Verdejo, as well as the native Maturana Blanca, Tempranillo Blanco, and Turruntés (not to be mistaken for Torrontés).

Recommended Producers:
Finca Allende, Amezola de la Mora, Artadi, CVNE, Marqués de Vargas, Palacios Remondo, La Rioja Alta, Murrieta.

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Tempranillo/Tinto Fino

Tempranillo/Tinto Fino

A high quality red wine grape that is grown all over Spain except in the hot South - it is known as Tinto Fino in Ribera del Duero, Cencibel in La Mancha and Valdepenas and Ull de Llebre in Catalonia. Its spiritual home is in Rioja and Navarra where it constitutes around 70% of most red blends.

Tempranillo-based wines tend to have a spicy, herbal, tobacco-like character accompanied by ripe strawberry and red cherry fruits. It produces fresh, vibrantly fruit driven "jovenes" meant for drinking young. However Tempranillo really comes into its own when oak aged, as with the top Riojas  where its flavours seem to harmonise perfectly with both French and American oak, producing rich, powerful and concentrated wines which can be extraordinarily long-lived.

In Ribera del Duero it generally sees less oak - the exception being Vega Sicilia where it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and then aged for an astonishing 7 years in oak and is unquestionably one of the world`s greatest wines.

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