La Rioja Alta Dinner with Guillermo de Aranzabal, Tuesday 29th April 2025
Dinners
Join us for one of our fine dining evenings. A perfect way to find out more about a specific wine region or style, or to simply relax over a more leisurely affair absorbing the knowledge of your expert host over several courses of the finest food and wine.
Food will be prepared in-house by our fantastic team, with Head Chef Stewart Turner at the helm; while our range of wine specialists will guide you through the glass in your hand.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
Book
Description
We are thrilled to invite you to a dinner hosted by our Spanish Wine Buyer, Catriona Felstead MW, in our Sussex Cellar with one of Rioja’s leading producers, La Rioja Alta. Alongside Catriona on this special evening will be none other than La Rioja Alta’s President and 5th Generation family member, Guillermo de Aranzabal, who will guide lucky attendees through the history of this storied estate alongside a beautiful flight of wines including the iconic Gran Reserva 904 and Gran Reserva 890.
Renowned for their pristine quality fruit, sensitive winemaking techniques and remarkable capacity to evolve over time, this four-course dinner will feature both new and old releases. On show will be the 2016, 2010 and 2005 vintages of Gran Reserva 904 and an as-yet-unreleased 2011 Gran Reserva 890 plus one other older vintage selected from the estate’s own cellars. This promises to be a brilliant evening for lovers of La Rioja Alta’s wines or, indeed, the Rioja region in general.
Also included in the evening will be a sparkling wine apéritif with canapés and the wonderful Lindeiros Albariño from Rias Baixas with the first course.
Wines to be tasted:
Apéritif: 2019 Gramona, La Cuvée, Corpinnat, Gran Reserva, Brut Nature, Spain
2021 Lindeiros Albariño, Rias Baixas
2016 Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
2010 Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
2005 Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
2011 Gran Reserva 890, Selección Especial, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
Plus one other library vintage of Gran Reserva 890, Selección Especial to be revealed on the evening
Dress code: smart casual
Event details
Delivery and quality guarantee