Color light orange at the rim, through garnet to a bruised purple plum color at the core.
Aromatically, this wine is complex: mint, dill, smoke, matchstick, wine-soaked wood, perfumy dried roses.
On the palate, this wine is supple and smooth, with a lot of sweet ripe red fruits which shine on the midpalate and extend to the finish, along with blood orange, a light hazelnut quality and a good smoky, light ash sense on the finish.
Quite fine! At a fine spot right now.
Nice note. Is this the reserva or gran reserva?
You know I was thinking as I walked away from my computer that I had forgotten to specify - it is the Gran Reserva.
Karl,
Nice. Just acquired a bottle of this. Your TN is very encouraging!
Cheers,
Doug
It’s been about four years since I opened one. At the time, I was mildly dismayed because I was planning to drink them while my younger riojas slept. In 2013, this wasn’t nearly ready to open. I’m glad it’s slowly coming around. I think I’ll wait a few more years to revisit.
Cheers,
Warren
Anyone had the Reserva and Gran Reserva head to head? Wondering how great the difference is, given the price differential…
Thanks for the note. Had this earlier in the year next to the 1970 Faustino, 1975 Murrieta Ygay, and 2001 Tondonia.
The '94 Tondonia was a amazing but next to the other wines, it showed the most awkward.
Jason
Anyone had the Reserva and Gran Reserva head to head?
Of course. Many times.
Jason - Tondonia IS the most awkward. It is a great wine, but you need tolerance for VA and lots of other things.
My CT tasting note from 3/31/2017:
3/31/2017 - I like this wine: NR (Edit)
This wine was a surprise.
The cork was completely stained on its sides and both ends, but as it had a wax capsule, it wasn’t corked or oxidized. It was at this point that I realized why some producers encase their bottles with wax capsules; such sealings are insurance against the ravages of defective corks.
Upon opening, the wine presented itself not as a Rioja, but as a Burgundy, with a translucent ruby color, assertive acidity, and faint Brettanomyces. As we could tell it was initially closed, we put our glasses and the decanter aside, and opened a Cabot to have with our extra-thick ribeye.
45 minutes in, we had finished our dinner, and returned to the LdH. If you had served me this wine without me knowing what it was, and told me that it was a Grand Cru Burgundy, I would have believed the assertion. It tasted like a well-made, high end Grand Cru Burg, with cherry, strawberry, tangerine peel, and a bit of cinnamon. The Brett vented off quickly.
We drank our glasses slowly, allowing the wine to unfold. At one hour, the wine revealed an intense aroma and flavor of lemon balm. This isn’t something one would expect in a red wine, but it leapt right out of the glass. The tannins lengthened, along with the finish, which included yeasty bread dough flavors.
At 1:30, hints of cedar and fennel appeared, along with cigar ash. The aroma at this point was very nice, beguiling, with a confident and assertive femininity.
At 2:10…Burgundy, Burgundy, Burgundy! Charmes-Chambertin. I never expected a Rioja to taste like this. The finish was long, with cranberry notes and generous fine tannins.
In retrospect, I think that, perhaps, the Grenache and Carignane, though minor components of the wine, spoke more loudly than the Tempranillo. Nonetheless, it was a superb wine, and worthy of its reputation. I wish I had more of it. This wine will be good for decades yet, and it would be a pleasure to track its maturation.
What do you think about the comparison?
Noah, I’m not sure about the price difference you mentioned. It looks like if you want to buy a Reserva at a similar age, it costs about the same as the Gran Reserva. Of course, the Reserva on release is a lot less expensive, but then you’d have a much younger wine.
I’m glad to hear the '94 GR is doing well. I’m still not going to open any of mine for quite a while, I think.