2010 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890
Producer: La Rioja Alta
Region: Rioja
Country: Spain
Grapes: 95% Tempranillo, 2% Mazuelo, 3% Graciano
Vintage: 2010
ABV: 14%
Vivino: 4.5
Drink By: 2044
Occasional Wine Note: This is perhaps the most special Spanish wines in our portfolio. It represents the more traditional approach to winemaking in Rioja; hand harvested, destemmed grapes only picked in special years, aged for several years in American oak. The fruit is integrated into complex layers of herbs, spices, tabacco, and lots of earthy notes. This is a serious wine and as luxurious as its price tag. Awesome!
James Suckling
Critic Score: 99
This is really refined and complex, with dark mineral, savory berries, mussels, walnuts, sweet spices, truffles, dried oranges, forest floor and cocoa powder. Beautiful acidity with vertical and velvety tannins. Tense, dimensional and very long.
Wine Advocate
Critic Score: 97
They were eager to show me their 2010 Gran Reserva 890, their flagship wine from one of the most heralded vintages of recent times, the next vintage of this wine since 2005. It's 95% Tempranillo, 3% Graciano and 2% Mazuelo that fermented destemmed and crushed with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel vats for 18 days, the Tempranillo and Mazuelo together and the Graciano separately. After letting the wine settle for the winter, they selected the lots that would age for six years in used American oak barrels with 10 manual rackings. The wine epitomizes the classical style of Rioja Alta with long aging in barrel, developed and tertiary wines with a silky palate and a complex and decadent nose of forest floor, truffles, cigar ash and cedar wood. They need a very special selection of vineyards at higher altitude that take longer to ripen, and they don't do it fully every year.