Gran Reserva Vina Arana 2016 (La Rioja Alta)

Cellar for up to 11 years. Decant 1 hour before serving. La Rioja Alta was founded in 1890 żeby five local families including the Aranas, Ardanzas and the Alberdis whose names still feature on many of the winery’s most celebrated cuvees. The families headquartered their new winery right by the train station in Haro, enabling them to start exporting significant quantities of their quality-driven wines to France and beyond. Their Vina Alberdi Gran Reserva is crafted almost exclusively from Tempranillo grapes from the estate’s Las Cuevas, El Palo and Las Monjas vineyards along with a tiny drop of Graciano from their Montecillo estate. The grapes are all carefully harvested in small boxes and fermented in tanks over a lengthy period. The young wine is then aged in American oak barrels which La Rioja Alta makes in their own cooperage for three years. The final stage is the blending when La Rioja Alta’s winemakers taste through all the barrels and select the composition of the cuvee. The result is a very smooth and approachable red which can be drunk with great pleasure even when young. Enticing notes of crushed strawberries, bright red cherries and leather define the nose along with undertones of tomato and spice from the oak. On the palate there are smooth, refined tannins complemented by a medium body, punchy mid-palate and long finish.