La Rioja Alta2017 Viña Ardanza Reserva, La Rioja Alta
Rioja, SpainVintage: 2017
La Rioja Alta’s Viña Ardanza Reserva is one of the finest Reserva’s available and a benchmark for the region. Every vintage is outstanding and never fails to elicit a smile upon drinking. La Rioja Alta is the gold standard for traditional bodegas: a winery that ages their wines the old-fashioned way, meaning three years in barrel with two rackings a year, followed by three years in bottle.
Outstanding aromatic intensity on the nose, with spicy and balsamic liquorice, clove, nutmeg and black pepper notes, enveloping a subtle hint of ripe red fruit: brandied cherry and raspberry jam. The palate is well-balanced and fresh, with a broad range of flavours and soft, round tannins, leading to a spicy, balsam-like aftertaste on the finish.
A Viña Ardanza in its prime and with a long life ahead of it.
The 2016 vintage comprises 80% Tempranillo from Fuenmayor and Cenicero blended together with 20% Garnacha from the famous ‘La Pedriza’ vineyard in Tudelilla.
Why we love it
Always fantastic and such amazing value for the quality you get. It’s a smile-inducing bottle of wine.
Notable Awards
95/100 points. James Suckling
94+/100 points. Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Whats in the bottle
Tempranillo 80% and Garnacha 20%
12 Mixed Bottles *
£29.25
Save £3.25
* As part of a mixed case of any 12 bottles
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Tel : 02922 337454
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Description
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.
Manual picking of the grapes in these plots began at the end of September. Once harvested, the bunches were placed in 20 kg boxes and transported to the winery in refrigerated vehicles. After passing through the optical selection tables, only perfectly ripe grapes were included in the blend. Once fermentation was completed, the selected wines were transferred to barrels in February 2017 and aged separately: 36 months in four-year-old American oak barrels for the Tempranillo, with six manual rackings; and 30 months for the Garnacha, with five manual rackings, in barrels that had previously contained two to three wines. The final blend was bottled in June 2020.
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