La Rioja Alta La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 2016 750ml

A perfumed nose of plums, mulberries, mushrooms, caramel, sweet tobacco and sweet spices. Full-bodied with velvety, fine tannins and lively acidity. Balanced and supple with a creamy texture. Delicate and precise with a long, polished finish. 90% tempranillo and 10% graciano. Drink or hold. (James Suckling)

The 2016 Gran Reserva 904 from Rioja Alta is composed of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano. It aged for four years in American oak barrels, 20% of which were new. This has a slightly sun-kissed profile, opening with pronounced oaky aromas followed by classic tertiary notes of clove, licorice, vanilla and caramel, alongside hints of tobacco leaf and bay. This is complex in its maturity, offering good volume, creamy texture and a seamless flow across the palate. A touch of camphor appears at the finish, adding energy to the approachable character. The extended aging in oak defines the long, composed finale.

Such a deep and complex gran reserva with richness and depth. Genuinely intense and harmonious, with cigar box, pine cones, black mushrooms and high-grade wood and vanilla. Juicy, flavorful and really long. Goes on for a minute, if not more. Such a hedonistic Rioja that delivers sheer pleasure. 90% tempranillo and 10% graciano. Drink or hold.

I tased again the stellar 2016 Gran Reserva 904, which is nothing short of being spectacular and a textbook example of the grand traditional style. It was produced with 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano from a selection of vineyards in search of balanced wines with silky tannins, good acidity, character, length and aging potential. The élevage is long, four years in used barrels that average 4.5 years of age, during which time the wine is manually racked every six months. It's ripe with 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.61 and 5.4 grams of acidity, but the wine is super fresh and complex, with aromas of cigar box, dry tea leaves, balsam, aromatic herbs, camphor, antique furniture and tobacco. It's elegant and intense, with pungent flavors and very good freshness, and it's silky-textured and nicely structured, with volume, clean, intense and long. This is a very complete year for this wine. It's ready, but it should last; it hasn't really moved an inch from last year. 120,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2021.

Vivid ruby. Expansive red and blue fruit preserve, tobacco, potpourri, spice and botanical herb aromas, with vanilla and smoky mineral notes emerging as the wine opens up. Sappy, penetrating and gently chewy on the palate, offering vibrant, mineral- and spice-accented black raspberry, bitter cherry and rose pastille flavors that deepen and turn sweeter on the back half. Shows sharp focus and floral lift on the impressively long, youthfully tannic finish, which leaves behind notes of candied blue fruits and spicecake. (Josh Raynolds)

They used the words subtlety, elegance, finesse, delicacy and silk to define the 2015 Gran Reserva 904 Selección Especial, a blend of 90% Tempranillo from their vineyards in Villalba, Briñas and Rodezno with 10% Graciano from the Montecillo vineyard in Fuenmayor that was picked 23 days later than the Tempranillo. The grapes were sorted optically for the first time, and they fermented in stainless steel where the wine went through malolactic too. The wine was put in barrel in January 2016—used American oak barrels built by their own coopers—where it matured for four years, during which time it was racked every six months. 2015 was a healthy vintage with balanced ripeness that delivered wines with good aging potential. They thought the wine needed a little more time in bottle to polish those tannins and have decided to hold it and release the wine around March 2023; it will be marked Selección Especial, the first 904 to do so, as they have very high hopes for this year and believe it’s one of the finest vintages. They think it will develop the sophistication in the palate with a little more time and that is should achieve the silkiness that is the signature of 904. This is very 2015; I saw quite strong tannins in all the 2015 wines I tasted from Rioja Alta. There are some 150,000 bottles of this. (Luis Gutiérrez)

A 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano, the 2016 Gran Reserva 904 is sourced from a selection of estate-owned vineyards from throughout the region. The vintage was high in quality and quantity and the producer could be selective in the vineyard. Aging took place four years in American barrel, most of them four years old, and four more in bottle. It tastes of coffee and dark chocolate, with high-toned acidity that underscores raspberry fruit. Still a touch grippy, the tannins are beginning to become supple. More time in bottle should be fine, drink now through 2036.

An elegant red, balancing sweet and savory character. Offers a generous core of macerated black cherry and strawberry pâte de fruit enmeshed with bay leaf, smoked paprika, espresso crema and minerally iron and tar. Long and silky on the palate, with fine-grained, supple tannins and mandarin orange peel–infused acidity shaping the layered profile. Tempranillo and Graciano. Drink now through 2040. 10,000 cases made, 2,100 cases imported.

This elegant, sanguine red offers supple layers of dried cherry, sandalwood, vanilla and Kalamata olive, supported by smooth tannins. Hints of leather, tobacco, mineral and anise echo on the finish. A balanced, traditional style red. Drink now through 2031. 12,500 cases made, 3,200 cases imported. (Gillian Sciaretta)