| Tasting note |
Wonderful purity of fruit with a strawberry, currant and plum character. Full and velvety body with ultra-fine tannins and a delicious fresh and fruity finish. Classic Rioja style. Que lindo! By James Suckling, Oct 2016.
If Viña Ardanza seems to be going fast, the Gran Reserva 904 is even faster and we're now on the 2007 Gran Reserva 904. This wants to be the classic Gran Reserva--polished, silky and elegant, with aging potential. It is a blend of Tempranillo with 10% Mazuelo aged for four years in well-seasoned American oak barrels, with eight manual rackings. I found that the freshness of the vintage and its relatively young age gave the wine a youngish character that I loved, combining developed notes of meat, spices, leather and balsam with almost cherry-like aromas. The palate feels balanced and elegant, with fine-grained and fully resolved tannins and great acidity. This vintage of 904 surprised me! By Wine Advocate, Aug 2016.
The 2007 Rioja “904” Gran Reserva from La Rioja Alta is truly an exceptional bottle of Rioja in the making, but at age eleven, this is still patently a young wine and deserves several more years in the cellar to allow it to really blossom completely and show all of its multi-layered levels of complexity. The nose today is complex and very promising of greatness down the road, as it offers up scents of raspberries, cherries, cloves, cinnamon, a touch of nutskin, salty soil tones, toasted coconut and a bit of cedar. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and tangy, with a plush core of fruit, excellent soil signature, ripe, buried tannins and a very long, complex and still youthful finish. The 904 Gran Reserva continues to be aged solely in American oak casks, but they were only four years old for the 2007 and this has imparted a bit of cedary oak spice to the wine. This needs plenty more time in the cellar to reach its apogee, but it will be a great wine when it is truly ready to drink. By John Gilman, May 2018. |
