La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 Selección Especial 2005

rioja spain

La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 Selección Especial 2005

This isn’t the final label! An unlabelled advance sample.

The top wine of La Rioja Alta. It’s a blend of 95% Tempranillo, 3% Graciano and 2% Mazuelo, and the wine spends 6 years in barrel with 10 rackings (transferring the wine from one barrel to another, with the recipient barrel having been fumigated by a sulfur wick; the barrels aren’t topped up between rackings). 199 barrels (it sounds a lot, but they have over 40 000 barrels in their cellar!) made it into the final blend.

Barrels being racked

There’s a lot of excitement about this wine. Winemaker Julio Sáenz thinks it’s one of the best wines they’ve ever produced. The main critics all gave it 98/100! I think it’s amazing and I’m enjoying drinking my unlabelled sample bottle. I’ve given it a very high score of 96/100, but with time this score could rise. It’s a thrilling wine, but if you have some, don’t drink it now: it has a further level of harmony to reach. There’s a concentration, intensity and balance to this wine that’s quite thrilling, and it has elegance, too. This may turn out to be one of the great all time Riojas. I just can’t predict that far in the future, hence my high but not astronomic score.

La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 Selección Especial 2005 Rioja, Spain
13.5% alcohol. This, the top wine from La Rioja Alta, is a blend of mostly Tempranillo, with a small amount of Mazuelo and Graciano. It’s only the third release of this wine to be labelled ‘Selección Especial’, and it’s certainly very special. The nose is highly aromatic with a seamless blend of floral red cherries, old leather and furniture, dried herbs and a dusting of vanilla and coconut. The palate has great concentration but also lovely balance, with some grippy tannins and raspberry crunch, alongside complex notes of cedar, tar, herbs and sour cherries. There’s already a harmony and mellowness to this wine, but it has enough acidity and structure to suggest it has a long life ahead of it. Benchmark Rioja, in a classic style, and quite thrilling. If you have some, keep it cellared for at least another decade. 96/100

Find this wine with wine-searcher.com

3 Comments on La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 Selección Especial 2005Tagged ,
wine journalist and flavour obsessive

3 thoughts on “La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 Selección Especial 2005

  1. It’s the way things are done in Rioja. These guys have 45 000 barrels. And they are all small oak, and mostly American oak. Most large wineries here take the same approach.

Leave a Reply

Back To Top