La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva 2016

Savory and complex with dried orange peel, cedar and plenty of sweet spices, walnuts, caramel, dried mushrooms and pine needles. Shows maturity here, with a medium body and superb freshness. Incredibly long finish with lots of truffle and walnut. Lasts over a minute. Very complete now, but you can still hold it. 95 points – James Suckling

COLOUR: dark-red cherry, garnet rim AROMA: ripe fruit, fruit preserve, aged wood nuances, tobacco, sweet spices, scrubland FLAVOUR: spicy, round tannins, long, flavourful, elegant. 95 points – Penin Guide

Few would dispute that La Rioja Alta is the leading quality-focused producer in Spain’s most famous wine region. Since the coming together of five growers to form the estate 130 years ago, they have produced some of the most highly regarded and longest-lived examples of Rioja. These superb wines are ready for consumption on release, but will keep many more years in bottle – decades in some cases.

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