LA RIOJA ALTA SA Gran Reserva 904 - Rioja Alta 2016 MAGNUM

Description

La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 Selección Especial 2016 is a superb wine that exemplifies the estate’s commitment to quality, receiving acclaim, including 97 points from James Suckling and 96 points from The Wine Advocate. A blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano, it features complex aromas of oak, alongside classic notes of clove, liquorice, and vanilla. Vinous highlights its creamy texture and seamless palate, with a hint of camphor in the finish. The Wine Advocate commends its freshness and elegance, showcasing rich flavours of tobacco and herbs. This exceptional Gran Reserva is ideal for ageing, with excellent potential, making it perfect for enjoyment from 2025 to 2040, offering a captivating tasting experience for enthusiasts.

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La Rioja Alta s.a.
Formed by five families in the late 19th century, the La Rioja Alta S.A. winery is one of the most iconic names in Fine Wine, and a benchmark for the traditional style of Rioja. Their Tempranillo-led reds are aged for remarkably long periods in barrels from the producer’s cooperage, and they are one of the last remaining producers to rack their wines by hand and by candlelight – which they do every six months. While they always upheld standards and tradition, La Rioja Alta S.A. never stopped experimenting and pushing for better quality, offering some of the purest, more precise expressions of Tempranillo in the world.

VINOUS 97 points
Drinking Window 2025 - 2050
From: The Diverse Villages of Rioja: A New Trend Emerges (May 2025)
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. - By Joaquín Hidalgo on May 2025

JAMES SUCKLING 97 points
Monday, Aug 05, 2024
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. - Zekun Shuai

THE WINE ADVOCATE 96 points
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
Drink Date: 2025 - 2040
I find the 2016 Gran Reserva 904 to be 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 averaging 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, balsamic, dry tea leaves, aromatic herbs, camphor, antiquary 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 904. It's ready, but it should last. 120,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2021.

La Rioja Alta is introducing the sixth generation of the family with Guillermo and Alex de Aranzabal Bittner. The Haro winery has 587 hectares of vineyards and only produces wines from their own grapes. They age their wines in 35,000 barrels and produce an average of 1.5 million bottles per year. There's a stellar 2016 Gran Reserva 904 this year, but there will be no Gran Reserva 890 until they release the 2015 in 2028...
Published: Feb 27, 2025

JANCIS ROBINSON 17.5 points
Mid smudgy garnet. Sweetly mature with senescent fruits, sweet American oak with a touch of vanilla and the start of leathery, undergrowth tertiary notes. Invitingly complex and layered. And yet still fragrant with fruit. Just perfect for drinking now as all the flavours are intertwined and evolving and everything evolving evenly. Super-smooth, fresher than I had anticipated from the analysis but some alcoholic heat on the finish. Rounded, complete and complex. Old-school Rioja and none the worse for that. Smooth but still chewy tannins. A classic and satisfying wine with a long finish which showed itself fully as it opened in the glass. (JH)