93+ I last had the opportunity to drink the 2016 Rioja “Viña Arana” Gran Reserva a year ago and the wine continues to blossom beautifully. This is a riper vintage for this bottling, tipping the scales at 14.5 percent...
93+ I last had the opportunity to drink the 2016 Rioja “Viña Arana” Gran Reserva a year ago and the wine continues to blossom beautifully. This is a riper vintage for this bottling, tipping the scales at 14.5 percent alcohol in this year, but it is beautifully balanced. The cépages for the 2016 is ninety-five percent tempranillo and five percent graciano. It is aged three years is used American oak casks. Today, the wine delivers a beautiful aromatic constellation of sweet dark berries, Cuban cigar wrapper, clove-like Rioja spices, a superb foundation of soil, just a whisper of the nuttiness that will come with bottle age and a lovely framing of coconutty American oak. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with a velvety attack, a superb core of fruit, excellent soil signature and grip, buried tannins and excellent focus and balance on the long, complex and gently warm finish. This is a superb bottle of Rioja that is already tasty, but has enough tannin on the backend that it will most assuredly reward another six to ten years of cellaring.