2010 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Selección Especial
'2010 was a great vintage in Rioja in general and seems to be exceptional here, with a 2010 Viña Ardanza Selección Especial (what used to be Reserva Especial) that can challenge any of the recent vintages and hopefully can develop in bottle to reach the heights of years like 1973 or 1964. The wine is expressive, aromatic, very elegant and clean, with classical Rioja aromas of long aging in barrel and slow oxidation through the years in wood. The palate is polished and sleek but shows plenty of energy, with very fine, mostly resolved tannins and very good harmony and persistence. There is great complexity, and you could start smelling spice and smoke to move to earthy tones, hints of beef blood, cherries in liqueur, curry, diesel, old furniture and forest floor. A great Viña Ardanza!' - 95 points, Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com, June 2019
It might seem a tad immodest to name your winery after your home appellation - Chateau Margaux, anyone? Yet La Rioja Alta have been on the scene since the 1890s, turning out wines of the highest quality year after year. Defined by their elegant, aromatic style and long aging in American oak barrels, they have come to be seen as the epitome of the traditional style of Rioja. At its accessible price point, their Viña Ardanza label remains an almost unbeatably good-value proposition.
Now combine that with the vintage. 2010 is widely-regarded as one of the very finest vintages in recent memory for Rioja - a 'spectacular' vintage, as La Rioja Alta winemaker Julio Saenz has it. Ardanza is considered so good this year that it has been declared a 'selección especial' - that's only the fourth time this has happened in 77 years, putting it alongside the great 1964, 1973 and 2001 vintages.
Viña Ardanza blends fruit from Tempranillo in two sites in the Rioja Alta region (Cuesta, and Montecillo) together with Garnacha from the high, barren, stony La Pedriza vineyard in Rioja Oriental. The Tempranillo brings finesse and more floral, red fruit aromatics; the Garnacha brings structure, darker fruit and concentration. And then there's the ageing of this wine. Considering the length of time this has been in barrel, it could easily be labelled Gran Reserva; but La Rioja Alta prefer to keep that description for their pricier labels. /NT
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment February 2020
