The basic grape variety is Tempranillo (95%) from Las Cuevas, El Palo and Las Monjas vineyards in Rodezno complemented with 5% Graciano from the Montecillo estate in Fuenmayor. We started the grape harvest with the Tempranillo and, 17 days later, we picked the Graciano in Montecillo, the last plot we harvested. All the grapes were placed in small boxes and taken to the winery in refrigerated transport to preserve their integrity. Alcoholic fermentation took place in tanks, taking 16 days for the Tempranillo and 18 days for the Graciano. Malolactic fermentation took place spontaneously and, in March 2013, the selected wines were transferred to American oak barrels (made in-house) with an average age of 3 years. During the three years the wines were aged, they were racked every six months. The final blend was made in March 2016, combining both varieties until that magnificent balance that sets the first Viña Arana Gran Reserva apart was attained.
Info
Producer:
Vintage:
2016
Country:
Spain
Region:
La Rioja
Appellation:
Rioja
Variety:
Tempranillo-Based Blend
Color:
Red
Farming Practice:
Practicing Organic
Sizes Available
| Full Bottle | ES-LRA-21-16 | 12/750ml |
Press & Reviews
James Suckling
Score
95
Date
2023-09-13
"Beautiful transparency here with fresh flowers, green tobacco, pine needles, crushed stones and sandalwood. Dark fruits in the center. Full-bodied with a wonderful balance of fruit and fine tannins as well as mineral, fresh bark and delicate purple fruit. Subtlety with energy. Youthful now and drinkable, but even better in 2026."
John Gilman
Score
93
Date
2024-05-14
"The 2016 Viña Arana Gran Reserva from La Rioja Alta is a ripe wine, tipping the scales at 14.5 percent octane in this vintage, but also beautifully balanced. It is composed from a blend of ninety-five percent tempranillo and five percent graciano, with the wine raised for three years in used American oak barrels, with the average age of each cask three years of age at the outset. The bouquet is outstanding, offering up scents of black raspberries, cassis, cigar ash, cloves, fresh nutmeg, woodsmoke, a lovely base of soil, nutskin and coconutty American oak. On the palate the wine is pure, focused and full-bodied, with lovely depth of fruit, fine soil inflection, ripe, buried tannins and a long, tangy, complex and impeccably balanced finish. This is a lovely bottle of old school Rioja that is already drinking quite nicely at age eight, but it has a fine structural chassis and decades and decades of life ahead of it. 2024-2075."
Wine Advocate
Score
93
Date
2024-03-22
"The 2016 Viña Arana Gran Reserva is an elegant blend of Tempranillo with 5% Graciano matured in used American oak barrels for three years. During this time, the wine was manually racked from barrel to barrel, with the help of a candle, six times. It's ripe at 14.5% alcohol, with pungent notes of forest floor and truffles, dark spices and an earthy touch. It has a powerful palate, with very good freshness and acidity, reflecting the cooler year. It has some tannins that would welcome food. 60,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2021."
Jancis Robinson
Score
17.5+
Date
2024-04-26
"Mature notes of coffee and black chocolate layer over the very savoury dark fruit; yet there is also tons of freshness, and the tannins are very elegantly integrated. The perfumed finish goes on forever. (FG)"
REVIEWS FROM PAST VINTAGES
2017
James Suckling
Score
96
Date
2024-08-15
"Deep, savory nose of vanilla, mussels, graphite, iron and black pepper. Vibrant and juicy, with a medium to full body and fine-grained tannins. Lots of energy, with a long, long finish. 95% tempranillo and 5% graciano. Still quite young. Drink or hold."
2017
Vinous
Score
94
Date
2025-05-22
"The 2017 Gran Reserva Vina Arana is 95% Tempranillo and 5% Graciano from Rioja Alta. It presents a sun-kissed profile, with moderately intense red fruit and balsamic wood aromas complemented by toffee, mild mushroom and background oak before cherry emerges later. Dry and taut with a fine-grained texture, it delivers persistent flavor with a touch of tannic grip reflecting the vintage's short cycle following a spring frost."
2017
Decanter
Score
93
Date
2025-05-18
"Fabulously classic gran reserva with coconut and vanilla sweet oak, match by intense red berry fruits. The tannins are soft and perfectly integrated, and the palate is fresh and juicy. A classic."
2017
Tim Atkin, MW
Score
93
Date
2025-02-27
"Julio S enz calls Arana a "starter Gran Reserva" and I don't think he's damning it with faint praise. Showing the concentration of the frost-affected 2017 vintage, this is a leafy, scented, structured cuv,e of Tempranillo and 5% Graciano with balsamic complexity, vanilla and cinnamon sweetness and plenty of supporting acidity. 2025-2038"
2017
Wine Advocate
Score
93
Date
2025-02-27
"The 2017 Vi¤a Arana Gran Reserva is their more classical bottling, produced with 95% Tempranillo and 5% Graciano, fermented in stainless steel for 16 days and matured in American oak barrels for three years, racked every six months, the two varieties separately and blended before bottling. It has contained ripeness and 14% alcohol, keeping good freshness and acidity in a challenging year. The oak is neatly integrated, and the wine is harmonious and serious, a triumph over the adverse conditions of the year, the year of the big frost. They didn't produce Vi¤a Alberdi or GR 890 that year, and part of the 890 grapes are here. It's polished and elegant, quite gentle and easy to understand for a Gran Reserva. 85,000 bottles produced. It was a shorter crop in 2017. It was bottled in January 2022."
2015
Decanter World Wine Awards
Score
96
Date
2021-07-07
2015
James Suckling
Score
95
Date
2021-08-17
2015
Wine Advocate
Score
92
Date
2022-07-18
2014
Decanter
Score
96
Date
[no Date]
2014
James Suckling
Score
96
Date
2021-09-07
2014
Vinous
Score
91
Date
[no Date]