Rioja Reserva, 'Viña Arana'

Score

96

"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."

Score

94

"In previous vintages of the 2017 Vina Arana Gran Reserva, the producer used to blend Tempranillo with 5% Mazuelo. Now it™s 5% Graciano with 95% Tempranillo, aged three years in older American oak. The process delivers refined tannins and a classic structure of integrated fruit, acidity, and medium-bodied power with a lasting, gravelly mineral profile. Age 15-20 years."

Score

93

"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."

Score

93

"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 cuvše of Tempranillo and 5% Graciano with balsamic complexity, vanilla and cinnamon sweetness and plenty of supporting acidity. 2025-2038"

Score

93

"The 2017 Gran Reserva Viña Arana (95% Tempranillo, 5% Graciano; Rioja Alta) was aged for three years in American oak with traditional semiannual rackings. Aromatically textbook, the nose offers clove, tar, vanilla and forest floor with the gentle patina of development. On the palate, it is dry and enveloping, with fine but still gently reactive tannins. Composed and classical, this Gran Reserva shows balance and restraint."

Score

93

"The 2017 Viña Arana Gran Reserva, produced with Tempranillo and a kick from 5% Graciano (not with Mazuelo like in the past) from the Montecillo estate in Fuenmayor. The destemmed and crushed grapes were previously selected by an optical machine and fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts for 16 days. The wine matured in American oak barrels for three years, during which time it was racked six times, keeping the two varieties separate, then blending them before the bottling operation. The wine feels closed and took time in the glass to start opening up, showing quite young and undeveloped. It's quite monolithic, solid and seamless, but it has not developed the complexity and nuance of other wines here. It has good ripeness, 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.66 and five grams of acidity. It was bottled in January 2022."

Score

95

"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."

Score

93

"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."

Score

93

"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."

Score

17.5+

"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)"

Score

96

"Arana commemorates one of La Rioja Alta's historic families. The Tempranillo (95%) and Graciano (5%) are aged separately in American oak barrels for three years before blending, then for three years in bottle (two years less than the 904, and six years less than the 890). The winery's keynote to this Rioja is 'freshness'. I agree."

Score

96

Score

95

"Aromas of dark plum, raspberry, mocha, mushroom, chocolate, mocha, coconut and cigar box. Full-bodied with ripe, fine tannins and bright acidity. Balanced and supple with a velvety texture. Coffee notes on the long, succulent finish. 95% tempranillo and 5% graciano. Drink or hold."

Score

93

"Limpid ruby-red. Oak-spiced cherry, black raspberry, candied rose, spicecake and coconut aromas show very good definition and pick up tobacco and licorice notes as the wine opens up. Smooth and appealingly sweet, offering sappy cherry cola, fruitcake, coconut and floral pastille flavors complemented by an earthy undertone. Shows very good energy and floral lift on a long, smoky finish framed by velvety, well-knit tannins."

Score

92

"The 2015 Vi¤a Arana Gran Reserva, which was a Reserva until 2011, wants to showcase a new Gran Reserva style that combines freshness and joy with intensity, sophistication and aging potential through a blend of Tempranillo from Rodezno with 5% Graciano from Fuenmayor. The grapes were put through optical sorting and fermented in stainless steel for 19 days, and the wine matured in American oak barrels for three years with rackings every six months. This is the classical Haro style of Rioja Claret. They found that some special vintages of this wine behaved like a Gran Reserva, with a style that was closer to their 904. So, they wanted to make this consistent from vintage to vintage, a new a style of Gran Reserva, easier to understand than the 904 or 890. From 2012, the wine changes and they replaced the Mazuelo that was used in the past with Graciano, which they think is a grape very apt for Gran Reserva wines. I saw the wine with the 2015 vintage, a more developed nose with tertiary notes and some funkiness. They don't want this to be the small brother of 904. It's the entry level for Gran Reserva wines, for a younger generation; it's fresher and less complex but with good aging potential. In a year when they don't produce 904, the grapes would go to Vi¤a Arana. The palate reveals quite a lot of tannin and a dry finish. 80,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2019."

Score

91