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A Tasting of 1964 Gran Reserva Rioja and Even Older White Rioja!
Los Gatos, California
Tasted May 21, 2023 by drwine2001 with 161 views
Introduction
Two extremely resourceful, single minded Rioja aficionados spent several years assembling a set of rare cellar treasures from domestic and European sources to put together this truly once in a lifetime tasting. Unlimited thanks to Eddie and Rich for hosting this event and inviting me to attend.
The red wines were all double decanted 3 to 4 hours before the start of the tasting. The whites were opened but not decanted approximately 3 hours prior to their being poured. All attendees were provided with a list of the wines in each flight which were then served blind. A paella dinner afterward was accompanied by younger wines.
Flight 1 - 1964 Red Rioja in Bordeaux Bottles (5 notes)
Most of these wines were in the "light red with some browning" range, so I've only noted the color of individual wines that were outliers.
Red
1964 Berberana Rioja Cosecha Especial Gran Reserva Centenario
Significant browning. Baked sweet berry fruit and nuttiness on the nose. Medium weight. Mouthcoating entry with some fruit, high acidity, abruptly stalkier back end with a strident off note and definitely some oxidation. Borderline flawed. Like drinking a Madeira.
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Red
1964 Federico Paternina Rioja Gran Reserva
Smoky, camphor-filled aromas to start. Lovely light weight, more soil than black fruit, a bit of cocoa, and again, very high acidity. Its elegance shines through and the length is excellent, but the fruit comes up short and the finish is marred by sourness from the overbalanced acidity.
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Red
1964 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia
Pale with browning edge. Complex scents of balsam wood, spice, red fruit, and celery stalk. Light to medium bodied, excellent acidity, and the fruit gradually sweetens. Elegant, subtle, long, and mineral. Excellent and very much in keeping with the lean Tondonia style. My only quibble was an off note in the finish that deprived it of some harmony.
Red
1964 La Rioja Alta Rioja Reserva 904
Quite pale. Balsam and dark fruit on the nose. Ethereal, balanced feel in the mouth-a real wisp as it crosses the palate. Outstanding equilibrium of dark fruit and soil, and the acidity is not as strident as in the first few wines of the flight. Amazingly, the fruit really comes up with more air, and there is a late citrus twist. Terrific complexity and a lingering finish with a hint of bitter chocolate. Superb liveliness and freshness. My favorite wine of the flight and a close second place in terms of the group ranking. Probably the best La Rioja Alta wine I've ever had, and completely free of the strong American oak imprint that younger examples show.
Red
1964 Bodegas Franco-Españolas Rioja Excelso - Gran Reserva
Beautiful spice and mint aromas. Light weight, full of soil but less remaining fruit than some of the others. Moderate acidity. A real terroir wine all the way through to the finish whose fragrance and complexity grew on me as I spent time with it. Its long finish is slightly squashed by overbalanced acidity.
Flight 2 - 1964 Red Rioja in in Burgundy Bottles (5 notes)
Red
1964 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Gran Reserva
Surprisingly full ruby. Intriguing mix of fruit and herb aromas. Wonderful, caressing medium bodied feel. Real sweetness of smoky black fruit, outstanding underlying layer of soil, perfect acidity, and fading but chocolaty tannins. This first wine of the second flight had more concentration and depth than any of the previous 5 wines. Superb, and it is easy to see it going strong for at least another decade.
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Red
1964 Gomez Cruzado Rioja Gran Reserva Honorable
flawed
Medium red. Some funk on the nose. Lean, green feel with high acidity. Structured and strict, pretty much devoid of fruit. Not much pleasure here. There was some discussion of low grade TCA, which I didn't detect, but the bottle seemed flawed in some way.
Red
1964 La Rioja Alta Rioja Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial
flawed
Pale with obvious browning. Sickly sweetness and maderization on the nose. Earthy, light weight, high acidity, nutty, fino palate. Undrinkable for me.
Red
1964 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Bosconia
Light ruby center with fading rim. Wow aromatics here-incredible sweet fruit and warm spice that are very forthcoming. Discrete natural sweetness of fruit, high acidity, and a stalky, dry, tannic finish. Too bad that the palate did not live up to the tremendous promise of the nose, but this was still very good for a wine of almost 60 years of age. On the downward path though unless I have misread its ability to resolve the tannins over time.
Red
1964 Bodegas Riojanas Rioja Monte Real Gran Reserva
Ruby. Like the Bosconia, absolutely gorgeous spice and fruit forward nose. Medium weight, clay base, mouth coating and without any hard edges. Rich fruit, ground coffee, perfect acidity all classily integrated and weighted. My word, this is fantastic and clearly the red wine of the day. It was easily the highest rated of this flight, with 15 of 19 tasters having it as their first place wine. I cannot recall being this impressed with a Riojanas wine, much less having one blow away stiff competition as this bottle did.
Flight 3 - White Rioja (6 notes)
White
N.V. R. López de Heredia Rioja Blanco 6º Año Viña Tondonia
Using the magic label decoder, we think this wine was bottled in 1967 and therefore represents 1961 juice. Amber orange color. Salty, faintly nutty scents. Medium weight, high acidity, savory, excellent freshness upfront with a complicating botanical herb component that is more prominent than the remaining fruit. In the end, too sharp and angular with pronounced fino sherry finish.
White
N.V. La Rioja Alta Rioja Blanco 3º Año
Thought to be bottled in the 1960's. Translucent amber orange. Volatile, saline nose. Medium weight. Dry, herbal, glycerine feel, very high acidity. Fascinating and not as sherried as some of these wines, but austere, acidic, and lacking in fruit at this point.
White
1950 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Ygay Reserva Blanco
flawed
Amber with orange tinge. Smells like an old Manzanilla. Excellent acidity and an earthy base with subtle sweetness, but this is completely oxidized and nutty.
White
1939 Bodegas Bilbainas Rioja Viña Pomal Blanco
A shade lighter but still orange tint. Salty citrus greets you. Wonderfully viscous, glycerine feel. Complex interplay between bitter citrus and grilled nuts. Great length. I marked this wine first in the white flight because of the dynamic balance between the strong fruit and controlled oxidative tones, but it was a toss up between this and the even older Paternina wine. Terrific and an absolute freak of nature at the not so tender age of 84 years!!
White
1930 Federico Paternina Rioja Gran Reserva
This came in a Riesling-shaped bottle; I can only imagine that post-WW1 Spain, producers used whatever bottle was available to them. Apparently only a small amount of this was made and never commercially released, so it is a true unicorn. Deep yellow, no orange. Astounding fresh aromas of grapefruit zest, completely different from the rest of the whites. Incredibly complex stuff with kaleidoscopic citrus, soil, and herb. Tremendous finish. Unique, utterly amazing. It's almost 100 years old-how could this be??? Needless to say, the oldest dry white wine that has ever crossed my lips.
White
1964 Federico Paternina Rioja Gran Reserva
Orange. Musky, nutty, apricot fruit. A complete shocker as it was honeyed and sweet at say an Auslese level without any indication of this on the label. Dessert style unlike any of the rest. Delicious, pure, excellent acidity, fine finish. This is a dead ringer for Sauternes, and it is interesting to consider the textural affinity of Viura and Semillon. This was the group's winner of the flight. I had a hard time scoring it since it was such an outlier amongst the dry white wines. Qualitatively, though, I can't argue with everyone's enthusiasm for it.
Flight 4 - Dinner Wines (4 notes)
White
2015 La Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri Rioja Blanco
Yellow. Medium weight. Complex, lively mix of orchard fruit, citrus, and light herbal notes without any oxidative notes. Very fresh, a good run ahead.
Red
2005 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Tondonia
A lovely showing. Rounder, deeper fruit, and more forthcoming than a bottle I had about 6 months ago. Approaching its mature phase, very strong material.
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Red
2001 Bodegas El Coto Rioja Coto de Imaz Gran Reserva
Light ruby. Excellent maturing Rioja. Lighter weight, very good complexity.
Red
N.V. Bodegas Franco-Españolas Rioja Cosecha Especial Bordón
Bottled in the 1970's. Light crimson, faded edge. Cinnamon on the nose. Light, fluid, gently sweet, excellent underpinning of acidity. Franco-Espanolas bottles are often a steal from this era, and this was no exception. This brought us back to the glories of some of the 1964's and was a great way to close out this extraordinary tasting.
Closing
In red, one could only marvel at the quality and vigor of many of the 1964's. We all noted that the flight of wines in Burgundy bottles eclipsed the Bordeaux bottle flight, often showing more color, depth, and youthful fruit. Was this because of intentional differences in vinification, the randomness of tasting nearly 60 year old bottles, or some other reason? I don't know, but that is how it turned out on this day. The best wines could hold their own with remaining 1964 vintage wine from anywhere in the world.
As for the whites, there were a few misses with oxidation reigning supreme, but how could one complain when 2 wines from the 1930's plus an idiosyncratically sweet wine from 1964 showed as magnificently as these did? These ancient whites proved to be much more than curiosities. It was fascinating and a great privilege to try them, and everyone was agog at the longevity.