2001 La Rioja Alta Rioja Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial
Community Tasting Note
VTCellarDweller Likes this wine:
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - This has been an extremely polarizing wine based on the TN history on CT and WB posts. Bottle variation is the obvious thing to latch onto, but that is an effect, not the cause.
I won't speculate on a cause for it and will comment only on what I have tasted as it has been filtered through my own biased preferences, 40 years of enthusiastic tasting, and personal palate sensitivity at this stage of my life.
We purchased 2+ cases of this from three different east coast merchants over a five month period in 2011. The wines are now racked in our cellar with no way to determine which bottles came from any particular seller. They are part of a 12+ case section of 2001 Rioja in our cellar. Needless to say, I am a big fan of this vintage.
With that preamble, we have opened two of these bottles this year both of which were excellent and evidenced none of the dill pickle, overly acidic, rubber tire character described by many who have given this wine poor marks.
The bottle we opened last night was decanted for 3 hours before serving. It offered nuanced aromatics with a flavor profile and mouth feel that is close to my original tasting note of 7/16/2011. Yes there is still a significant presence of American Oak evidenced by prominent vanilla and coconut but this has integrated noticeably and the tannins have softened since the first bottle 18 months ago. It has rounded out developing a more moderated and refined presentment. Hopefully we will not encounter any of the ugly bottles that some of the others have.
Based on my experience, this is a beautifully balanced wine with exceptional potential and a distinctive personality that some will like and others may detest.
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2 comments have been posted
3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue (11,912 views)
Comment posted by Wine Gopher:
12/11/2012 9:23:00 PM - I'm with you. Great wine. The bad reviews seem odd to me.
Comment posted by robertgoulet:
12/12/2012 2:09:00 AM - as I mentioned on berserkers I am a fan of this house, but the first bottle was dramactically overwhelming dill. I have no problem with a little bit, I actually enjoy it. The second bottle raced with acidity but time in the glass helped, it was a better bottle. I feel there is just all of bottle variation, there is a ton of this wine floating around I'm sure consistency can be a issue with such huge production. I just purchased 3 bottles of 904, planning on popping one this weekend!