1959 La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 890

Community Tasting Notes (11) Avg Score: 95.8 points

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  5/14/2021 - Rote Kappelle wrote: flawed

  The level was outstanding for a wine of this age - basically no ullage. The cork, however, was a swine. Spongy and moldy, to say it collapsed would be to ascribe qualities of firmness that simply did not apply. I dug it out using the end of a tea-spoon, then strained the wine into a decanter. There was a notable stink of musty cupboard - would that blow off, or was it the dreaded cork taint?
  
  Pouring a glass straight from decant, my feelings are it might blow off and the sense I get is of a wine that will build in glass. The colour is browm, with russet tints.
  
  10 minutes later there is still a distinct musty note, but it is now a little less prominent. The wine itself is indeed building in the glass. The tannins are surprisingly firm, though fine. Given the colour and the criminal nature of the cork it isn't surprising that at this stage the characters are mostly tertiary - polished wood, earth and mushroom and brown sugar, but there is something else - liquorice hints and perhaps blueberry and raspberry. I am already thinking it will tie in nicely with my rib-eye on the bone. In steak we find our inner selves.
  
  Alas, 30 mins later the moldy cupboard is winning the battle with the wine. Chalk up another win to the devil known as the cork closure. Old spelunkers everywhere will smile on this wine that has been stiffed by the cork, but the rest of us weep. As if to add insult to injury, in the mood for more Spanish (pardon the double entendre), I opened a 2007 from Valquejigoso and, although not TCA affected, the cork was also buggered. Read 'em and weep. After beef, in my pantheon, is the screw cap closure.

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  4/10/2020 - Vini Ciclismo Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Frankly amazing.
  Cork broke but level was good.
  Light, sweet, fragrant, red berry and dark spice, fragrant sweet old oak. Very clean, pure, nose, some earth but not gamey.
  Sweet, raspberry and damson, sour cherry stone, light vanilla oak and spice. Fine furry tannins. Reasonable acidity. Superb. And double superb for its age.

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  5/11/2017 - psmith wrote:

  Rioja Night (Chicago, IL): Verdict is corked, but some pretty dark fruits and spice notes poke through a bit. It's a shame these have been so variable as there is good raw material here.

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  5/11/2017 - acyso wrote: flawed

  Rioja dinner at Phil's (Chicago, IL): A second bottle of this, from the same lot as my note from 2014, was also corked.

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  7/19/2016 - Burgundy Al wrote:

  An odd wine. Musty throughout, this seemed slightly corked to start. But that musty character never materially changed, making me think it more likely slightly dirty or bretty, but not corked. Still, there were good dried red cherry flavors that stayed persistent over several hours. Also interesting is that this seemed more corked/musty from a Burg (bowl) stem vs a Bordeaux stem.

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View all 11 Community Tasting Notes

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