1990 La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904

Community Tasting Notes (19) Avg Score: 91.4 points

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  12/28/2022 - Fleets Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Incredibly fresh yet still mature. Bright and clear, very little bricking considering the age.
  Cork broke in half so carefully extracted the second half without it falling in and wine in great shape.
  Double decanted to remove the residue, had with lamb and was absolutely perfect accompaniment.
  Lovely red fruit and little oak, decent acidity and fine tannin hold it together. The third old wine that i bought from BBR warehouse shop and had over Christmas and all were immaculate.

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  10/1/2020 - forceberry wrote: 86 Points

  A blend of Tempranillo (95%) and Mazuelo aka. Carignan (5%) from an exceptionally dry vintage. Fermented in large oak vats over 8 months. Aged for 5 years in American oak barrels that are on average 4 years old, yet including some new barrels as well. Bottled in July 1996. 12,5% alcohol, 5,96 g/l acidity and 0,97 g/l VA. Tasted half-blind.
  
  Murky, cloudy and fully opaque syrupy brown color. Aged, tertiary and somewhat oxidative nose that is past its prime; aromas of beef jerky, some soy sauce, a little bit of vanilla oak, light caramel tones, a herbal hint of tarragon and a touch of earth. Despite the old overall feel, the nose lacks the pungency of oxidized wines and comes across as relatively pleasant. The wine is very aged, enjoyably textural and complex on the palate with very aged, tertiary flavors of beef jerky, salty soy sauce, some sour cherry bitterness, a little bit of pruney dark fruit, light earthy tones and a hint of crunchy cranberry. The wine still retains pretty good structure with its moderately high acidity and firm medium tannins. The finish is very long, tertiary and quite saline with savory flavors of leather, wizened sour cherries, some beef jerky, light crunchy notes of cranberries, a little bit of soy sauce and a hint of smoke.
  
  An enjoyable but unfortunately slightly oxidized bottle of LRA 904 already past its peak. Most likely the cork was compromised, since it dropped down into the bottle when attempting to open the bottle. Although still relatively quite enjoyable for what it is, I doubt this is representative of the vintage - most likely a bottle with a sound bottle is going to perform so much better than this.

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  8/29/2020 - KeithAkers wrote: flawed

  Paella night (Adam's, Logan Square, Chicago IL): sadly this had some major VA problems

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  5/30/2020 - acyso wrote: 93 Points

  Spanish pot luck (Chicago, IL): My favourite of the Riojas tonight. La Rioja Alta has always really hit it off with my palate -- there is this beautiful perfume to the American oak that is actually quite distinctive, and for me, very pleasant -- and this bottle certainly carries that quality. There is a touch of that stinky Rioja sweat/barnyard thing, but it gives way to a resolved wine with plenty of secondary fruit character. The tannins being more resolved than not gives this a sense that it's ready to drink, but based on the amount of material here, I suspect there's life aplenty for extended further aging.

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  5/1/2020 - Nanda wrote: 92 Points

  Pop n' pour and enjoyed over 3+ hours. Full rich nose that has a prominent dill note at first, which starts to integrate over time but remains present. Leather and spice add interest. The palate is still quite young, ripe and fresh in texture. Vanilla-dill notes are there but starting to integrate. Long finish filled with herb and leather. This is on the doorstep of its drinking window at age 30 -- upside from here.

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