Community Tasting Note

• jonathanknowles Likes this wine: 90 points

  October 16, 2020 - Creamy vanilla, red berries, very fine smell, nose filling and bright. Cedar and tobacco. Medium bodied and jewel like cranberries and redcurrant in the mouth, really expands to fill the mouth. Concentrated sappy fruit. Really lots of oak but that's the style. Tight tannins. Long elegant finish. Rather richer and fleshier than most Rioja. I personally prefer the standard Ardanza.

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3 Comments

• Paul852 commented:

  10/16/20, 10:55 PM - I'm a bit confused by your last comment. As I understand it all Ardanzas are Reserva, and only one Ardanza is produced each vintage. (The Alberdi is the Crianza, and the Arana is the Gran Reserva.) Doesn't "Seleccion Especial" simply mean that La Rioja Alta felt this to be an unusually good vintage for Ardanza?

• jonathanknowles commented:

  10/17/20, 1:26 AM - Hi Paul. Yes, what I wrote was confusing. All the Ardanzas are Reserva and there is only ever one (sometimes none) produced in each vintage. And I don’t think the winemaking was any different in 2010. So I ought to have said I prefer the previous vintages of Ardanza. The 2010 is pretty widely available though so I might open it next to a 2008 and compare, perhaps my memory is foggy.
  
  Just had a look on the website, the Arana seems to have been upgraded to Gran Reserva from 2012 onwards.

• Paul852 commented:

  10/17/20, 1:48 AM - OK, thanks - now I understand. As you will have seen from my TN I personally think this 2010 Ardanza is way over-hyped (or perhaps the epitome of Parkerisation). I certainly preferred the 2008.

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