Community Tasting Notes 34

• Wine Canuck wrote: 97 points

  April 25, 2024 - This pours light ruby in the glass, crystal clear with light bricking. The nose is just unbelievable from first pour blasting burnt orange peel, olive brine, incense, sandalwood, rose petals, red cherry, and strawberry. Everything in its' perfect place. High complexity, high intensity yet elegant and fresh. 51 years young. The palate is pure silk enters on the citrus tinged red fruit with medium minus tannin and medium plus acid. The finish closes harmoniously and is just gorgeous. All in all this is just an amazing old Rioja experience and the best I've had in a very long time. Great producer, great vintage, perfect bottle and a perfect showing.

  Comment

• SimonG wrote: 95 points

  January 13, 2023 - My 50th at the Ledbury (The Ledbury, London): Mid garnet, starting to show some orange at the rim. Classic mature VR nose, a little coffee/mocha, red fruit, leather, spice and a drop of orange oil. Silky. Puts on some weight with air and despite an early double decant holds up well for seven or eight hours. *****

  Comment

• BillBell73 Likes this wine:

  July 25, 2022 - Excellent and really interesting to follow over three hours of air time. Savory with almost no fruit remaining but there is so much going on here- aged tea, desert herbs, blood, cranberry, wild mushrooms- a fantastic, graceful, and funky old rioja. This was considered a good but not great vintage, but I have always loved the nuances here, plus it’s my birth year.

  Comment

• Goldstone Likes this wine: 95 points

  December 26, 2019 - Boxing Day Lunch at Home with Friends (Our House, Hong Kong): Decanted for 2 hours then drank over the next three. Colour is totally transparent brick-red but no visual hint of tiredness. Initially reticent nose that you have to chase at first so you need to give this time to breathe and it was at its best after 3 hours....spice, beef broth, Japanese sea urchin, umami...very savoury and complex. Palate is fresh, bright tangy cranberry on entry that segues into savoury, umami-driven multi-layered complexity. So velvety but diaphanously light as it opens in the glass. Ultimately unfolds to delicate, feminine, ethereal, will o' the wisp diaphanous layers.....really multi-dimensional. WOW! Thunderous, rumbling bass notes of endless resonance and reverberance inside the head on the finish. Silence creating...which is my highest compliment for a wine. I paid a $300 premium for this bottle at a charity auction but both the charity and I got our money's worth.

  2 people found this helpful Comments (1)

• BillBell73 Likes this wine:

  July 30, 2019 - 1973 riojas can be highly variable but this particular bottle was fantastic! Very clean and fresh and showing the graceful side of the vintage. This is a birth year wine for me so I'll be drinking them for some time...it's always nice when you get a great bottle like this.

  Comment

Pro Reviews 2

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1973
• Type Red
• Producer C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España)
• Varietal Tempranillo
• Designation Viña Real Gran Reserva
• Vineyard n/a
• Country Spain
• Region La Rioja
• SubRegion La Rioja Alta
• Appellation Rioja

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 3 (2%)
• In Cellars 97 (54%)
• Consumed 80 (44%)

Food Pairing

Who Likes This Wine

More About This Wine