When in January 2022 they carried out the tasting to decide when to launch this Gran Reserva on the market, La Rioja Alta, S.A. made the decision to postpone its launch for a year. It was a decision they made quickly, seeking the highest quality, although it had "a great impact for the company, with a significant financial and commercial effort," as the company's president, Guillermo de Aranzabal Agudo, affirms. And it is that they had not been able to produce their 904 since the 2011 harvest. In January 2022, the 2015 904 was already "a great wine, enormous, but it still did not fully express everything that this excellent vintage could offer us." It was the wine itself, according to the technical director, winemaker Julio Sáenz Fernández, "who really made the decision for us." He adds that the aroma of the must was already special, "we had the intuition that something important could happen since the extra quality was very, very high."
Some time later, already growing up in the barrels, they saw that it was "exciting" to see the evolution of Tempranillo and Graciano. For all these reasons, for the first time in the long history of the brand, this vintage of 904 has been classified as a Special Selection. In 1904, the Ardanza winery, owned by Alfredo Ardanza, was incorporated into La Rioja Alta. To commemorate the event, the Gran Reserva 904 was produced for the first time. It is a wine that is only made in the best vintages. Guillermo de Aranzabal is convinced that the 2015 vintage "will excite for many decades." He says that "we made the 2015 904 thinking about the future, about our successors and about all the pleasure we wanted to leave them." And he drives home the nail on the head, adding that "it will be one of the eternal references of our winery in the future." The technical director equates it to vintages of great quality such as those of 1995 and 2001.
The base variety of this wine is Tempranillo (90%) from a selection of its estates in Villalba, Briñas and Rodezno. It also has 10% Graciano from the Montecillo farm in Fuenmayor. They started the harvest with Tempranillo, and 23 days later they harvested Graciano. They transported the entire refrigerated harvest in small boxes, preserving its integrity. For the first time, they optically selected all the grapes for this wine, berry by berry, producing only those selected based on their "strictest quality parameters." Alcoholic fermentation took place for 21 days in tanks, where malolactic fermentation also took place. In January 2016, they chose the best wines to begin their aging in American oak barrels of their own manufacture with an average age of four and a half years, where they remained for four years, being racked by the traditional method every six months until bottling, in February 2020.
The good weather throughout the cycle favored an excellent vegetative and sanitary state of the grapes, achieving a balance in all its components, especially those from vines located at higher altitudes, in cooler areas and with moderate vigour. At the end of maturation they had days with a great thermal jump, sunny mornings and very cold nights, thus achieving a very balanced final maturation. “Everything was perfect” at the 904 vineyards in 2015, according to Roberto Frías, the winery's agricultural director. He adds that "those grapes presaged something very big."
The wines obtained, as stated by the Haro winery, "stand out especially for their Atlantic character, their elegant acidity, their intense fruit load and their very silky and balanced tannins, which provide them with outstanding conditions for aging". Gran Reserva 904 of 2015 is defined by La Rioja Alta, S.A. as a red with "subtlety, elegance, finesse, delicacy and silkiness". The technical director highlights the great balance that it offers between freshness, fruit and youth and the notes of barrel aging. Of this vintage, 120,000 bottles were produced, which will be sold by quota over the next two years as a result of the great existing demand.
Medium-high layer and color between ruby and that of picota cherries. It stands out with a profusion of notes reminiscent of red and black berries on a bed of vanilla, cinnamon, cedar, coconut, licorice, toast, white pepper and Cuban tobacco leaf. It is elegant and exhibits a velvety tactile sensation, but with body and an alcoholic tip. It shows an extraordinary roundness, with polished tannins. It is also sweet, elegant and has a good acidity. An updated classic in which all the elements are very well arranged. It is a highly complex red wine with great aging potential ahead. The winery states that it is especially recommended with all kinds of meats and stews, seasoned fish, desserts covered in chocolate or red fruits. And it is also perfect as a tabletop glass. The president of the company likes to pair this red with a roast pigeon with sauce, while the technical director of LaRioja Alta, S.A. he prefers it with some squid in its own ink or with a grilled sirloin steak with some typical roasted Riojan red peppers. The recommended service temperature is 17º C.
The winery was founded in Haro on July 10, 1890, under the name of Sociedad Vinícola de La Rioja Alta. The presidency was assumed by a woman, Saturnina García Cid y Gárate. The rest of the founders were Daniel Alfredo Ardanza, Dionisio del Prado, Felipe Puig de la Bellacasa and Mariano Lacort. The five founding families of LaRiojaAlta, S.A. in the Barrio dela Estación they created emblematic brands such as Gran Reserva 890, Gran Reserva 904, Viña Arana Gran Reserva, Viña Ardanza and Viña Alberdi. It is a path that their descendants maintain today and that they have also transmitted to the rest of the wineries that currently make up this company: Torre de Oña (RiojaAlavesa), Áster (Ribera del Duero) and Lagar de Cervera (Rías Baixas). They affirm that their philosophy is centered on “the constant search for excellence”. It is an international reference house, chosen in 2022 as the fourth most admired winery in the world by the Drinks International publication.
His commitment to his own vineyard has meant that today they already exceed 800 hectares. They also dedicate efforts to research and wine tourism, and work with an environmental and social commitment. With the Viña Ardanza Solidario project, they allocate 1% of their profits annually to agricultural projects in impoverished countries. Currently, they are also developing a new project that consists of recovering very old vineyards. For this reason they have acquired more than 60 hectares of old vines planted at least 50 years ago; but they also have hundred-year-old vineyards. With these grapes they are creating the 'Artisan Vineyards', which are the first wines they have produced from these vineyards. They affirm that they have not yet decided, exactly, their destiny. They could well be used to improve their large reserves or star in a new very limited edition wine.
They make around a million and a half bottles a year. They do not always add up to the same production since they do not produce all their brands every year. They declassify many crops that do not offer the quality they demand. Exports account for more than 60% of its turnover. Its three main international markets are the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, although they already export to more than 80 countries around the world.
