RemelluriRioja La Granja Gran Reserva 2010

Complex aromas of hazelnuts, dried flowers, dark fruits and stones. Subtle. Full-bodied, chewy and structured. Fills your mouth. An age-worthy wine that harkens back to the great Rioja of the 1940s and 1950s.

Telmo Rodriguez uses more Garnache in his Gran Reserva, although this is still a rich wine, saturated in colour and flavor. Violets, plum and blackberry fruit, some fennel and thyme, refined oak and a chalky minerally backbone. A very impressive release.

I was really blown away by the 2010 Granja Remelluri Gran Reserva, their take on more classical Rioja. It is aged in oak for a longer time, but not without having selected grapes from their very best plots that would benefit from the extended elevage. The varietal composition is approximately 75% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 5% Graciano. Like all of the wines here, it fermented in small stainless steel and oak vats with indigenous yeasts, and then matured in oak barrels for some 26 months. The nose is full of flowers, blood orange, sweet spices, violet pastille and curry. It is very aromatic and perfumed, with the herbs that you find in the Remelluri mountains, rosemary especially. It is extremely attractive, with a nose that makes you go back to it over and over again. This is still very young, but terribly balanced. The tannins are refined and there is a fine thread of acidity going through its core and lifting it up. This could very well be the best vintage of Granja so far. And having seen the improvements in the vineyards, my feeling is that the best is yet to come. Around 20,000 bottles produced.

Bright cherry red. Fine, ripe but very fresh cherry fruit. Terrific freshness and that characteristic dry finesse. Super-fine tannins, quite a grip but beautifully balanced. Finesse and elegance with the oak very much in the background. Juicy even though the texture is dry.