2010 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 is a benchmark Rioja and a masterclass in traditional winemaking. Crafted only in exceptional vintages, this flagship release blends 95% Tempranillo with touches of Graciano and Mazuelo, aged for six years in American oak and over a decade in bottle. The result is a wine of incredible depth and refinement—layered with aromas of dried cherry, truffle, cocoa, sweet spice, and forest floor. Silky, complex, and built to last, this is Rioja at its most elegant and enduring. Drink now or cellar with confidence through 2050 and beyond.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 99
Published: Aug 18, 2023

This is really refined and complex, with dark mineral, savory berries, mussels, walnuts, sweet spices, truffles, dried oranges, forest floor and cocoa powder. Beautiful acidity with vertical and velvety tannins. Tense, dimensional and very long. Drink or keep holding.

Decanter | D 98
Published: Dec 7, 2022
Drink: 2023-2080

I must confess that I find it hard to be objective about the 890, which is one of my all-time favourites, and 2010 is a particularly good vintage. With attention to detail in the vineyard and in the winery, the wine – named after the founding year, only made in the very best years - gets ever better. It is the very essence of fine Rioja, with succulent cherry fruits, sweet spices, mocha, supple and generously rounded. Aged for no less than six years in carefully selected American oak, and with no sign of weariness. This one is made for the long haul.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 14.00%
Body: Full
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 3% Graciano 2% Mazuelo 95% Tempranillo

The Wine Advocate | RP 97
Published: Jul 14, 2022
Drink: 2022-2040

They were eager to show me their 2010 Gran Reserva 890, their flagship wine from one of the most heralded vintages of recent times, the next vintage of this wine since 2005. It's 95% Tempranillo, 3% Graciano and 2% Mazuelo that fermented destemmed and crushed with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel vats for 18 days, the Tempranillo and Mazuelo together and the Graciano separately. After letting the wine settle for the winter, they selected the lots that would age for six years in used American oak barrels with 10 manual rackings. The wine epitomizes the classical style of Rioja Alta with long aging in barrel, developed and tertiary wines with a silky palate and a complex and decadent nose of forest floor, truffles, cigar ash and cedar wood. They need a very special selection of vineyards at higher altitude that take longer to ripen, and they don't do it fully every year. If they don't, the grapes go to Ardanza, but in 2010, the days were warm and the nights very cold and the grapes ripened thoroughly and could stand the long time in barrel without being oaky. They have stopped the last rackings to keep a little more freshness, and the wine feels phenomenal. This has to be one of the finest vintages for this wine. It's drinkable now but should also age for a very long time; it's intense, complex and elegant. A selection of 236 barrels were blended and bottled unfiltered in March 2017 into 61,643 bottles, 4,189 magnums and some larger formats. There will be a 2011 of this wine and then 2015 and possibly 2016 (but no 2012, 2013 or 2014). This is a very intense 890. Classicism in a bottle.

The people from La Rioja Alta are looking for older vineyards in the Rioja Alta zone, mostly around Elvillar, in principle for the sister project Torre de Oña. As they think they have done all the technical improvements possible, they believe the improvement has to come from the vineyards, so they are experimenting in that direction. In those vineyards, there is more white interplanted with the red. And they are also experimenting with white wine...

As for what's currently released, I loved the 2010 Gran Reserva 890, a wine that to me epitomizes their style of reds with a long aging in barrel and in bottle. I found the wines from 2015 to be very tannic, a little rough even; they are very confident about the vintage, which they consider one of the best together with 2001, but the wines might need more time.

Riojalta.com

Abundant winter rainfall provided the necessary water reserves for proper vine development. Favourable weather throughout the growing cycle meant that grapes arrived at the onset of ripening in the best condition. In this last stage there were temperature differences -sunny days with moderate temperatures and cold nights- this lead to a very slow and balanced ripening process. All these conditions particularly benefited our oldest vineyards with their very limited production. A selective harvest yielded grapes of exceptional quality, used to make this wine. The 2004 vintage was officially rated 'Excellent' by the D.O.Ca. Rioja Control Board

Vineyards
Tempranillo (95%) and Mazuelo (2%) from estate-owned vineyards in Bri?as, Labastida and Villalba and, in addition, Graciano (3%) from our Montecillo vineyard. This is the first Gran Reserva 890 in which we use Graciano grapes from this vineyard.

Winemaking and ageing
It follows a very meticulous selection process. Only the best clusters were taken to the winery in small refrigerated boxes. After painstaking destemming and crushing, the grapes were transferred to tanks and fermented at controlled temperatures. After the winter, we carried out a new selection process and the wine was aged for 6 years in American oak barrels. The barrels were manufactured in our cooperage, with wood imported from the USA and dried at our facilities for three years. During the 10 rackings, we carried out a further selection of the barrels to be used for the final blend, which was bottled in March 2011.

Tasting
Medium-depth cherry-red with a pale pink rim. Very intense, clean aromas, with dominating balsamic and spicy notes vanilla, caramel, chocolate mint and spices against a fruity background of prunes and dried apricots. Well-balanced in the mouth, with an elegant acidity, good structure, round, polished tannins and an oily finish. The aftertaste is ample and very long, with notes of sweet fruit and marked liquorice. A wine that represents the elegance and classicism of Rioja Gran Reservas.