Vina Otano, Rioja Graciano Reserva 2018
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92+
View from the Cellar
Viña Otano’s Graciano bottling is a lovely Rioja Reserva, coming in at fourteen percent alcohol in this vintage. It is made from fifty-five year-old vines and raised for two years in cask prior to bottling. The 2018 Reserva offers up a deep, precise and complex bouquet of dark berries, cigar wrapper, coffee bean, dark soil tones, a touch of savory elements interspersed with classic Rioja spice tones, a fine base of soil, cedar and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, complex and deep at the core, with fine soil inflection and grip, ripe, well-integrated tannins and impressive balance on the long and very promising finish. This is a youthful wine that will demand a bit of cellaring to soften up its backend tannins, but once it is ready to drink, it is going to be outstanding juice. 2030-2075+.
Viña Otano, Rioja (La Rioja Spain) Graciano 2018 ($42, Grapes of Spain / Aurelio Cabestrero): This house releases a wide range of wines including traditional bottlings as well as single-variety reds and superb aged whites. The potential excellence of Graciano as a stand-alone variety has been slowly coming to awareness among lovers of Spanish wines, but only because producers like this are providing it with a solo turn. The 2018 release is sourced from 50+ year old, head pruned vines, and was aged for 24 months in French oak. This will be something new for most who taste it, and a delightful surprise, as it shows Graciano’s ability to combine dark color, dark fruit tones, and a touch of savory earthiness along with bright, lifted acidity and excellent freshness. There’s a lot of fine-grained tannin offering grip in the finish, so this isn’t a red wine for fish, but neither does it require a rack or leg of lamb. I’ve only seen one other review of this wine, written by John Gillman in his View from the Cellar publication. I’ve never met him, but often find my ratings very close to him, though we differ markedly in our recommendations regarding when wines will be ready for enjoyment and when that window may close. For this already-enjoyable wine, his recommendation is to hold until 2030 (by which time I may be dead), with a back-end date of “2075+” (by which time our entire species may have vanished from the earth). Only time will tell, so buy at least two bottles and bequeath one to a grandchild to give to an offspring to try. Gillman is good, so let’s hope someone can beam results to us when we’re off in the Great Beyond!
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