Wine Advisor
La Rioja Alta, Vina Ardanza Reserva 2016
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
The 2016 Viña Ardanza Reserva was produced with 80% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacha that matured in used American oak barrels for three years, where it was hand-racked from barrel to barrel six times in the case of Tempranillo and five times for the Garnacha, as it had a slightly shorter élevage of 30 months. Against all odds, I found the 2016 to be fresher than the 2015 and less developed, despite the fact that winemaker Julio Sáenz told me he considers it a warmer year. But I have found many wines I like in 2016, and the wine feels very clean and quite harmonious, younger and less developed, with more primary notes and a velvety mouthfeel. 600,000 bottles produced. The wine was bottled in June 2020.
About the Producer
La Rioja Alta S.A. is located in the Rioja wine region of Spain. Rioja is the earliest and largest high-quality wine producing area in Spain. It has the reputation of "Spain Bordeaux" and has many Spanish boutique wineries. This winery is one of the best representatives. The winery is now part of Grupo La Rioja Alta S.A. With the popularity of European wines and American wines, various wine exhibitions and wine critic competitions have become popular internationally, and Oak River Winery has also participated and achieved quite good results. In 1893, the winery won the gold medal at the Chicago Columbus Wine Show; in 1895, the winery won the silver medal at the Bordeaux World Wine Show; in 1910 and 1911, it won the Buenos Aires and Toulouse Wine Show Awards. But after winning a gold medal at the Latin American Wine Show in 1930, the winery announced that it would no longer participate in any wine shows or wine critic competitions, because they no longer needed to make wine for any awards, they needed to make real wine. Although it did not win international awards, its good reputation continued to spread. In the following 10 years, the winery has become famous and quickly became the top wine in Rioja, Spain. One of the Spanish wine brands.
