Vina Otano, Rioja Graciano Reserva 2014
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94
Wine Review Online
I absolutely adored this wine, and my guess is that the winemaking team did also, and quite possibly bottled it as a varietal Graciano wine because they couldn’t bear to pour the barrels of this into a blend. It was not cold stabilized, and has thrown plenty of (utterly harmless) tartaric crystals unlike the other red releases from this house, which may offer further evidence for the idea that this was a labor of love in the winery.
In any case, the toast and spice on the nose let you know you’re in Rioja, but the plush, soft, ultra-inviting texture and the open fruit flavors reveal a wine that’s quite distinctive for the region. After displaying lovely aromas of ripe fruit and restrained oak and light floral scents, it shows beautiful deep color and excellent physical density.
The fruit is exceptionally pure and charmingly sweet (but not sugary), and this sweetness keeps the polished tannins at bay through the very persistent, completely charming finish. This gets better with time and air, but mostly because it gets more integrated, not because it needs to open or soften much, and frankly, it is also delicious as soon as you can get it out of the bottle and into a glass.
It may get better in the years ahead, but it earned its score of 94 based on sheer deliciousness right now.
This bottling from Vina Otano is made from fifty-plus year-old graciano vines. It is aged for two years in French oak barrels prior to bottling. The 2014 version is pretty ripe, coming in listed at 14.5 percent octane, but offers up a deep and complex nose of black cherries, dark berries, Rioja spices, balsamic overtones, bonfire, incipiently autumnal soil tones, cedar and a lovely touch of savory elements in the upper register.
On the palate the wine is bright, full bodied, focused and complex, with a good core, lovely transparency and grip, moderate tannins and just a whisper of backend heat on the long and tasty finish. This is an excellent example of graciano! 2026-2055.
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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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