1964 La Rioja Alta Rioja Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial

Community Tasting Notes (11) Avg Score: 96.6 points

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  12/3/2023 - Bordeaux_Jon Likes this wine: 96 Points

  This was indeed a very special Rioja and special wine. With the elegant of a Grand Cru Burg and complexity (and some Brett) of a first growth Bordeaux, this wine stole the night that included many crazy wines and two other 1864 Riojas.

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  5/21/2023 - drwine2001 wrote: flawed

  A Tasting of 1964 Gran Reserva Rioja and Even Older White Rioja! (Los Gatos, California): Pale with obvious browning. Sickly sweetness and maderization on the nose. Earthy, light weight, high acidity, nutty, fino palate. Undrinkable for me.

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  8/1/2022 - Cailles wrote: 98 Points

  5x 1964 red, 2x Sherry: Five 1964 reds. All tasted blind. Rioja for the win! The 1964 Rioja vintage is just magical. Clear winner and WOTN, the Rioja Alta Ardanza Reserva Especial (98 pts). Highly complex, ever changing, clean and precise, very Burgundian. Next Angelus (95 pts), perfectly mature, elegant, pure Bordeaux missing just a bit more substance for an even higher rating. Third, CVNE Vina Real Reserva Especial (94 pts) a bit past its peak with hyper intense and intriguing coffee/malty and nutty notes. Finally, two solid Burgundies. Louis Remy Chambertin (92 pts) showed very young, with almost new world-like, ripe fruit and sweetness which was a bit perplexing. The Leroy d’Auvenay (90 pts) had a good structure but was not harmonious and clean enough.
  
  TN: Wonderful intense nose. Superb, right from the go. Jumping out of the glass. On the palate bright red fruit, some cola notes, stems, beautiful minerality. Superb structure, so fine, so round, wonderful long finish. With time blue fruit, some toasty notes. Ever so slightly changing. Wow. Tasting it blind I and most others were convinced that this must be a Burgundy. This bottle was lightyears ahead of a bottle of the same lot a year ago in almost every category (complexity, precision, expressiveness, harmony).
  
  Decanting: Double decanted 2 hours before consumption. Followed over two more hours. Right after opening this was a bit shy. In the two hours after double decanting the bottle the wine gained a lot of substance, concentration and become so much more harmonious. It needed air.

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  6/23/2021 - Cailles wrote: 92 Points

  No notes taken. I had high hopes for this bottle given the raving reviews on CT and the perfect provenance and very high fill level. Unfortunately, this bottle was a little too mature with not enough fruit left to balance all the tertiary aromas and especially not the focus and precision a great wine needs. I’ve recently tasted the nectar of gods with a clear 100 point CVNE Vina Real Reserva Especial 1964 which needed two hours to get there and open up. But this bottle didn’t get that same boost from air. Maybe the next bottle (I’ve got two more) will be up there with the CT scores. Fingers crossed.

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  3/3/2020 - La Flama Blanca Likes this wine: 97 Points

  The ‘64 LRA Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial was the first of its kin...At 55+ years it is a transcendent wine experience. This Spanish Gem is soft, elegant and classy AF...it’s so versatile in its flavor nuances I’d venture to say u could throw it in blind as a ringer for vintage Burgundy, Barolo, Rhône, and even Bordeaux. The secret to picking these out blind? Find the dill.

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