La Rioja Alta 904 Rioja Gran Reserva 1995

Still a deep, vital ruby for a wine pushing thirty. The nose opens with dried cherry, violet, sweet vanilla and mocha, generous and layered, with a warm balsamic note threading through the background. Rich and concentrated in the mouth, black fruit and red licorice building across a frame of impeccably smooth tannins. This is the 904 at its most graceful, everything absorbed and settled, nothing out of place. The finish is long and warm. Drinking well now, and will hold comfortably through 2010 or beyond.