La Rioja Alta 904 Gran Reserva 2001

Dried cherry, pipe tobacco, vanilla and a trace of balsamic, the 2001 904 opens with the quiet confidence of a wine that knows exactly what it is. It needs time in the glass, but patience is rewarded: black raspberry and bitter cherry come forward, woven through sweet oak, leather and a faint curl of smoke. Tannins are fine and fully absorbed, the body generous without tipping into heaviness. What's striking here is the vitality, this is a wine well past its twentieth year that still moves with purpose, finishing long and sweetly spiced. A testament to what extended traditional aging can achieve.