Rioja Reserva, Viña Ardanza, La Rioja Alta S.A. 2020
Parker 94 (2025); Tim Atkin MW 94 (2025); James Suckling 95 (2025); Hudin.com 94; Jancis Robinson 17.5/20 (2025)
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Why this wine
Viña Ardanza is the wine most often used to define what a classic Rioja Reserva should taste like, and the Garnacha in the blend gives it a spiced, fleshier frame than straight Tempranillo. Three years in American oak and three more in bottle mean it arrives ready to drink rather than needing a cellar. A house benchmark at a price that invites opening it.
At a glance
- Grape
- Tempranillo, Garnacha
- Region
- Rioja, Spain
- Alcohol
- 14.50%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Medium (5-10 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Cheese
How it tastes
Ripe red fruit carries clove, pepper and nutmeg, with a balsamic edge on a long, smooth finish. Medium-bodied and silky rather than heavy, with fresh acidity and fine, well-settled tannins from years in American oak. Tempranillo and Garnacha.
The producer
La Rioja Alta, S.A. was founded in 1890 in the old railway quarter of Haro by five families, among them the Aranas, the Ardanzas and the Alberdis, whose names now appear on the house's Reserva wines; in 2022 Drinks International named it the World's Fourth Most Admired Wine Brand. The Tempranillo comes from the La Cuesta vineyard in Fuenmayor and the Montecillo vineyard in Cenicero, both at around 600 metres on clay-limestone soils with vines over 30 years old, while the Garnacha grows at La Pedriza in Tudelilla, a 70-hectare site of deep rocky soils at 550 metres in Rioja Oriental. After sorting on optical selection tables the grapes were fermented in stainless steel at 27°C with indigenous yeasts, then aged separately: 36 months in four-year-old American oak barrels for the Tempranillo with six manual rackings, and 30 months for the Garnacha, a fifth of it in new oak, with five rackings, followed by a minimum of three years in bottle. The 2020 vintage ran a long vegetative cycle to perfect phenolic ripening and was officially rated Very Good, giving wines of aromatic intensity with good balance between alcohol and acidity.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16–18°C. It suits roast lamb, braised beef cheek, grilled chorizo, and hard sheep's cheeses such as Manchego. Drinking well now and over the next five to ten years, and an hour in a decanter will open it out.