La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva 2015

I really like this wine! I wrote down a few notes while I was drinking it. The descriptive words that came to my mind were: Sour cherry, raspberry, pomegranate, cranberry, astringent, a good whiff of alcohol, very drinkable. What did the experts say?

 A rich nose of raspberry, crushed strawberry, blueberry, coconut, cedar and sweet spice. It’s medium-to full-bodied with fine tannins and fresh acidity. Creamy, balanced and layered with vibrant, spicy character. Long and polished.  (8/2021)94 points Wine Advocate

 I tasted two vintages of their sleek and polished blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha, the oldest of which is the 2015 Viña Ardanza Reserva. It’s a blend of 78% Tempranillo and 22% Garnacha (because they found that they needed a little more volume in the wine) from a powerful, warm and ripe year, very interesting to compare with the 2016. They consider 2015 a very good vintage; they compare it with 2001, a year when they produced all the wines. There are three wines from 2015, and there is something in common in all thee wines. The grapes were picked in mid-October and put through optical sorting to ferment followed by malolactic until the end of the year. The wine matured in used American oak barrels—the Tempranillo for 36 months with six manual rackings and the Garnacha for 30 months with five rackings. I find it to be more tertiary, with hints of leather and cured meat and a little wild, very spicy… (LG)  (7/2022)94 points Vinous

 Deep magenta. An intensely perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black raspberry, cherry cola, potpourri, tobacco and exotic spices, plus a smoky mineral flourish. Sweet and broad in the mouth, offering lush red and blue fruit, spicecake, mocha and coconut flavors that firm up on the back half. Finishes extremely long and spicy, with resonating florality, gently chewy tannins and lingering oak spice notes. (JR)  (4/2021)93 points Decanter

 Bright beacon of freshness, layers of dark cherry fruit, with hints of a bright Garnacha. Fine and soft tannin, lots of mocha and cacao. Juicy, lively, with a long finish. A model blend, excellent. (Panel Tasting)  (11/2021)92 points John Gilman

 Viña Ardanza was the first bottling of Rioja I bought and drank with frequency, as the 1978 vintage of this wine was widely available when I was first starting out in the wine trade during my college days. The 2015 Viña Ardanza Reserva is a lovely wine, coming in at 14.5 percent alcohol in this riper Rioja vintage and delivering a fine nose of raspberries, smoked meats, cigar smoke, Rioja spice tones, a fine base of soil and a nice foundation of oak- both American and French in origin. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and focused, with a good core of fruit, broad shoulders, ripe, buried tannins and a long, complex and very nicely balanced finish. This bottling always has a bit more garnacha in its cépages, which it gives it a touch more robust personality than the wine below, but still all of the complexity and aging potential one might expect from a La Rioja Alta workhorse bottling. Fine juice.  (5/2022)91 points Wine Spectator

 This smooth red has a balsamic undertone, with dried cherry, herb, tobacco and anise notes mixed with sanguine and woodsy details. A refined, traditional style red. (GS)  (9/2021)