Also Recommended
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Product Name
Vintage
Price
Varietal
Country
Region
Appellation
Size
Additional Discount
Original Item
2008
$18.84
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
N/A
Better Price, Same Score
2016
$16.94
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
24B / $16.72
Better Score, Similar Price
2016
$19.60
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
Best QPR in Price range
2010
$18.35
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
More wines available from La Rioja Alta
Pre-Arrival
La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 890 1995
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$264.25
Rated 96 - Tasted twice, the 1995 Gran Reserva 890 is a blend of 95% Tempranillo (from Brinas, Labastida and...
Pre-Arrival
La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904 1998
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$154.12
Rated 95 - The 1998 Gran Reserva 904 is a blend of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano aged in American cask for four...
Pre-Arrival
La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904 2000
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$98.45
Rated 92 - Bright red. Sexy, oak-spiced aromas of raspberry, cherry compote and pipe tobacco. Smoky, sweet and...
Pre-Arrival
La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904 2001
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$127.28
Rated 97 - This is a very complete wine with such beautiful length and intensity. It’s compact and very driven with...
Pre-Arrival
La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904 2004
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$90.51
Rated 96 - The 2004 Gran Reserva 904 is Tempranillo from Brinas, Labastida and Villalba balanced with 10% Graciano...
More Details
Winery
La Rioja Alta
Vintage: 2008
2008 saw very high yields across wineries in much of the southern hemisphere, as a result of highly favorable climatic conditions. Although in many areas, these high yields brought with them something of a drop in overall quality, this could not be said for South Australia's wines, which were reportedly excellent. Indeed, the 2008 Shiraz harvest in South Australia is said to be one of the most successful in recent decades, and western Australia's Chardonnays are set to be ones to watch out for. New Zealand's Pinot Noir harvest was also very good, with wineries in Martinborough reportedly very excited about this particular grape and the characteristics it revealed this year.
Pinot Noir also grew very well in the United States, and was probably the most successful grape varietal to come out of California in 2008, with Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley delivering fantastic results from this grape. Elsewhere in United States, Washington State and Oregon had highly successful harvests in 2008 despite some early worries about frost.
However, it was France who had the best of the weather and growing conditions in 2008, and this year was one of the great vintages for Champagne, the Médoc in Bordeaux, Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence, with Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay grapes leading the way. Italy, too, shared many of these ideal conditions, with the wineries in Tuscany claiming that their Chianti Classicos of 2008 will be ones to collect, and Piedmont's Barberesco and Barolo wines will be recognized as amongst the finest of the past decade.
Varietal: Tempranillo
For millennia, the Tempranillo grape varietal has been esteemed and revered by winemakers in their native Spain. These grapes are packed full of intense and fascinating flavors, often rewarding wine drinkers with notes of tobacco, leather, plum and herbs alongside their spicy and full bodied character. Their thick, black skins result in their wines being very deep red in color, and often high in tannins. As such, Tempranillo grapes are usually blended with other fine varietals to produce exceptionally balanced and delicious blended wines, such as those found in La Riot and other important wine regions around the world. Despite them being a notoriously tricky varietal to grow, their popularity continues to increase, and winemakers continue to impress the world with this excellent example of a red wine grape.
Region: La Rioja
The wines of La Rioja have been famed throughout the world for many centuries, due to their excellence of flavor and deep, complex character. La Rioja is a green and fertile region of Spain, situated on the north of the country, yet sheltered from the cold and wet Atlantic oceanic influences by the expansive Cantabrian mountain range near the coast. La Rioja's most famous and widely loved grape varietal is the Tempranillo, which is grown in the majority of the vineyards in the region. However, many of the best wines of La Rioja are blended varieties, often featuring the aromatic Garnacha varietal for added perfume. The region also produces several extremely fine white wines, usually made from the Viura varietal grape, which are aged in barrels for extra flavor and aroma.
Country: Spain
Spanish wines are renowned world-wide for carrying all the passion and character of the Spanish culture within them. Any lover of Spanish wine would undoubtedly be able to confirm this notion, as the variety and range of flavors and aromas coming from the high end of Spanish produce is truly impressive, and continues to delight and fascinate both newcomers and the more experienced. Spain benefits massively from an ideal climate for wine production and vine cultivation, with its long, scorching hot summers and far reaching oceanic breezes working perfectly with the native and imported grape varietals, which thrive on the mineral rich soils that cover much of the country. With centuries of knowledge, and generations of expertise under their belts, Spanish wineries continue to focus on raising the quality of their nation's wines, helped along the way by relatively new laws and regulations regarding regional excellence and representativeness.