Enjoy until 2016
The odd thing about Vina Arana Reserva La Rioja Alta 2001 is that on first sip it isn't so much Rioja you think of as Red Burgundy. It reminded me of one of the most delicious wines I've ever been lucky enough to taste, a 2000 Clos des Lambrays... The similarity wasn't so much in the taste as in the texture – this is the smoothest, silkiest, most fluid of Riojas. It has the same racy flow, that flawless rush, you sometimes find in Riesling... and which people love to find, and all too rarely do, in a Pinot Noir... La Rioja Alta, the Bodega, has been around for almost 120 years and the wine has a certain old-fashioned quality – despite its fluency, it contains flavours that make me think of russet leaves, damp straw and strawberries left unpicked for so long they overripen. Look, I guess I'm saying I liked it. Victoria Moore - The Guardian