2011 Bodegas Riojanas Monte Real Gran Reserva Rioja 750 ml

Any time we can get our hands on ten-year-old Gran Reserva Rioja, it’s a special occasion. When that wine is Bodegas Riojanas’ Monte Real—a beloved, Wine Access member-favorite—it’s even better. So, it’s with understandable delight that we’re able to offer a tiny amount of their 2011, a wine that’s entering glorious maturity now, but will easily age for another decade.

This 2011 landed on Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Cellar Selections for its bold personality and savory, earthy flavors—ahead of icons like Penfolds Grange and Duckhorn’s Three Palms Merlot. While you’d expect to pay $800+ for the former and $100+ for the latter, we’re able to offer the Monte Real for $35 per bottle.

We’ve come to expect that sort of price-to-quality-to-age ratio from the Monte Real, and the last two vintages we’ve offered sold out in a flash—so clearly we’re not the only ones who love the Riojanas’ dark fruit and tobacco-scented Gran Reservas. Unfortunately, the rest of the world is starting to catch on, and allocations get smaller each release—so don’t assume there will be a “next time” for this to come around.

At ten years old, it’s just starting to hit its stride, opening up in the glass to beautiful fragrances of dried red cherries, roasted plums, aged balsamic, and cigar box. It delivers on the palate too—if you can break free from the aromatic spell. Bold and round on the palate, it’s got a texture that’s grown silky with age. Hints of dried rose, barrel-aged vanilla, and tobacco complement the dark fruit, all leading to a long finish that begs for another sip.

Bodegas Riojanas sits right in the heart of Rioja Alta and was founded in 1890, during the glory years of the region. Since then, it has often set the standard in the best vintages. This 2011 is no different. Jancis Robinson, Master of Wine and the grande dame of British wine writers, praised the year for “powerful, concentrated wines of good quality” thanks to a hot summer and fall.

Riojanas is based in the heart of Rioja, in Cenicero, where vineyards are prized for their combination of Rioja Alta’s elegance and structure and Rioja Alavesa’s power and fruit. Cenicero also sits far enough away from Haro, Rioja’s commercial center, that the estate had a half-century head start to acquire the prime sites around the town.

Bodegas Riojanas' ability to realize the potential of those vineyards is largely due to legendary winemaker Felipe Nalda, who celebrated his 47th vintage while guiding the ‘11 through the sort of ultra-traditional vinification and aging we expect from such a historic house. The wines are fermented in large, upright tinas, before being aged three years in American oak barrica barrels—two steps crucial to allow for the transformation of their powerful Tempranillo into the perfumed, multi-faceted Monte Real we taste a decade later.

Wine Enthusiast called the 2011 an “excellent gran reserva” in their review, with a recommended drinking window through 2030, but it’ll take an awful lot of this wine in the cellar to have any left by then.