La Rioja Alta, Gran Reserva 904, 2015

Katie here. Some wines are so special, you just have to visit them again. And some occasions are so special, you need a very special wine for them.

I have had many truly wonderful wines, but I always come back to this one as one of my all time favorites. I’ve reviewed it here before, but when I had it again last night, I couldn’t help but start singing its praises again and wanting to share it with everyone.

We found this wine years ago with a very good friend of ours, and over the years, one of us often brings it out again when we get together. So it only seemed appropriate to bring it out last night, when our friend came over for one last time before he heads to the South Pole Sunday for the rest of the year.

La Rioja Alta, Gran Reserva 904, 2015

Seriously can’t say how much I love this wine

This wine embodies everything I love about Rioja. For me, it always makes me think of fresh, damp cedar mulch, and it makes me think of walking through damp woods with sunlight streaming through… You also get warm strawberries and red cherries, like you just picked them ripe in the orchard, as well as sweet tobacco, baking spices, and dill (the herb, not the pickle). This is a complex, very flavorful wine with a long, beautiful finish. It’s everything I want in a Rioja, and it feels to me like settling back into a favorite comfortable armchair.

We savored this wine again last night and reminisced about past times we enjoyed this wine together. Of course, a big part of how much you like a wine is the experience you’re having at the time. So maybe part of why I love this wine so much is the nostalgia for all the wonderful times I’ve enjoyed this wine in the past—but that’s why wine is so great.

Clearly, others have also discovered our “Finer Things Club” favorite, as we used to be able to get this bottle for $65! If you want to buy it now (which I can’t recommend highly enough), it sells for $95 at Jacob Liquor.

Cheers, my friend. Have a great year at the South Pole, and we’ll plan on toasting again in December!!