2009 Roda Reserva

The wine that was once called Roda II has been since 2002 simply Roda and the current release is the 2009 Roda Reserva. It has plenty of complex and expressive notes of beef blood, bright red berries that are perfectly ripe with hints of fennel, Mediterranean herbs, a touch of aniseed and very good freshness. The medium-bodied palate is incredibly harmonious offering both volume and freshness. This wine has some 10% Graciano. Great showing of Roda today, the surprise of the tasting. 94,828 bottles were filled in July 2011.||I met with general director Agustín Santolaya to taste Roda's latest releases. He's been there with the team since 1992 and they are still the same. The project is very much about continuity, and very much about common sense and (updated) tradition: all the wines are fermented in oak vats, all natural yeast. Santolaya thinks that to be classic you need to start being modern; López de Heredia, when they started were utterly modern and innovative. Their wines clearly show the Rioja character as they age in bottle. We always discuss the recent vintages a bit, and how the older wines are evolving. 2013 is globally acknowledged as a difficult vintage for Rioja, but for him 2014 is also a complicated and heterogeneous vintage with a lot of rain during the harvest, perhaps as difficult as 2013, because of the rain during the harvest. Of course, 2013 was cold, rainy, and extremely difficult. 2012 is fresher than 2011 and with more rain and he compares it to 2006. Having opened the comparisons, he tells me that 2011 could be similar to 2005. 2008 was truly an Atlantic and cold vintage and it might be somewhat similar to 1997.| The only "recent" change is Sela, born in 2008, as the vineyards they planted early on were already aged 15 to 25 years and the grapes they produced deemed good enough to carry the Roda name. There are two vineyards in Haro (90,000 bottles ) with the idea to obtain a more approachable wine, fine and drinkable, matured exclusively in used barrels. Again, this is a project about stability and consistency, even though their wines often contradict the general idea I have about vintages and I find myself preferring wines that, on paper, would not be my favorite. That's the beauty of vintages. eRobertParker.com.April, 2015

The 2009 Roda reflects a warm vintage with jammy black fruit, soft balsamic notes and faint spice. Firm tannins add grip, though it is ripe and slightly dry with broad flavor and modest evolution. It will likely maintain this profile for years to come.