The flagship wines of this bodega are their 904 and 890 Gran Reservas. These wines spend 8-10 years in cask and are then bottle aged even longer. They are beautifully made wines with a complexity not unlike a mature vintage of a top class Bordeaux Graves. The 1987 Gran Reserva 904 possesses a phenomenal set of aromatics (it merits a score in the mid-nineties on the bouquet), but there is a certain shortness in the mouth. Nevertheless, I can enthusiastically recommend this medium garnet-colored wine. It offers up a beautiful cedary, tobacco, smoky, leathery, jammy cherry-scented nose, as well as elegant, medium-bodied, round flavors that are surprisingly fresh and youthful for an eleven-year old wine. Although it requires some introspection, it is an extremely finesse-styled Rioja that should continue to drink well for 7-8 years. Readers must recognize that this traditionally run firm tends to make wines that have spent considerable time in oak, and are much lighter-colored, more mature, and clearly ready to drink when released. The antithesis of modern-day fruit and oak-driven wines, they are all characterized by soft, tobacco, cedary, cigar-box-scented noses, with sweet fruit, and light garnet/ruby colors with amber edges. However, do not judge these offerings by their feeble colors, as they are very aromatic, and their flavors are nuanced and complex. Importer: A Christopher Cannan Selection, Europvin USA, Watertown, MA; tel. (617) 924-7620