While I thought the 2004 Roda Reserva was a touch better than the 05, it’s the opposite with Roda I. I did a fair bit of preparation with this bottle: decanted for 3 hours, then back in the bottle, off to La Luna for dinner, back into a decanter while we drank a handy half bottle of Ca del Bosco, then into the glass. Overall, the 05 is a more structured and complete wine at this stage, it has also eaten just about all the oak thrown at it. The 04 is obsessed with fruit, tannins and oak at the moment (in a very good way!) and needs time to integrate.

Again, I’ve had this a couple of times now, but this was clearly the best bottle so far. I had a very good bottle in Rioja with some chuletillas al sarmiento, lamb chops cooked over vine cuttings. Sounds simples, but the lamb in Northern Spain is something else. These things are so popular they have a facebook page with over 1,000 fans! Have a look here for some more details on the food of Rioja from the guys at Catavino.

On first pour into the decanter there was wofts of dark cherry, plum and cola with not much else going on. Fast forward to the last glass of the night it was showing loads of violets and roses with layers of cinnamon and nutmeg, chocolate, dried herbs, and pencil shavings. Not a lot of obvious oak notes. The palate is full of rich flavours, but the wine remains savoury. Plush velour-like tannins with seemingly perfect balance. And that is the key here, it’s all balanced and well sorted for a long life in the cellar. You can drink now, just give it a good decant, but ideally you’d cellar this for 5 years then drink over the following 15.  95+ Pts.

Source: The Spanish Acquisition Cost: $125 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.roda.es