2011 Cerro Anon Rioja Gran Reserva 750 ml

Every cellar should have some beautifully aged Rioja Gran Reserva, and we will tell you this without hesitation: Our go-to bottle this year is going to be the 2011 Cerro Anon Rioja Gran Reserva.

This wine, which received a 95-point score from the rigorous International Wine Challenge, brings an exceptional amount of quality for the price. Grown in one of Spain’s greatest vintages this century, it’s now drinking in perfect form after a decade in the cellar, offering the classic integration and depth of an aged wine from the iconic Rioja region. 

The Cerro Anon label is reserved for the best, most classically styled wines from Bodegas Olarra, an estate known as “the Cathedral of Rioja” for its central place in the Spanish wine canon and for the grandeur of its buildings.

This release is a fitting reflection of the estate’s nickname, showing off an impressive  architecture of long, velvety tannins that support a spine of remarkably fresh acidity. The Gran Reserva is the product of vines older than 30 years, hailing from the clay soils of Rioja Alta and the limestone soils of Rioja Alavesa, and the tension between those terroirs invests this bottling with subtle richness and firm structure. 

While traditionalist at its core, Bodegas Olarra employs modern touches to give this wine its sumptuous polish. A year in Allier and Missouri new oak and 14 months in older oak barrels was only the warm-up for this wine’s epic, introspective journey in the cellar. Today, the fruits of that long wait are here, and we’re not letting them get past us. You shouldn’t either.