Olarra Clasico Rioja Grand Reserva, 2016

This has faint resemblance to the Rioja Gran Reservas I enjoyed with great pleasure in the 1970s and early 1980s. But it is a good wine in its own right and well worth the $12.99 I paid for it at Costco.

Deep and dark with almost purple tones. Ripe red and black raspberries and coffee oak. Also some mature notes of leather and raisins in the bouquet. Gran Reservas that I remember from the 1970s spent several years in old American oak barrels that gave them strong smells and flavors of vanilla and dried dill. This wine, I suspect. has been matured, at least in part, in new French oak barrels that have imparted a more modern, international profile. Ripe red and black fruit on a long and elegant finish