2004 - Artadi Pagos Viejos, Rioja

The 2004 Pagos Viejos is inky purple with a sublime nose of pain grille, spice box, cherries, raspberries, and wild blue fruits. This is followed by a dense, plush, full-flavored, sexy wine with perfect balance and remarkable elegance for a wine so powerful. Although it can be enjoyed now, it deserves a minimum of a decade of cellaring after which it should drink well through 2047. Kudos to Bodegas Artadi for this tour de force! Importer: Eric Solomon, European Cellars, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565

Dark violet. Wild, pungent aromas of red and dark berries, candied cherry, blood orange, dark chocolate, clove and cinnamon, with notes of vanilla and fresh rose. Very firmly built, with impressively deep, sweet red fruit flavors that are almost liqueur-like in their power and breadth. Intensely spicy and sweet on the long, succulent finish, the tannins almost completely absorbed by the luscious fruit. There's no Grandes Anades in '04, so this release includes all of the fruit that would otherwise go into that high-end bottling.