The balanced, young and elegant 2016 Reserva mixes characteristics from classical and more modern Rioja reds, fruit and herbs, spicy oak and some complexity and a medium-bodied palate with very good freshness and fine tannins. It's riper than you think at 14.5% alcohol and has a pH of 3.7. It fermented in concrete and matured in French barrels for 18 months. 100,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in autumn 2020.

I tasted again the red 2014 Reserva, which seems to have integrated in bottle since I tasted it some 16 months ago. It's a lighter expression of Valenciso that is developing more complex aromas, and the acidity and tannins are slowly being resolved. They say it's the most modern among the classics and the most classic among modern Reservas. I agree. 110,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in the spring of 2019.

2012 was a warm and dry year, when some vines were blocked and stopped ripening the grapes. Surprisingly enough, many wines have retained more freshness than what the natural conditions of the year anticipated. Valenciso's 2012 Reserva has more stuffing and power than the 2011 and comes from a year that was saved by some rains in September and big temperature contrasts between day and night. It's very tasty, almost salty (the words of Jean Gonon from St Joseph saying "our wines are salty, to be enjoyed with food. There is no room for sweetness in our wines," comes to my mind). It's a modern classical Rioja in the making, still young but showing some development and incipient complexity. These wines develop slowly and nicely in bottle and seem to hit the spot after some eight years after the harvest.

I was quite pleasantly surprised by the 2011 Reserva, a wine from an extremely warm year when ripe and excessively developed wines abound. This 2011 seems to have improved with bottle age, and its elegant and balanced side definitely wins over the ripeness of the year. The oak feels very integrated and the palate terribly balanced. A great 2011.

The 2009 Reserva from Valenciso is a classic Rioja produced with grapes from Rioja Alta in search of the classical profile combining freshness, elegance and power. 2009 was a warm and healthy harvest when they picked earlier to keep the freshness. The destemmed but uncrushed grapes fermented in cement tanks where it underwent malolactic. It matured in one-third new French oak barrels for some 17 months. There are some notes of leather, licorice and fountain pen ink, over a core of ripe berry fruit, with some spicy notes from the oak and a faint animal character. The palate is medium-bodied with some dusty, slightly rustic tannins and a dry finish. 99,000 bottles produced.