Viña Otano, Rioja DOC Reserva (Spain) Graciano 2014

 I absolutely adored this wine, and my guess is that the winemaking team did also, and quite possibly bottled it as a varietal Graciano wine because they couldn’t bear to pour the barrels of this into a blend.  It was not cold stabilized, and has thrown plenty of (utterly harmless) tartaric crystals unlike the other red releases from this house, which may offer further evidence for the idea that this was a labor of love in the winery.  In any case, the toast and spice on the nose let you know you’re in Rioja, but the plush, soft, ultra-inviting texture and the open fruit flavors reveal a wine that’s quite distinctive for the region.  After displaying lovely aromas of ripe fruit and restrained oak and light floral scents, it shows beautiful deep color and excellent physical density.  The fruit is exceptionally pure and charmingly sweet (but not sugary), and this sweetness keeps the polished tannins at bay through the very persistent, completely charming finish.  This gets better with time and air, but mostly because it gets more integrated, not because it needs to open or soften much, and frankly, it is also delicious as soon as you can get it out of the bottle and into a glass.  It may get better in the years ahead, but it earned its score of 94 based on sheer deliciousness right now.