Viña Otano, Rioja (La Rioja Spain) Graciano 2018

 This house releases a wide range of wines including traditional bottlings as well as single-variety reds and superb aged whites.  The potential excellence of Graciano as a stand-alone variety has been slowly coming to awareness among lovers of Spanish wines, but only because producers like this are providing it with a solo turn.  The 2018 release is sourced from 50+ year old, head pruned vines, and was aged for 24 months in French oak.  This will be something new for most who taste it, and a delightful surprise, as it shows Graciano’s ability to combine dark color, dark fruit tones, and a touch of savory earthiness along with bright, lifted acidity and excellent freshness.  There’s a lot of fine-grained tannin offering grip in the finish, so this isn’t a red wine for fish, but neither does it require a rack or leg of lamb.  I’ve only seen one other review of this wine, written by John Gillman in his View from the Cellar publication.  I’ve never met him, but often find my ratings very close to him, though we differ markedly in our recommendations regarding when wines will be ready for enjoyment and when that window may close.  For this already-enjoyable wine, his recommendation is to hold until 2030 (by which time I may be dead), with a back-end date of “2075+” (by which time our entire species may have vanished from the earth).  Only time will tell, so buy at least two bottles and bequeath one to a grandchild to give to an offspring to try.  Gillman is good, so let’s hope someone can beam results to us when we’re off in the Great Beyond!