1998 Roda Reserva

The 1998 Roda II Reserva has a soft nose of leather, decayed red berry fruit, bergamot and a touch of wild mushroom that is well-defined and fresh. The palate is medium-bodied with a dry, leathery entry. It seems fully mature with dusty, grainy tannins and an attractive, spicy, peppery finish that needs to shows a little more presence. Drink now-2017. The wines from Bodegas Roda should need no introduction. “We want to offer consistency,” winemaker Gonzalo Lainez told me. “We own and control 28 different vineyards and we choose the best seventeen every year. The Reserva is more red fruit character, more gastronomic. Other single vineyards that have a black fruit character are not so easy to find at an early stage and are blended into Roda I. So vineyards can end up in either, or be sold off. We work under three tenets. We like acidity in our wines, the oak must play a secondary role and the most important, supple tannins.” I enjoyed the wines of Roda, but to be frank, I often found myself searching for a sense of personality, as if the wines were somehow pre-designed instead of working with what Mother Nature gifts. They are highly pleasurable, but in an age where high-end consumers are looking for wines that say something, I would like to see the wines from Roda opening their mouths. Moreover, I do detect the oak too often, analogous to a supporting actor reading the leading actor’s lines. These tasting notes derive from samples that were mostly tasted twice in the UK. Importer: Kobrand, New York, NY; www.kobrandwine.com