Bodega Akutain, Rioja Reserva

Rioja, like Bordeaux, is a wine-producing machine with hundreds of estates churning out millions of gallons per annum. Still, the best producers in the region offer some of the most refined and longest-lived wines on the planet—we’ve offered many—but they, too, tend to be large-scale operations. Except Bodega Akutain. They are as “garagiste” as Rioja gets.Here’s the rare bodega whose artisanal scale means it’s been years since we’ve been able to secure enough “Reserva” for an offer (as for “Gran Reserva,” nobody even knows when that day will come; to my knowledge, ’04 is still their current release!). So, yes, today’s 2015 bottling is an exciting affair, and well worth the wait: Bristling with dark berries and spice, its glorious perfume and irresistible savoriness is an unadorned masterclass in Tempranillo perfection. It has all the head-spinning complexity of any of the big boys’ top-end bottlings with a deep, soulful core belying its farmstead origins. And while it’s drinking beauti