Bodega Akutain’s history begins in the early 1970s with its founder, Juan Peñagaricano Akutain. At the time, Akutain was a young man living in the Basque country while working as a traveling salesman in the wine trade. Through his work, the young Akutain forged bonds with the families behind some of the Rioja region’s most storied traditionalist estates, including CVNE and La Rioja Alta. After many years spent visiting the cellars, studying local vineyard techniques, and drinking every bottle of Rioja he could lay his hands on (all the while saving his earnings), Akutain was ready to plant his own vineyards. He spent a few years searching for the perfect site and finally, in 1975, he found his dream property located just west of the village of Haro, the epicenter of Rioja. Here, Akutain planted 6.5 hectares of vineyards to Tempranillo (85%), Garnacha (14+%), and Viura (<1%). Over the years, Juan continued to work as an engineer and salesman while training, pruning, and harvesting his vineyards during off hours. Now, after 41 years of pruning and training alongside his young son, Jon, these same vines are what produce this wine. 

The Akutain family’s vineyards are located at the base of the Sierra Cantabria mountains within the ‘Rioja Alta’ sub-region. This is the most historically important area of Rioja, with high-elevation, clay and limestone dominated vineyards producing fruit for grand estates like Lopez de Heredia. Bodega Akutain’s four small vineyards are perched between 1,500 and 2,000 feet elevation. In addition to the structure and minerality that only limestone can impart, this elevation ensures that Akutain’s wines remain balanced and share little in common with the overheated, barrique-aged, and sometimes almost Port-like wines pumped out by many of Rioja’s “modern” producers. Speaking of barriques, it is mandatory to point out that Akutain does not own a single French Oak barrel. (In an effort to court mainstream global wine tastes, many Rioja producers have transitioned to aging their wines in small French oak barrels over the last two decades.) 

The Akutain family, however, has remained staunchly old school and still practices the Rioja tradition of working exclusively with high-quality oak barrels from our own Appalachian region. This is not just a minor technicality—American oak, while sometimes perceived as unwieldy and dominant in a wine’s youth, is an absolutely necessary aromatic and textural component when a traditional Rioja like this wine reaches adolescence and full maturity. In Tempranillo-based Rioja, American oak’s vanilla and coconut aromas soon evolve and mellow, integrating and eventually disappearing into the wine’s savory and meaty backdrop. Similarly, its once ample oak tannins gradually soften and become a delicate support structure for Rioja’s soft, round fruit. So, one of the great joys of cellaring Rioja is pulling out an older wine that was once muscular, broad shouldered and perhaps too oaky—and appreciating how just 5-10 years have transformed it into something far more sophisticated, complex and soulful. At 12+ years of age, this wine is a perfect example of how in Rioja—with the help of a little time—all these disparate components come together in harmony.

The 2004 Bodega Akutain Rioja Reserva has visibly entered peak maturity, with a crimson core gradually melting into chocolate and translucent orange tones at the rim. With the first ounce poured from a decanter, this wine is brooding tangle of dried cherry, plum cake, gingerbread, salt-cured meats, black tea, dried flowers, sweet red tobacco and a humidor filled with Cohibas. I am particularly fond of its palate—each makes clear that this is not an overripe, slick, “modern” Spanish red. On the contrary, Akutain is holding the candle for the textural rusticity I seek and seldom find in Rioja. The interwoven layers of gently gripping tannins and American oak spice are perfect for a fatty cut of lamb or beef. Most pleasantly, this wine has surprisingly modest alcohol, which makes it a joy to drink, not just sip. I recommend decanting for an hour before serving in large Bordeaux stems. Finally, I want to stress that this wine is a clever cellar addition, a refreshing value compared to equivalent wines from France and Italy. This bottle will easily enjoy another 5-7 years of prime drinking before a slow and gradual decline, making it a great, modestly priced “secret weapon” to keep in one’s stash for unexpected social events and birthdays.