Have you ever felt that slightly nauseating feeling you get when you think that you’ve paid too much for something while realising that there’s a cheaper alternative that’s just as good?

A friend of mine recently faced this dilemma when the penny dropped that two different Red Rioja Reserva’s he buys were both made by the same legendary producer, La Rioja Alta, for two different labels, one for Majestic and the other for the Wine Society.

He asked for my help in resolving this question and sent me a sample bottle of each for analysis to help decide if there was any difference and whether the extra spend was justified. As you’d expect there’s not a binary answer to this question and if there was this would make for a very short Blog post!

Both wines were opened and decanted for approximately an hour before tasting.

Majestic Definition (own label) Rioja Reserva 2013, £13.99 a bottle or £11.99 on a mixed case of 6 or £10.49 when buying a case on their Lock In plan.

An IWC 2018 Silver Winner, the Majestic Definition Rioja Reserva 2013 is a blend with the majority being Tempranillo. Despite its younger biological age, the wine tastes and smells more evolved than the 2011. The 2013 vintage was cool and wet in Rioja with a smaller harvest and fruit quality may have been down. 13.5% abv.

Tasting Note:

Appearance: Ruby

Nose: Medium+ intensity of forest floor, tobacco, vegetal notes, smoke, clove, dried blackberry with plums and red cherries. Developing

Palate: Dry, high acidity, medium+ tannin, high alcohol, full bodied and long finish. Pronounced intensity of more tertiary aromas; forest floor, wet leaves, dried blackberry, smoke and clove, spice, and hints of vanilla.

Conclusion: With great balance, length, intensity and complexity this is an outstanding wine drinking well now with the potential for a little further ageing maybe for a maximum of 2 years.

The Wine Society Exhibition Reserva 2011, £15.50 a bottle

 Made from 100% Tempranillo it still tastes incredibly youthful although still in a developing style. What distinguishes it from the Majestic is the primary red and black fruits (red cherry and blackberry) and the tertiary notes which combine cooked fruit jammy aromas with complex cedar vanilla (from the American oak) and forest floor. The 2011 vintage was officially excellent and may explain the brighter jammier fruit also appears more balanced than 2013. 13.5%

Tasting Note:

Appearance: Ruby

Nose: Medium+ intensity of forest floor, tobacco, vanilla and cooked blackberry.

Palate: Dry, high acidity, medium+ tannin, high alcohol, full bodied and long finish. Pronounced intensity led by bright red and black fruits; red cherry, blackberry, some smoke, cedar, vanilla, and a little forest floor.

Conclusion: With great balance, length, intensity and complexity this is an outstanding wine drinking well now with the potential for further ageing for a decade or more.

So was the higher spend on the Wine Society Reserva justified?

1.  The cheaper Majestic wine is drinking well now albeit with a lower potential to age.

2. If you like your Rioja with more brighter fruit in its youth or prepared to cellar 6 bottles or so then the Wine Society may be a better bet! It will be sure to yield a higher level of complexity in due course as it evolves.

It’s important to note that although the same winery makes these two wines they are are in fact very different wines. I suspect the Wine Society buyers bought a large consignment of 2011 when released in 2014/2015 and then decided to cellar for a further 2 years before release. There’s a premium to be paid for this as it ties up space and capital but the consumer is able to access older better vintages with low risk of them having to judge whether the vintage is good or bad. As a comparison London wine merchants charge an average of £13 per case of 12 per annum for storage adding roughly £1 to bottle price for year stored.

After the analysis was complete my wife and I finished off the Wine Society wine with a delicious aged rare sirloin steak. I returned the 2/3 bottle of the Majestic Definition Reserva to the bottle from the decanter and with a good degree of oxygen left in the bottle even after vacuum sealing left it in the fridge for a few days before opening and bringing back to a temperature of around 18C and serving without further decanting. The results were both surprising and unexpected. The wine had all the tertiary developed notes that were there two days earlier but a little gentle oxidation had somehow reinvigorated the fruit in a way that in my humble opinion enhanced the end product. I rarely leave a bottle to evolve after opening, choosing to take the assured pleasure of the here and now over the anticipated enhanced pleasure of tomorrow!

It reminded me of something I had been told by  Alex Starey, winemaker at Keermont Vineyards in Stellenbosch,  that he will often try to leave enough wine in the bottle at the end of an evening so that he can see how it will evolve over the next 24-48 hours. Great advice and something that I’ll try to practice a little more in future!!