Campo Viejo Reserva 2004 - Waitrose

As I look at the Campo Viejo 2004 Reserva today, I am somewhat flung back in time. That is, I am reminded of the very upmarket car reviews we used to read in the Sunday Times as young boys, whereupon we would always see Jeremy Clarkson talk about sports cars. One article I remember lusted after several different models of Mercedes SL. 'The 2.8','The 3.5', 'The 4.2', 'The 5.0' and.....of course the rude boy.....'The 6.0.'

This wine has a 'really good' blackcurrant and cream nose, chocolate covered blackcurrants, cream, and a hint of flowers, with perfect bracing acidity on the palate. This is some excellent shit! I really liked the '01, but tonight the '04 is the best Campo Viejo Reserva I have ever tasted. And of course this is from a great Spanish vintage.

Now, as you fine wine lovers will know, there is something about a 'really good' nose which all wines with sensational aromatic profiles have in common. But it isn't a particular flavour. It is more akin to a drug-like experience which seems 'extremely fresh and yet sophisticated.' It gives one a very particular lift, and presses a very particular button. You raise the glass to your nose quickly and inhale. Then you say 'whoah,' and you need a second or third try just to check it really was that good, after which you put the glass down, but this time quite slowly, maybe really really slowly, with a 'seriously impressed' Roger-Moore-style expression on your face.

With such a wine, one will keep returning, time and again, to the glass, without actually feeling that one even needs to take a sip. You pick the glass up slowly, just to figure out if it was really that good. Just to smell it is enough.

Anyway, this wine reminds me a little of experiences like the above. It is a beautiful wine, smooth as hell, so well balanced. If a traditional Rioja producer attempted to do a Tertre Roteboeuf copy, but with a medium-heavyweight level of concentration and good acidity, this might be it. Because this really tastes like coffee/chocolate cream. But if your 'new world' alarm bells are ringing, just buy a bottle and taste it - that is not what this wine is about. (OK - I lied...this is modern oaky full on creamy shit, but if you like it, and you know you do, this is the knackers...)

'When I grow up, I want to have the fat 6 litre Merc.' I always used to think to myself as a young boy. but Clarkson was there in print, putting me straight, saying, 'The 4.2 has the best engine, the 4.,2 works best with the chassis, the 4.2 is the pick of the bunch.'

And this very thought brings me back to the Campo Viejo Reserva 2004.

Over the years, I have worked my way through many bottles of the Campo Viejo Gran Reserva, from multiple vintages. An excellent wine with a lovely silver label.

Whilst I am certain that Rioja connoisseurs would probably laud the top wine, I am going to take a contrarian stance and say 'It's got too much high quality oak, it has too much flavour, it has too much class,it has too much everything'

For whilst the Gran Reserva may be the big boy, the Reserva is the one you should get - tonight, it just really works.

Campo Viejo Reserva 2004 - 8/10 Waitrose £7.50 on offer.