Winemaker Notes
#77 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2023
Brilliant ruby color, with russet tones. Mature and elegant, its aromatic richness is changing and subtle, becoming more apparent as the wine breathes. Notes of toast and coconut followed by tertiary aromas (leather, wet earth), and red fruit and dried fruit. Round, silky tannins, persistent and complex aftertaste.
Ideal accompaniment for roast suckling lamb, game, or red meat.
Blend: 90% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This is an immensely satisfying mouthful of wine with sweet vanilla oak, black/red cherry fruit, cassis and blackberry scents. The palate has polished black fruit appeal, sleek oak layering, sandy-grained tannins and a pulsating refined finish. A magnificent wine that will doubtlessly develop slowly and surely.
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James Suckling
Aromas of spiced cherries, blueberries, orange peel, savory plums and some chocolate and vanilla. It’s medium-to full-bodied with creamy tannins. Caressing texture with a fresh core of dark fruit on the center-palate, before a long, juicy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of blackberry, Red Delicious apple peel and menthol prep the palate for flavors of cassis, purple plum, vanilla, violet and eucalyptus. A wall of compact tannins comes on strong but evaporates into a long, minty finish.
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Wine Spectator
Well-balanced and fresh, this medium-bodied version is tightly meshed at first, though opening nicely in the glass to display flavors of ripe cherry and red currant, mocha, iron and spiced orange peel. The lively finish is firmed by fine, taut tannins. Tempranillo and Graciano. Drink now through 2030.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2016 El Coto Coto de Imaz Gran Reserva delivers richness with refined elegance. Notes of fragrant spice and dried blackberry make it a superb pairing for Cordero Asado (Castilian-style roast lamb). (Tasted: December 21, 2024, San Francisco, CA)
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.