Winemaker Notes
A great commitment to excellence translated into an elegant and precise wine that dazzles with its appealing fragrance and indelible finish.
Pairs beautifully with milk-fed lamb chops with buttermilk, asparagus and red wine; suckling pig confit with its crunchy skin and caramelized apple.
Blend: 82% Tempranillo, 8% Graciano, 7% Mazuelo, 3% Garnacha
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Harmonious, textbook Rioja that shows cedar, spiced strawberries, vanilla and plums. Really polished on the palate, with fresh acidity and a linear, lengthy finish. Very subtle extraction makes this a really balanced, harmonious Rioja that’s appealing now. But the balance will help it age well for the next few years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Rioja Reserva, their flagship wine, comes from the 300 hectares of estate vineyards. Here, Tempranillo is the backbone, making up 82% of the blend in the low-yielding vintage of 2019, complemented with 8% Graciano, 7% Mazuelo and 3% Garnacha. It has controlled ripeness at 14% alcohol, with a pH of 3.65 and 5.1 grams of acidity. I loved the aromatics here—floral and elegant, more in the style of the 2018 than the 2019. it's lighter, more elegant, fine-boned and has a silky texture and very fine tannins. Both 2019 and 2020 are very good, but 2020 is more my style. 980,000 bottles produced. It was bottled after 21 months in American oak barrels.
Rating: 94+
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.
