Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Better is the 2007 Antano Reserva, based on 90% Tempranillo aged for 24 months in barrel. It has an attractive bouquet of blackberry, spice and cooked meat with impressive lift and vivacity. The palate is well-balanced, with seamlessly integrated oak that allows the terroir to come through. Nicely balanced with a gentle, understated finish, this is a fine, traditional, understated Rioja Reserva. Drink now-2017.
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.