Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The red blend 2023 Anza was produced with Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, Malvasía, Calagraño, Viura and Moscatel grapes from the zones of Laguardia and Elvillar, produced in a fresh and direct style with no makeup. It fermented with some stems by plot and zones and matured in used 500-liter barrels and oak vats of different sizes for 12 months. They had 568 liters of rain in 2023, which also saw mild temperatures, save for a 12-day heat wave at the end of August, followed by a rainy September and October. The wine is clean, open, aromatic and nuanced. None of the reds show any aromatic influence from the wood. It has a contained 13.5% alcohol and a very balanced, medium-bodied and elegant palate, with very fine tannins.
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.