Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As soon as I was pouring, I knew the 2022 Carramonte was going to be my favorite, because of the bright color and the bright and elegant aromas. It was produced with the fruit from old vines in Elvillar (70 years old) and Laguardia (ungrafted 90-year-old vines) and another one in Laguardia planted 50 years ago and a little Garnacha from Badarán, micro-plots with field blends of grapes—Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha and Viura. It's serious and balanced and does not transmit any heat at all, coming through as fresh and fine-boned, with very elegant tannins, precision and freshness, terribly precise and mineral. It doesn't feel like a 2022 at all. Like most reds, it matured in used 500-liter oak barrels.
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James Suckling
Mussel shells, oysters, white pepper, chalk and lots of black cherries. There is richness of fruit, which probably shows the warmth of the year. The crushed sweet blueberries and cherries are tightly rounded by nicely chewy tannins, which are abundant and chalky. More powerful than the San Gines. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Spectator
There's a compact feel to this stylish red, with chalky underlying tannins tightly meshed to the flavors of black raspberry paste, pomegranate puree and black olive that open nicely in the glass. Expands on the palate, showing fragrant violet, sage, white pepper and paprika notes, plus a streak of minerality that echoes on the finish. Best from 2027 through 2040.
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.