Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 El Carretil is produced with Tempranillo grapes from a single 5.3-hectare, southeast-facing vineyard planted in 1973 in Laguardia at 500 meters altitude. The grapes fermented in open wooden vats and carried out the malolactic fermentation in oak barrels, where it aged for 14 months. This vineyard was, in the 2001 vintage, the source for Grandes Anadas. The southeast orientation makes the influence of the sun not as strong as in La Poza, nor as light as in Valdegines. I found the 2010 very ripe, with notes of damsons, black cherries and black spices, while the palate showed more delineation and freshness, coming back with a mixture of red and black fruit flavors. This is also a big, powerful but balanced wine, with fine-grained tannins, and a chalky sensation, which provide some austerity. It is a beautiful wine. Drink 2014-2024.
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.