Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Exuberant aromas with blackberries, cacao and hints of graphite. Dried flowers as well. Polished, superfine tannins and a clean and concentrated finish. Single vineyard. This is racy and refined. A lot of wood tannin underneath, but this will come out beautifully with time.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Warmer vineyards seem to have worked quite well in a cool vintage like 2013, as is the case of the 2013 La Poza de Ballesteros. The wine was clearly marked by the vintage, with some peppery notes, quite austere, López de Lacalle called it 'static'--I'd say more austere and a little backward, and with nice complexity and depth in the finish. This is less exuberant and Mediterranean than in other vintages, but with less acidity than other wines from 2013.
Rating: 92+
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.