Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is very sexy and fragrant with dark berry fruits. Full body, silky tannins and a gorgeous finish. Open and glorious. Powdery tannins. Plush. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As with the rest of the 2014s, the bottled 2014 La Poza de Ballesteros was quite faithful to the sample I tasted before it was bottled. In this case, the wine continued showing the riper character and more Mediterranean profile of the vineyard. As with most of the single-vineyard wines from the vintage, it was aged in oak barriques for 12 months. The oak feels a little more evident (Carlos explained they used a little more new oak for it), and this is a wine with more fruit—La Poza behaves better in cooler years like 2013. This is rounder, lusher and juicy with structure, more volume and it's quite open and expressive.
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Wine Spectator
Cherry, plum, kirsch and tangerine flavors mingle in this expressive red. Licorice, black tea and mineral notes add interest. Firm tannins and balsamic acidity provide focus. Drink now through 2028.
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.