Winemaker Notes
Sensations of vibrancy. A penetrating wine. Intertwined mature tannins. An easy-going structure with a succulent finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Excellent depth here showing iodine, mussel shells, hibiscus, spices and lots of black and blue fruit. Chalky tannins aplenty on the palate with a structured and melted finish. Full-bodied, tight but crunchy. Focused, assertive and long.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I also tasted the 2020 Quintanilla, a wine that looked really superb from barrel, floral, aromatic and elegant, with round tannins, fine-boned, balanced and harmonious. This is from a 1.99-hectare plot in Elvillar that was planted in 1951 on limestone and clay soils with a sandstone mother rock at some 75 centimeters from the top. It's very aromatic with notes of cinnamon, a lactic touch and a medium-bodied palate with very fine, abundant and chalky tannins.
Rating: 93+
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.