Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fine mixture of minerals, thyme, rosemary, spices, black cherries and blueberries. Showing a bit more herbs and fluidity in the middle, rounded by fine and seamless tannins. Chalky and melted with a vivid, mineral focus in the end. Tempranillo. From organically grown grapes. Can drink now, but better after 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Valdeginés comes from an east-facing plot of five hectares opposite La Poza de Ballesteros. The plot was planted 35 to 40 years ago at 600 meters in altitude in the village of Laguardia, and it gets the morning sun. 2019 is a fresh and fruit-driven vintage. Despite the warmth of the year and the lack of water, it has ripe fruit. And it has 14.65% alcohol and mellow acidity, but the palate is not heavy; it's quite fluid. It's harmonious and with very fine and round tannins. A gentle and elegant Valdeginés with lots of licorice, which seems to be the character of the year. The wines are quite approachable and ready in general, but this over delivers. Best After 2022
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.