Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Artadi's 2007 Vinas de Gain is 100% Tempranillo sourced from 40- to 60-year-old vines and aged in 40% new French oak for 12-14 months. A saturated purple color, it delivers an expressive bouquet of wood smoke, pencil lead, mineral, blueberry, and blackberry. Layered and full-flavored on the palate, it is nicely balanced with the structure to evolve for 4-6 years. Drink it from 2014 to 2027. It is one of the better values in quality Rioja.
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.