Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The eponymous 2018 Artuke is a carbonic maceration red from a generous crop, mostly Tempranillo with some 5% Viura from vineyards in the village of Baños de Ebro. It was kept in concrete for three to six months before bottling, as there are up to six bottlings. 2018 was a challenging year with high humidity and issues with mildew that, in a way, limited the crops and helped to balance the yields. The key here was good weather during the harvest in October. They started harvesting on October 4th and finished on the 29th (with Paso Las Mañas). It's aromatic, with good ripeness and a juicy personality. There are notes of licorice and blueberries rather than red fruit, and it's nicely textured. Very good value. 70,000 bottles produced.
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.