Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 K4 is a single vineyard red from a one-hectare plot in the village of Ábalos, located at the foot of the Sierra Cantabria at some 660 meters altitude and planted in 1950. It's more floral; it has 10% Graciano (which was replanted replacing dead vines) on top of the Tempranillo, and there is clay with some 10% active limestone. The 2014 was aged entirely in one 600-liter oak barrel so the oak is much better integrated than in the past. This is rounder and more fruit-driven than Los Locos, with rounder tannins and a gentler palate. This is approachable and juicy, easy to understand.
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.