Winemaker Notes
Medium body, elegant and fruity.
Blend: 80% Tempranillo and 16% Graciano, 4% Viura
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The graciano stands out, showing a balsamic, peppery edge to the ripe but fresh cherry and plum fruit with a touch of rosemary. Juicy and fine-grained, this has medium to full body and savory, nicely chewy tannins. Solid fruit in the finish. A co-fermentation of tempranillo, graciano and viura. Drink from 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The label of the single-vineyard 2023 Finca de Los Locos now has the name of the "paraje" where the vines are, Peñaescalera in Baños de Ebro. It comes from a 2.8-hectare plot planted in 1981 on sandy and gravel soils at 120 meters above sea level. This year, it's 70% Tempranillo, 25% Graciano and 5% white Viura, with more Graciano this time, which possibly contributes to the seriousness of the wine. It comes in at 13.8% alcohol and a pH of 3.42, very good and balanced parameters that imply freshness. It matured in 3,500-liter oak vats for 12 months. It's perfumed and elegant, floral and herbal, with dark fruit and a medium to full-bodied palate with very fine tannins and great harmony.
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Vinous
The 2023 Finca de Los Locos is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Viura from Baños de Ebro, Rioja. Bright and herbal on the nose, it offers cherry, plum, a whisper of oak and a touch of spearmint. Dry and broad, with a defined structure and chalky texture, this combines juiciness and freshness. Here, the precise harvest point helped to produce a refined, layered red despite the warm year.
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.