Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Altos de Lanzaga has already been positively reviewed by my predecessor and I back that up all the way. Sourced from a single, propitious parcel of 70-year-old vines, it has a raspberry, wild strawberry and crushed stone-scented bouquet armed with exquisite delineation and purity, unfurling with each swirl of the glass. The palate has firm grip on the entry, but the acidity lends it immense poise and freshness with notes of dark cherry, balsamic and a touch of marmalade on the tense finish. Rioja wine does not get much better than this?unless it happens to be its 2007 or 2009 counterparts! Drink now-2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
The price on this high-flying Rioja continues to go through the roof, and so does the oak and tannin. And while we still appreciate the wine’s intensity and power, this vintage pushes so much espresso, burnt nut and rubber that it probably won’t impress all comers. In the mouth, look for dark, almost bitter black-fruit flavors followed by a firm, tannic finish. Needs time in the cellar to find more integration.
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.