Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 LZ is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, and Graciano from the Alavesa region of Rioja. It was fermented and aged for 4-6 months in cement and stainless steel. Asian spices, violets, blackberry, and mineral notes inform the expressive bouquet. It opens in the glass to reveal savory, smooth, ripe, layered fruit and a pleasure-bent personality. Drink this outstanding value over the next 6 years.
The current Telmo Rodriguez collection includes wines produced in eight different DOs, all of them fermented with native yeasts. The fact that quality ranges from excellent to outstanding is a tribute to his talent and attention to detail.
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.