Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 L.Z. is fermented and aged in cement and includes seasonings of Garnacha and white varieties such as Viura and Malvasia. It offers red currant and pomegranate mixed with clay-like aromas that unfurl teasingly with aeration. The palate is well-balanced with crisp, taut tannins. There is a core of raspberry leaf, citrus peel, chalk and dried orange peel that lead to an electrifying, tense finish. This is a fine entry-level wine.
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.