Winemaker Notes
LZ is a tribute to the village grape growers of the 1920's. A wine fermented in small concrete tanks with selected grapes from their organic vineyards in the village of Lanziego. With LZ, they want to keep alive that memory of taste.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
From relatively young bush vines of Tempranillo, Graciano, and Garnacha, the little brother to the producer’s Lanzaga, the medium-bodied 2023 LZ exhibits a richness of brooding black fruit, nearly a dried fruit character to it. Floral in violet, it’s also savory and dark, with ample body weight and breadth across the palate, with no oak, aged only in concrete. It’s complex yet fresh and direct, ready to enjoy in its youth and over the next 15-20 years.
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James Suckling
This wine has an exuberant nose featuring vibrant aromas of violets, crushed dark fruit and a hint of charcoal. On the palate it shows supple velvety tannins alongside lively dark fruit character and precise acidity. Crafted from old vines and aged in cement, it consistently offers excellent value.
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Vinous
The 2023 LZ is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Garnacha from Lanziego, aged for up to eight months in concrete. It delivers floral and fresh plum notes before the smooth, slightly plump texture defines a light character. Overall, there is enough energy, structure, purity and flavor here.
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.