Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Baigorri’s red wines begin with the 2005 Crianza made up of 100% Tempranillo aged for 12 months in new French oak. It sports a nose of toasty oak, pencil lead, spice box, black cherry, and blackberry that lead to a stylish, elegant Rioja with the balance, structure, and length to drink well through 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
A fresh and appealing style of Rioja with aromas of dried cheese, dill, cedar, tobacco and kirsch. The palate has a pleasing juiciness and layered flavors of cherry, rapsberry and vanilla. Mocha and coffee flavors accent the well-oaked finish, and overall this is pure and kicking, but not too hefty or extracted. Drink now through 2013.
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.