Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Rich and expressive, this red delivers bold flavors of plum, blackberry and licorice, balanced by graphite, black tea and forest floor notes. Tangy acidity offsets the firm tannins. Exuberant. Drink now through 2028.
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James Suckling
Good, linear backbone to this red with ripe-fruit, cedar and toasted-oak character and a flavorful finish. Drink or hold.
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Decanter
Red berry fruit vibrancy with restrained spicy character providing complexity on the nose. The palate is juicy and has mostly velvety structure.
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Wine Enthusiast
Berry and plum aromas come with ample oak and touches of smoke and char. The palate brings flavors of plum, blackberry and vanilla lifted by bright acidity, with an extended mocha finish.
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.