Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This plush red offers ripe cherry and plum flavors, with licorice, vanilla and spice notes backed by orange peel acidity and well-integrated tannins. Harmonious, fresh and lively.
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Wine Enthusiast
Cinnamon, clove and oak-spice aromas frame notes of berries and citrus peels on the nose. A full palate feels a touch oily and creamy, while this tastes of savory, lightly salted plum and berry fruits. The saltiness carries over to a well-formed finish. Drink through 2025.
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.