Winemaker Notes
Clean and bright, medium high robe, deep cherry red color developing into ruby. Intense, complex, ripe fruit, spicy notes, cinnamon, well integrated barrel notes of vanilla and cedar. Intense, well structured, round tannin. Very long finish, toasted notes, dried fruit sensations.
Matches will with any kind of meat, grilled or fried potatoes, mushrooms or ham, and oily fish. Also a great accompaniment to medium aged cheese, berry dessert, rice and all kinds of pasta.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A smooth nose of spicy blackberry melds with accents of dried cheese and vanilla. On the palate, this is muscular and a bit fleshy. Plum, spice and berry flavors finish with power and purpose; drink through 2027.
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James Suckling
Big blue fruit and discreet oak on the nose, then an appealing balance of fruit and tannin on the medium body, the finish moderately tannic and quite long. Drink now or hold.
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.