Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Brozal was sourced from a biodynamically farmed vineyard and is a field blend of 80% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, and 10% Garnacha. It was fermented and macerated in a custom-made tank made of 50% oak and 50% stainless steel crafted by winemaker David Sampedro. Alcoholic fermentation was with native yeasts, malolactic fermentation occurred in barrel, and aging took place in various sized barrels, 50% new, for 10 months. A glass-coating opaque purple color, the wine displays a super-fragrant bouquet of minerals, violets, Asian spices, tobacco, a hint of balsamic, and assorted black fruits. This is followed by a sweetly-fruited, layered, succulent wine with plenty of underlying fine-grained tannin. Give it 5-6 years to fully blossom and enjoy it from 2015 to 2029.
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Wine Spectator
Sweet, toasty oak frames a vivid core of black cherry and blackberry fruit in this lively, modern red. Leafy and floral notes add interest, while firm tannins and bright acidity are well-balanced.
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.