Winemaker Notes
Pair with red meat dishes, roasts, game, and rich-flavored cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Supple and polished, this red offers dried cherry, floral, vanilla and spicy flavors, fresh and lively. Light tannins and orange peel acidity keep this focused. Expressive and elegant, in the traditional style.
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Wine Enthusiast
Earthy aromas of cola, coffee and saucy plum lead to a palate that at first seems loud and acidic but which comes around. Plum and berry flavors are accented by oaky vanilla and citrus peel, while this is bright on the finish due to lasting acidity.
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.