Winemaker Notes
Ruby red in color with russet hues. Complex on the nose, good intensity, balsamic, spicy, leathers, tobacco; all of this over a delightful candied fruit backdrop. A very enticing combination. In the mouth: elegant, tasty, highly aromatic, voluptuous tannins still present in the classical style and lasting through the aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
If you like classical Rioja, this gran reserva may make you smile. Fully mature, it isn’t a wine to keep but to enjoy over the coming year or two for its nuanced flavors that touch on blue fruit, yellow nectarines and green shishito peppers. The texture is rich and lively, a friendly Rioja that gains gravity and length with a day of air.
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James Suckling
A simple, savory nose of earth, berries and a touch of bark. Medium-bodied with light plums, round tannins and an earthy, tertiary 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.