Winemaker Notes
Serve with grilled pork, smoked and barbecued meats, grilled vegetables, casseroles.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of blueberry and blackberry character. Full and rich with velvety tannins, this seems bigger than a normal Crianza. If you want a bigger style, here it is.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The excellent 2015 Bodegas Lan D-12 Ninth Edición exhibits the beauty and purity of Rioja. TASTING NOTES: This wine is bold in its superb red and black fruit aromas and flavors. Pair its liveliness with grilled Korean style beef ribs. (Tasted: October 28, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.