Winemaker Notes
Notes of licorice ripe red fruit with dairy nuances, over toffee, vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa. On the palate it shows harmony between the fruit and the toasted notes, causing an evolving effect on the palate. Rounded tannins with a good
long-lasting finish of red fruit and licorice.
Drink with grilled pork, smoked and barbecued meats, grilled vegetables, and casseroles.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Creamy nose with vanilla, walnut and pine needle notes to the red and black plums. A medium-bodied Rioja with juicy plums and tight, creamy tannins. Sweet oak spices and a hint of coconut cream are delivered in the lengthy finish.
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Wine Spectator
A polished red, with fragrant oak spice and graphite accents lacing flavors of steeped black cherry and blackberry fruit. Lively and well-knit, featuring hints of cola and loamy earth, with firm but fine tannins emerging on the 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.