Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Gran Reserva is a blend of 85% Tempranillo, 10% Mazuelo and 5% Graciano: a selection of the best grapes from 20- to 25-year-old vines that is then aged in American and French oak for 24 months. It has an intense minty nose of blackberry, smoke and grilled meats that is well-defined, but surprisingly taut considering the vintage. The palate is medium-bodied with a tarry, leathery entry. The tannins are fine and linear, the finish classic in style with a dash of white pepper and tar. This is a very well-made Gran Reserva drinking beautifully now, but certainly it has the substance to keep.
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.