Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Reserva is 90% Tempranillo and 10% Mazuelo that spent 12 months in French and American oak followed by 24 months in bottle prior to release. More deeply colored than the Crianza, it displays an enticing perfume of wood smoke, spice box, violets, espresso, and blackberry. Voluminous and concentrated on the palate, it reflects the high quality of the vintage. This impeccably balanced wine has plenty of ripe tannin, superior length, and a drinking window extending from 2012 to 2025.
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.