Winemaker Notes
The 2012 Reserva showed lots of roasted sesame seed, smoky and oaky notes intermixed with aromas of nuts and ripe berry fruit. The palate showed abundant, dusty tannins that give it a little bit of a drying texture. This blend of 95% Tempranillo and 5% Graciano was cropped from a very dry and warm vintage.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe red fruits and blackberries with some leather. A powerful wine with seriously dry tannins and a slight metallic edge. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Reserva showed lots of roasted sesame seed, smoky and oaky notes intermixed with aromas of nuts and ripe berry fruit. The palate showed abundant, dusty tannins that give it a little bit of a drying texture. This blend of 95% Tempranillo and 5% Graciano was cropped from a very dry and warm vintage. The wine matured in oak for 18 months.
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.