Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
More red still than orange, with classic aromas of leather, molasses and tobacco. Rich and developed in the mouth, with black cherry and caramel leading to a finish of chocolaty complexity. Has it now and will age for another 10 to 20 years if properly stored.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Distinctive lead pencil, tobacco and blueberry flavors give this red an unusual marriage of young and old; it's striking, but doesn't seem quite natural. Still, it shows impressive structure and concentration for its age.
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.