Winemaker Notes
An ideal companion for grilled or barbecued red meat, all types of stew and spicy dishes. A powerful wine, it also enhances the flavor of fish, such as tuna, salmon or cod.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Reserva has a lot more going on. Both nose and palate are deeper than the 2009 Crianza, with ripe fruit, floral aromas and hints of the telltale notes of the properly aged traditional Rioja: leather, incense, tea leaves and smoke. The palate is balanced, with good acidity. This is a great commercial Rioja at a very attractive price.
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.