Winemaker Notes
Ideal all type of grilled and roasted meats. It also matches well with strong fish and all kind of cured cheeses. Or, with tasty with chocolate desserts and puddings.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Muriel Reserva was aged in French and American oak for 24 months followed by 2 years of bottle aging prior to release. Medium ruby red in color, it displays a similar but more complex bouquet than the Crianza. Nicely developed traditional Rioja aromas are followed by a medium-bodied, smooth-textured, dense wine with plenty of savory fruit, a firm underpinning, and plenty of length. It is likely to evolve for several years and is a good candidate to see its 20th birthday.
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.