Winemaker Notes
Matches especially well with roasted lamb, cutlets barbequed on vine shoots, fish in sauce recipes, as well as smoked and cured cheese. Excellent wine to accompany chocolate desserts.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Floral and subtle fruit character on the nose follows through to a full to medium body, soft and silky tannins and a flavorful finish. So refined. Hints of herbs and pepper towards the end.
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Wine Spectator
Pretty fruit flavors of strawberry and raspberry mingle with vanilla, spice and light herbal notes in this alluring red. The tannins are light but firm, while citrusy acidity keeps this fresh through the vanilla-scented finish. Drink now through 2021.
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.