Winemaker Notes
Bright red cherry color of medium intensity. Intense, deep and complex aromas of ripe red fruits, combined with aromas from the barrel aging (spices, coffee and vanilla). On the palate, it is balanced and elegant, with a high level of freshness and a long, deep and pleasant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
The streamlined mouthfeel is augmented by creamy red pepper and black cherry. Old World acidity maintains freshness as oregano, marjoram, and nutmeg season oak and dried roses.
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James Suckling
Meaty plums, red cherries and black earth with some pepper and spices. This is a juicy, medium-bodied Rioja with bright acidity and a spicy twist on the palate…
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine has aromas of dark plums and forest floor. It is spicy on the palate, with notes of eucalyptus and clove accompanied by flavors of black currant, blackberry, cacao and tobacco leaf. Tenacious tannins hang on into a blackberry-jam finish.
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.