Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Tobacco and iron notes give this full-bodied red a sanguine character, but plum, rhubarb, licorice and orange marmalade flavors add depth and balance. Maturing, but still generous and lively. Drink now through 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
Leathery cherry and plum aromas offer a hint of tobacco as well as a burnt, roasted note. This is healthy in feel, with lively, snappy acidity. Flavors of herbs, vanilla, tomato, tobacco and red currant finish wiry and high-toned, with moderate tartness and plenty of length. Drink through 2023.
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.