Winemaker Notes
It pairs perfectly with international food (curries, marinated fish and spicy dishes) and traditional red meats, game and cured cheeses.
90% Riojan Tempranillo, 10% Mazuelo and Graciano.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2004 Reserva is 90% Tempranillo with 5% Mazuelo and 5% Graciano added to the blend. It was aged for 20 months in seasoned American and French oak. Cherry red in color, it offers a complex perfume of cedar, leather, violets, spice box, and blackberry. On the palate it is medium-bodied with plenty of ripe cassis-flavored fruit, silky tannin, good balance, and a pure finish. Give it 3-4 years and drink it through 2020.
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.