Winemaker Notes
On the nose, the overlapping notes of ripe fruit, strawberry, and licorice blend with the base notes of oak. Its fresh mouthfeel is both cerebral and emotional, subtle but not overwhelming. It is a profound statement about the typicality of Tempranillo. Gentle and savory, it envelops with its highly polished, ripe tannins. It has a long lasting finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Rich, deep balsamic blueberries, dark earth, pine cones, musky dark cherries, tobacco and dark spices. Pretty full-bodied on the palate with intense flavors and fine-grained tannins leading to a long and succulent finish, full of enticing dark fruit. Vegan. Drinkable now, but better from 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Creamy and well-spiced, with supple tannins, this red features baked black cherry, dried dill and marjoram, and loamy earth flavors that show a hint of chocolate mousse, enlivened by the tang of orange peel acidity. Drink now. 25,000 cases made, 1,250 cases imported.
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.