Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Intensely concentrated, this comes off as reduced until it has days or at least several hours of air to begin to open. The smoky bacon scent of new French oak yields to brighter notes of raspberry and rose. Wait long enough and the enamel-stripping tannin becomes silken, its power diminished to a low growl. This transforms into something delicious and will reward patient cellaring for ten years or more.
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Wine Spectator
Plush yet focused, this round red shows plum, raisin, cinnamon, cedar and black pepper flavors. The tannins are still quite firm, balanced by fresh acidity. Maturing now, but with plenty of life. Drink now through 2016.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Based upon 81% Tempranillo, the Roda Reserva has a warm, inviting bouquet with wild strawberry, leather, a touch of burnt toast and gravel. Good density and weight on the entry with soft, sensuous texture, but building to a smooth, succulent, red-berry, cranberry finish with a hint of roasted herbs and cooked meats that glide across the palate. Slips down the throat with ease.
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.