Winemaker Notes
The wine is deep dark purple in color, with subtle, complex blackberry and raspberry aromas and notes of smoke, herbs and minerals. The tannins are firm and slightly austere yet ripe, balancing expansive fruit concentration on the palate and ending in a long, refined finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There is virtually unanimous agreement that 2001 was a great vintage in Rioja. The 2001 Roda I Reserva has a more saturated color than any of its predecessors. It exhibits an alluring perfume of smoke, incense, spice box, mineral, black cherry, and blackberry. Round, ripe, and perfectly balanced, it has layers of savory fruit, considerable aging potential, and a stylish personality. It can be enjoyed now but its prime drinking window will extend from 2015 to 2031.
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Wine & Spirits
A modern Rioja offering deep color, rich textures and delicious black fruit, Roda I focuses on glamour and does it well. It will please a crowd of carnivores at a steakhouse, or a bevy of vegans snacking on grilled wild mushrooms. The tannins are impossibly smooth, and rich as dark roast coffee, adding to the luscious complexity this should develop with age.
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.