Winemaker Notes
Blend: 87% Tempranillo, 7% Graciano, 6% Garnacha
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark cherries and brambleberries find their pace amidst undertones of sage and cedar. Then, fine and silky tannins take center stage, rolling gracefully through medium-chewy fruit.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The blend of this entry-level red from Rioja changes with the year, and the 2016 Sela is 87% Tempranillo, 7% Graciano and 6% Garnacha, reflecting a cooler year. The aim here is to produce a delicate and pleasant wine to have by the glass or with starters. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in oak barrels for 12 months. It's young and fruit-driven, has good freshness and is easy to drink, with almost unnoticeable tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
Full berry and plum aromas are ripe, lightly spiced and inviting. A fleshy, full-bodied palate features bold tannins, while this delivers sizable black-plum, blackberry and savory oak flavors. Rubbing tannins create texture on a deep finish. Drink through 2022. Valkyrie Selections
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.