Winemaker Notes
Clean and bright cherry red. On the nose, intense fruit is palate, full and velvety and well balanced.
Blend: 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dusted spices with a hint of dark mushroom savoriness to the black plums and cherries. Elegant and fine-grained on the palate with a medium body, and a long and growing finish. Delicious now, but can hold.
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Vinous
Deep garnet. Spice-accented red berries, cherry, licorice and candied rose scents pick up a smoky nuance with air. Supple and energetic in style, offering bitter cherry, red currant and coconut flavors that deepen and take a sweeter turn through the back half. Finishes long and smooth, showing gentle tannic grip, repeating spiciness and lingering florality.
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Wine Spectator
Lightly juicy and harmonious, with creamy tannins enmeshed with crushed black cherry, violet, ground white pepper and anise, bay leaf and mineral. A crowd-pleaser. Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo.
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.