Winemaker Notes
Very versatile with food. Ideal with medium-flavored grilled meats and pasta dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Alluring, oxidative, old-school style. Remarkably aromatic, opening up on the palate with nicely knit tannins, relevant fruitiness and a long finish. Impossible to believe it is 15 years old. This is what Rioja can do!
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Wine Spectator
This red is dense and energetic, with firm tannins and tangy acidity driving the dried cherry, licorice, tea and forest floor flavors. The character is tart and savory, on the earthy side but remaining focused and lively. Drink now through 2023.
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.