Winemaker Notes
Purple-red color with ruby tones. Aromas of good intensity where fruits of various types stand out with good maturity and expressiveness, flowers, sweet spices, toasted touches and scrubland. In the mouth it is flavorful, the palate with good balance and quite round, also shows liveliness and character, the fresh and soft tannins, the aftertaste quite well with almost all the aromas of the nose. Long aftertaste, with good persistence.
Blend: 100% Tempranillo
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A mature Rioja with cedar, dried leaves, dried cherries and leather. Medium-bodied and spicy with drying tannins, but the oak and ripeness are not overdone. Intriguing history in a bottle.
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Wine & Spirits
This has matured into a beefy richness, tasting a bit like braised brisket with earthy carrots, still holding some floral notes in its black fruit. It has the soft ripeness of the 2000 vintage; for drinking soon, perhaps with brisket.
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.