Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The blackberry aromas with hints of toasted oak and nuts are most attractive. Full-bodied, round and silky with a lovely finish. Lots of wood, but holds it together. Drink now.
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Wine Spectator
This red is lean, firm and focused, with cherry, tea, leafy, licorice and spice flavors mingling over firm tannins and juicy acidity. Savory, in the traditional style. Not big but balanced.
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.