Winemaker Notes
Blend: 85% Tempanillo, 10% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
A high-quality and fresh nose here of ripe strawberries and plums plus perfumed, flower undertones. Full to medium body, firm tannins and a long, fruity and delicate finish.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Plum, berry and raisin aromas are fine but they don't go beyond the basics for Gran Reserva. This feels solid and dense, but again fairly regular for a mature Gran Reserva. Dry peppery flavors of cherry and cassis seem ready. Drink through 2019.
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.