Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 El Tiznado is a much more concentrated, powerful wine. Based on 100% Tempranillo, it comes from incredibly old vines and was brought up in new 228-liter and 500-liter barrels. Cassis, ripe black cherries, scorched earth, savory, lead pencil, and spicy notes all define the bouquet, and it's full-bodied on the palate, with a concentrated, flawlessly balanced profile. I love its tannins, and it has remarkable purity and a great finish. Give this riveting Rioja 2-4 years and enjoy over the following two decades.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of dark plum, cassis and herbes de Provence pave the way for flavors of black cherry, purple fig, cocoa powder, espresso bean and violet, with touch of black-olive paste. Durable tannins and brilliant acidity play on the palate and stay for a while. Drink now through 2039.
Cellar Selection -
James Suckling
Aromas of blackberries and brambleberries with dried flowers and lavender. Really perfumed. Full-bodied with round, creamy tannins and hints of oak and berries in the aftertaste. This is very finely crafted.
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.