Winemaker Notes
Alomado refers to the rolling hills or "lomas" that mark the landscape of the Sonsierra Riojana, considered by many to the finest terroir in Rioja for cultivating Tempranillo due to the Atlantic weather, high altitude, and limestone rich soils. Alomado is Eduardo and Carlota's most Atlantic and accessible interpretation of a field blend planted on the Ábalos side of San Vicente de la Sonsierra.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very fresh fruit with blue plums, cherries, mineral, iodine and flowers. Really precise tannins on the medium- to full-bodied palate. Long, pristine and minerally in the finish. A field blend of tempranillo, viura, malvasia and calagrano.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Beautiful black raspberries, red plums, violets, spring flowers, and peppery herbs all define the aromatics of the 2021 Alomado, and it's silky and polished on the palate, with medium to full-bodied richness, a pure, layered, elegant mouthfeel, and ultra-fine tannins. It's a singular, pure, polished Rioja that has serious character as well as incredible quality.
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Vinous
The 2021 Alomado is 80% Tempranillo, 10% Viura, 6% Malvasía and 4% Calagraño sourced from San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Rioja Alavesa. Aged for 18 months in French oak barrels (one-third new), this wine boasts a purple hue and delicate aromas of strawberry, sour cherry, balsamic and dried flowers, with hints of fresh rose. On the palate, it is dry, lean and silky with an energetic flow that lingers long, revealing profound, complex, lasting flavors. This represents a novel approach to Rioja reds, shaping new frames for the region, particularly in the Sonsierra area.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Alomado was produced with grapes from a vineyard called Finca Montecillo that was planted in 1980 on alluvial soils and is in the process to be certified organic. All of the varieties (Tempranillo, Viura, Malvasía and Calagraño) fermented together, and the wine matured in 500-liter barrels for 16 months. It's elegant, balanced, aromatic, fine-boned, tasty and powerful at 14.5% alcohol but with very nice balance.
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Wine Spectator
A lovely nose of rooibos tea, graphite and violet is an aromatic overtone for flavors of dried black cherry and raspberry, blood orange peel and loamy earth. Lush and silky, with supple tannins providing fine definition and firming the finish. Drink now through 2031. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 832 cases made, 125 cases imported.
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.