Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Certain wines exude a sense of elevated excellence. This one gets to that level via aromas of spice cake, baked plum and tobacco aromas. A stocky saturated palate is structured and built to age, while this tastes of cool blue fruits, herbs, coffee and chocolate. A smoothly textured finish deals cocoa and mocha notes. Drink through 2040.
Editors' Choice -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
We're in for a treat with the 2010 Imperial Gran Reserva, a classic among classics in a classic vintage. It's very spicy and still slightly oaky, with ripe fruit without any excess; it is a serious, somehow Bordeaux-like, less-perfumed red. The palate shows that seriousness, with some dusty tannins and a dry finish. The texture is a little earthy, very good for food. This could be drunk now, but I'd give it some time in the bottle. The oak feels very nicely integrated, less noticeable than in warmer vintages like 2009. A very good vintage for this bottling. The category that was close to disappearing ten years ago seems to be alive and kicking with 50,000 bottles produced in 2010.
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Wine Spectator
Dried cherry, plum compote, black olive and cola flavors are supported by firm tannins and balsamic acidity in this plump red. Energetic yet harmonious, in the traditional style. Drink now through 2025. 1,000 cases imported.
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Decanter
High-toned, dense and punchy yet harmonious and finely rendered, in a distinctly classical style. Impressive.
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.