Winemaker Notes
Mature fruit dominates in an incipient bouquet which captures the aging and a slight toasty aroma. Soft tannins makes it more palatable in spite of its young age. Long, excellent aromatic aftertaste.
Blend: 80% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2020 Eguren Ugarte Crianza is nicely balanced and well structured. This wine shows aromas and flavors of early summer blackberries, fragrant spices, and hints of wood. Try it with pan-fried lamb chops. (Tasted: October 8, 2024, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
Spiced cherries, strawberries, stones and potpourri on the nose follow through to an elegant, medium-bodied palate with firm, lightly chewy tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
A bouquet of blackberry, cassis and chocolate-covered espresso bean paves the way for flavors of blackcherry preserves, Dutch cocoa, violet and smoked bacon. Rigid tannins settled in on the palate and stayed a while. While the tannins are well matched by bright acidity.
Founded in 1870 by Anastasio Eguren in the Rioja territory of Eguren Ugarte is a 140-year-old landmark family-owned winery known as one of the longest-standing vineyards in Europe. The winery has approximately two thousand meters of wine cellar caves and an average of thirty different varieties of wine and is a regular participant in the annual vendimia "first harvesting" festivals of its region. Eguren Ugarte has won several awards for its hotel accommodations and wine tours, and recently entered into a partnership deal with Delta Air Lines to supply wine in-flight. Eguren Ugarte is also a sponsor of the Santa Catalina Film Festival in Southern California and frequently supports other various independent art galleries and entertainment events internationally.
The sixth generation of winemakers located next to Páganos (Laguardia), this family winery has managed to maintain the traditions of winemaking, as well as the incorporation of all the latest growing and wine-making techniques, resulting in exceptional wines that have won major national and international awards. The climate in this area is Mediterranean but with a great Atlantic influence. Sierra de Cantabria acts as a natural protection barrier for cold winds from the north. The vines are planted in clay-lime soils located at an altitude between 400 and 700 meters above sea level.
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.
