Winemaker Notes
Blend: 85% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
An absolutely mind-blowing value, this blend of 85% Tempranillo and 15% Graciano comes from 20-40-year-old head-pruned vines and was aged in a combination of American and French oak. A selection made by proprietor Rafael De Haan and Eric Solomon, the outstanding 2011 Rioja Tradicion exhibits classic Rioja characteristics of black cherry jam, lead pencil shavings, licorice and tobacco leaf. Medium-bodied and elegant with sweet tannin, this wine dramatically over-delivers.
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.