Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This wine exhibits aromas of incense, spices and red cherries. It is medium- to full-bodied, elegant and polished, with clarity of fruit and underlying precise tannins. This will age forever. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The subtle, balsamic, structured and elegant 2020 Viña Ardanza Reserva is a blend of Tempranillo from Rioja Alta and around 20% Garnacha from Rioja Baja. It fermented destemmed in stainless steel and aged in American oak barrels, 20% of them new, for a period of 36 months in the case of the Tempranillo and 30 months for the Garnacha, then the two wines are blended before bottling. It's a textbook example of the label, with the perfume and elegance of the Garnacha and the clout from Tempranillo. It has clean aromas and is still quite fresh, only starting its tertiary phase. It comes in at 14.5% alcohol and keeps a pH of 3.57 and 5.7 grams of acidity. It's balanced, seamless and well-built, and its tannins are mostly resolved. It should live long in bottle.
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Wine Spectator
A harmonious red, offering a lovely range of baked cherry and wild strawberry fruit, licorice root, tea rose and dried fig, all set on a plush texture as this unfolds, with refined, sculpted tannins. Savory mineral, herb, leather and spice notes linger on the finish. Tempranillo and Garnacha. Drink now through 2040.
Always evolving quality, elegance, innovation, evolution... They are the pillars on which the five founding families erected our winery in 1890 and built a way of living, feeling and producing wines of the highest quality that continue to evolve subtly, perfectly adapting to new tastes. This is how the permanent pursuit of excellence started; a pursuit that continues into the 21st century with identical enthusiasm. We draw the best from our winemaking tradition and wisdom —our own cooperage, manual racking, long ageing periods, etc.— and combine it with the most modern winemaking technology. Today, our wines are an international exemplar of the great wines of Rioja and our brands are present in the best restaurants across all continents.
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.