Winemaker Notes
A Crianza that stands out with distinctive characteristics. Bouquet of ripe fruits, noble and fine woods that protect its careful ageing. This cuvée conveys body and elegance. The intensity of its character integrates with the tannins, blending into a charming and very elegant texture.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A sleek texture carries bold flavors in this expressive red. Espresso, clove and black tea notes mingle with black cherry, graphite and mint elements, supported by firm tannins and lively acidity. Harmonious, with good depth. Drink now through 2032.
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Wine & Spirits
The winemaking team at Cáceres—Fernando Costa, Emilio González and Manuel Iribarnegaray—focuses this wine exclusively on tempranillo grown in Cenicero, where the winery is based. A blend of fruit from varying altitudes up to 2,000 feet, the wine needs time with air to get past the influence of its aging in oak barrels. As it emerges from warm, woody nut-skin tones, it shows increasingly rich fruit, clean and spicy. Decant it to serve with pan con tomate and jamón Ibérico.
In 1970, Enrique Forner founded Marqués de Cáceres Unión Vitivinícola S.A., a historic alliance of growers in the village of Cenicero in the Rioja Alta subregion of Rioja. The enterprising Forner family has been devoted to the wine trade for five generations. Their search for the best vine growers and vineyards in Rioja and the introduction of a Bordeaux concept revolutionized the production and business model of the region. They work with one single objective: producing the highest quality wines. Today this obsession continues to be the leitmotif of Cristina Forner, the fifth generation of this distinguished wine family.
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.