Winemaker Notes
Blend: 85% Tempranillo, 8% Garnacha tinta, 7% Graciano
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very rich and ripe Rioja with treacle tart, coffee, and some oxidative dark-berry character. Full body, velvety tannins building to an old-school, chewy finish. Slightly extracted style here. Another three or four years may soften it. Drink in 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
Almost overripe aromas of prune and raisin are at the fore on the nose. A full, chewy palate shows big tannins and roasted, earthy flavors of olive, spice cake and berry fruits. Assertive tannins linger through the finish, with flavors of licorice, herbs and chocolate. Drink through 2022.
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.