Winemaker Notes
Pair this wine with Spanish-style sirloin, prime rib, rich terrines, or pisto manchego.
Blend: 70% Syrah, 30% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark plums and rich black cherry fruit aromas with dark stony minerally accents that lead to a palate with plush blackberry and cassis flavored fruit.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Caliza is named after the limestone (caliza is the Spanish word for limestone) dominant in the Valdepusa Estate soils in Toledo. It's a blend of 40% Syrah and 30% each Petit Verdot and Graciano. Most of these reds mature in newish French barriques for some ten months. The oak is nicely integrated and there is a core of ripe black fruit and balsamic notes. The palate is soft and juicy, with fine-grained tannins. Very pleasant.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.