Winemaker Notes
Blend: 90% Tempranillo, 3% Garnacha, 4% Mazuelo, 3% Graciano
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
On first take, this smells ripe and raisiny, with accents of marzipan, cigar box and baked berries. The palate is blocky in feel, with big tannins and a sense of richness. Baked, earthy, chocolaty berry flavors reflect a hot vintage, while the finish is chocolaty and spicy.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and focused, this red delivers black cherry and plum flavors, with notes of licorice and mineral, showing a touch of mature dried herb and smoke elements. The orange peel acidity keeps this lively. Drink now through 2019.
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.