Winemaker Notes
This wine goes well with ham and mature cheeses, red meat, poultry, game casseroles, such as partridge, rabbit, venison, boar or deer, even when accompanied by spicy sauces.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This deep, smoky, minerally wonder is full to the brim with ripe blackberry, tobacco and fine-oak aromas. In the mouth, this Tempranillo-led blend is rich and jammy but not out of shape. Blackberry, prune and toasty flavors finish lusty, with a touch of heat and burn that should settle in due time. Drink now through 2023. Editors' Choice.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Neal Martin reviewed the 2010 Barón de Chirel Reserva before bottling in May 2012, and now all the good things he saw in that sample are confirmed by the bottled version. The nose offers a clear Bordeaux profile that is quite classical with cedar wood, lead pencil, tea leaves, leather and cherry aromas. On the palate the fine-grained, sophisticated tannins of the Cabernet are very well integrated with the oak and are countered by good freshness and length in a very classical harmonious style. This is a great showing for Chirel. Approximately 30% of the grapes used were Cabernet Sauvignon.
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James Suckling
This is big and powerful with masses of ripe fruit and juicy flavors. Concentrated and long. Fruit-forward style. Needs time to soften. Better in 2018.
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Wine Spectator
Tobacco and tar notes frame dried cherry, plum and light gamy flavors in this old-school red. This is harmonious, with a savory character, a polished texture and a long, spicy finish. Drink now through 2020.
Wines of the Herederos de Marqués de Riscal has always been a leading and pioneering company in the wine producing sector. In 1858, it became the first winery in the Rioja to produce wines following the Bordeaux method and in 1972, it was the first winery to promote the Rueda Designation of Origin, where it produced its famous Marqués de Riscal white wines. Marqués de Riscal sells its products in over 70 countries and its wines have enjoyed the highest international distinctions as well as numerous awards and mentions in the media. Showcasing design, art, gastronomy, wine and the lush landscape all combine to create a memorable sojour… The vision of Frank O. Gehry was to create a 21st century château, an icon for one of the oldest wineries in the Rioja region, Vinos de los Herederos de Marqués de Riscal that connect the historic legacy with the modern art and wine nature. The building is a composition of rectilinear prisms that float above the ground by three super columns that support the building. The building rises nine meters above the ground and crosses the underground wine store of Marqués de Riscal to support itself with the three super columns. This allows spectacular views in all levels, to see the vineyards, Elciego, and the mountains of the Sierra de Cantabria as a background. Everything is wrapped in cascades of titanium (Canopies) colored in pink, gold and silver symbolizing the reddish hues of red wine, the mesh of the wine bottle of Marqués de Riscal and the capsule of the bottle
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.