Winemaker Notes
Clear and bright with a lovely cherry-red color and hints of violet. An enormously expressive wine with great aromatic intensity of small, ripe, black fruits, graphite and mineral notes from the terroir. A powerful, dense, very rich attack. Lively tannins, discernible but ripe and which will become more polished with time. The fruit is present, and also the blue flowers.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Black fruit with orange peel and fresh mushrooms on the nose. It’s full-bodied with polished, firm tannins and a long, caressing finish. It’s intense, but ever so polished and refined. Classic quality. Very drinkable, but will age beautifully.
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Wine Spectator
A rich, loamy red, with a pure beam of black cherry and cassis fruit flavors accented by savory fresh earth and mineral notes as well as sweet mocha, red licorice and dried flowers. Long and supple, with a creamy edge to the sculpted tannins. Very harmonious and drinkable now, but with concentration and fine knit, suggesting a good future. Drink now through 2032. 3,167 cases made, 317 cases imported.
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.