Winemaker Notes
Barón de Chirel is a modern classic which showcases the identity, tradition and modernity of Rioja.
Clear and bright with a lovely cherry-red color and hints of violet. Lively hue around the rim. This is an enormously expressive wine with great aromatic intensity of small, ripe, black fruits, graphite and mineral notes from the terroir, liquorice, subtle hints of flowers, and woodland undergrowth. Reminiscent of autumn when the leaves fall. Hot spices like cloves and black pepper, cocoa and tobacco, all extremely well defined. A powerful, dense, very rich attack. It combines sensations of volume, structure and richness with a silky texture which never ends. Lively tannins, discernible but ripe and which will become more polished with time. Very, very long and persistent, elegant with magnificent acidity which augurs well for great ageing.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This deep garnet-colored wine has a bouquet of cassis, Mission fig, dark chocolate and saddle leather. Luxurious tannins coat the tongue and gums, bathed in vibrant acidity and joined by blackberry, Luxardo cherry, chocolate-covered espresso bean and violet flavors with a soft hint of black olive paste that lingers on the tastebuds with a note of orange zest. Drink through 2048.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Serious in style with crunchy cranberry, strawberry, cedar and toast on the nose and palate. It has fine-grained, well-integrated tannins and a chocolately, spicy sign off.
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James Suckling
Quite youthful for a Rioja such as this full of plums, black walnuts, dark spices, mocha and mineral. Tannic but fine-grained on the palate with a medium to full body and a lengthy finish.
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.