Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A tight red with blueberry and light vanilla character and wet-earth undertones. It’s medium-to full-bodied with linear, rather chewy tannins and a tight finish. Needs time to soften. Better after 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As I saw in the Izadi wines, I noticed better integration of the oak in the red 2018 Orben, as well as more varietal, place and vintage expression. It has medium ripeness and a medium-bodied palate with chalky tannins. This pure Tempranillo comes from small plots of old vines that fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in 50/50 new and second use oak barrels for 14 months.
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.