Winemaker Notes
Blend: 90% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Opening the classical line in reds, the 2012 Crianza is mostly Tempranillo with 10% made up of Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha fermented in stainless steel and with the mandatory 12 months in used oak barrels. It starts with cheesy, reductive notes, no doubt from some lactic aromas which are intermixed with exuberant, ripe fruit, plums and cherries and well-integrated oak; it brought me memories of the carbonic maceration reds from that part of Rioja. The palate reveals a wine that drinks well, with polished, slightly dusty tannins, which could do with a little more freshness. I'm tempted to say that this is the red that feels more true to its roots and category.
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.