Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
It has a tightly wound bouquet of red cherries, fresh strawberry and a touch of graphite that is very appealing, yet it would require some decanting to let it unfurl. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, tensile tannins. It has a very fine focus and symmetry, with a very fresh, raspberry and wild strawberry finish struck through with that graphite tincture that gives it a rigid backbone. It is what you might call a classic Ribera del Duero, and I suspect it will age very well. Drink 2014-2022.
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.