Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe aromas of dried fruits, plums and prunes. Flowers too. Full body, round and ripe textured tannins. Intense and powerful fruit. Layered. Powerful style. Very long. Richer than normal due to the the hot growing seasons of 2003. Aged for six years in old American oak barrels. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Cigar box, cedar and balsamic notes frame cherry, raisin and licorice flavors in this lean, firm red. Displays grip and focus, with firm tannins and orange peel acidity. The spicy finish is fresh and long. A traditional style. Drink now through 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The wine has a canonical 12.5% alcohol and 6.5 grams of acidity. It matured in (used) barrels for six years and was bottled unfiltered. Even if they want to avoid the imprint from the vintage, it's impossible to erase the effect of the torrid 2003. The wine is less Tondonia than the 2004, and the fruit is more obvious and forward. The palate is fuller than your average vintage, juicy and ripe. An approachable Tondonia Reserva to drink on the younger side.
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.