Winemaker Notes
Clear, bright ruby. Fresh and slight aroma to licorice with consistent texture and persistent aroma. Smooth, fresh and persistent.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Cubillo spends three years in barrique and then in larger cask to await bottling, which happens two years before the expected release. This is very fresh on the nose with quite fresh, ripe blackberries and dark cherries, mahogany and dry, woody spices. The palate is very powerful, juicy and fresh with clear black cherries and plums in abundance. So fresh, fleshy and deep. The freshness is impressive. Long, shell-like tannins. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
It's not easy to follow a 2010, but the 2011 Viña Cubillo Tinto Crianza improves with time in the glass, showing much better than expected. 2011 was a warmer year than the 2010, and the wine is a little riper but has great balance and very good harmony. It's a noteworthy red for the price asked.
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Wine & Spirits
This 59-acre vineyard is planted to tempranillo (66 percent) as well as garnacha, mazuelo and graciano, the vines averaging 40 years of age. It produced a dynamic 2011, with high acidity driving the flavors of damson plum and tart cranberry, lasting with harmonic intensity. It’s a wine with substance and staying power, ready to decant for duck breast seared rare.
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.