Winemaker Notes
Great black fruit aromas with complex spiciness. The palate is beautiful with a rich brooding texture.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A wine with beautiful finesse and depth. Dark fruits, dark chocolate, hazelnut and floral character. Polished and refined. Full body. Long and beautiful. Tasty finish. The first recent vintage 100% made by Telmo Rodriguez.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The wine that represents the house style and also the biggest volume here with around 350,000 bottles produced is the 2010 Reserva which was cropped from an almost perfect growing season. A blend of the reds Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and the whites Viura and Malvasía Riojana, it fermented with indigenous yeasts in a combination of stainless steel and oak vats then matured in French oak barrels for 17 months. The nose has earthy aromas and notes of ripe orange peel giving old-style character to the wine marked by very well-integrated oak and an obvious Rioja character. There are cherries, plums and spices with licorice and ink aromas. The day after, it has more strawberries with very good freshness, so the evolution in bottle should be good. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins and good acidity that ends with sweet fruit flavors and something earthy, very pleasant and easy to drink. It grows on you. 350,000 bottles produced but there are different lots.
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.