Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Finca El Bosque is purple/black in color with a perfume of wood smoke, graphite, truffle, espresso, black cherry, and blackberry. Full-bodied, voluptuous, and already complex, it possesses 8-10 years of aging potential. Its drinking window will reach from 2018 to 2037.
Bodegas Sierra Cantabria is another outstanding Rioja estate owned and operated by the Eguren family. The highlight of my visit in May, 2010 was a vertical of their two renowned single vineyard wines, Amancio and Finca El Bosque. The Finca El Bosque Vineyard is a 4 acre parcel of Tempranillo planted on gravel in 1973. The wine is put through ML in new oak and spends 18 months in new, mostly French oak.
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Wine Spectator
Blackberry and pomegranate flavors are accented by cocoa and cardamom in this exotic red. There's a plush yet elegant texture, supported by fine acidity and well-integrated tannins. Drink now through 2014.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rich, smoky and heady, with earthy black fruit aromas that fold in mocha and vanilla. The palate runs fairly crisp and firm for a big wine, with black cherry, spice, peppercorn and herbal flavors. Super lively, tight and showing cola and lemon peel on the woody finish. Drink from 2012-2018.
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.