Winemaker Notes
Garnet red cherry. Intense aroma, fragrant, complex with aromatic notes, mature red fruits, balsamic, truffle, vanilla, and toast. On the palate, it is vigorous, fresh, and silky, with a good presence of mature tannins and a development of complex aromas. Red fruits perfectly integrated with touches of balsamic, coffee, and oak. Long-lasting finish with hints of fruit, spice, and cocoa.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark ruby to the eye, this wine offers aromas of dark berries, milk chocolate and fennel. Cassis, blackberry, dark-chocolate, clove and lavender flavors are cloaked in a sheath of plush tannins that evaporate into an enduring, spice-scented finish. Drink through 2035.
Cellar Selection -
Vinous
A flavorful Sonsierra wine, the 2015 Gran Reserva is 100% Tempranillo sourced from San Vicente de la Sonsierra and Labastida, Rioja. Aged for 26 months in American oak barrels, this garnet wine with a bricked sheen exhibits a complex nose of oak and spice, accompanied by hints of herbs, sour cherry and thyme. Dry, compact and juicy, the mildly rich palate lingers with a thyme-inflected finish. The nuanced character of this Gran Reserva is the result of well-managed vineyards, located in the very best terroir of the Sonsierra.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I hadn't tasted a Gran Reserva from Sierra Cantabria since the 2012, and the 2015 Gran Reserva follows the same traditional style: mostly Tempranillo with 2% Graciano matured in American oak barrels, 25% of them new, for 26 months. It's ripe at 14.3% alcohol, with the powerful and velvety house style, but it shows the effect of the warmer and powerful years, especially in the tannins that are more abundant and a little drier. It's a concentrated year that might need more time in bottle.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Sierra Cantabria Gran Reserva is all Tempranillo and is raised predominantly in American oak. Black cherries, red plums, spicey wood, and savory herb notes all shine on the nose, and it's medium to full-bodied, has a ripe, rounded, nicely concentrated mouthfeel, building tannins, and an outstanding finish.
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Wine Spectator
The snap of fine, crisp tannins provides definition for the fresh mix of plum skin, crushed black raspberry, Mediterranean macchia and a touch of loamy earth on display in this well-knit red. Good length. Drink now through 2035. 3,500 cases made, 1,500 cases imported.
Bodegas Sierra Cantabria was founded by Guillermo Eguren, a self-made bodeguero, who was, in the family tradition, a viticulturist. His family, native to San Vicente de La Sonsierra, one of the most sought-after terroirs in Rioja, had grown grapes in Rioja Alta and Alavesa since the 1870’s. For decades the family sold their grapes to local producers, but Guillermo recognized the potential that his family's vineyards had to create great wine and founded Bodegas Sierra Cantabria in 1957. Today, the fourth generation of the Eguren family directs all aspects of the winemaking process, with Marcos Eguren as the winemaker and director of operations and his brother Miguel Angel Eguren as the general manager. The family still prides themselves as viticulturists first, and as a result, all the grapes are estate grown. As viticulturists in Rioja Alavesa, they grow a vast majority of Tempranillo, with only a small percentage of Garnacha and Graciano, as they recognize that Garnacha and Graciano do not ripen reliably in northern Rioja.
Bodegas Sierra Cantabria is the family's original winery and comprises a collection of their most classic style Rioja wines. Due to their viticultural background, the family’s wines are composed of mostly Tempranillo, as they recognize that Garnacha and Graciano do not ripen reliably in Northern Rioja.
Although the family's business has evolved over the years through the foundation of other projects, Bodegas Sierra Cantabria comprises their most traditional, classic styled wines. The wines are made from a blend of selected vineyards, as opposed to Viñedos Sierra Cantabria, which is the family's collection of single vineyard wines.
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.