Winemaker Notes
Blend: 97% Tempranillo, 3% Graciano
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The single vineyard 2015 Reserva Unica is one of the few from this estate that's not 100% Tempranillo, as it includes 3% Graciano. Aged two years mostly in French oak (30% new), its deep ruby/purple color gives way to a brilliant wine that's loaded with notions of ripe black cherries, blackcurrants, smoked earth, crushed violets, cigar, and lead pencil shavings. It's rich, full-bodied, has a terrific mid-palate, flawless balance, and a great, great finish. This is a beautiful wine.
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James Suckling
This shows a wonderful center palate of dark berries and hints of licorice and lavender. Full yet lively and energetic with polished tannins that give the wine form and texture. Mostly old tempranillo with a a touch of graciano.
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Wine Enthusiast
Meaty berry aromas come with notes of herbs, wild flower and oaky wood spice. This reserva from a warm year is solid as a rock and medium-plus in mouthfeel and structure. Ripe black-fruit flavors are backed by peppery notes of well-toasted oak, while this remains steady on a long finish. Drink through 2028.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2015 Sierra Cantabria Única exhibits excellent complexities that flow to the wine's finish. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows up an expressive aroma of black fruit and fragrant berries before settling into its flavors of black fruit, anise, and dried leaves. Pair it with pan-fried duck breast. (Tasted: July 21, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Reserva Única is Tempranillo with a 2% pinch of Graciano that fermented destemmed with indigenous yeasts selected from their vineyards and matured in oak barrels, 60% French and 40% American, for 24 months including malolactic. This is a reserva from a barrel selection looking for a combination of a more traditional style (balsamic, notes of cigar ash) and the fruit from San Vicente, with intensity. It's medium to full-bodied with some grainy tannins and integrated acidity. It has started developing some complexity and tertiary notes, and my guess it that this should develop in bottle toward a more traditional Rioja profile.
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Wine Spectator
This red is plush and polished, showing good density to the plum, currant and forest floor flavors, backed by well-integrated tannins and gentle acidity. Rich yet graceful. Tempranillo and Graciano. Drink now through 2030.
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.