Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This expressive red crackles with energy, offering a lively overtone of milled pink peppercorn, crushed thyme and rosemary, plus wild raspberry, pomegranate puree and mineral flavors. Plush on the palate, with a fresh, lingering finish. Tempranillo and Graciano. Drink now through 2031. 500 cases made, 120 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There is an earthy, rustic and slightly animal twist in the red 2021 Raposo, a Tempranillo from Villabuena de Álava. It has ripe black fruit despite the contained 13.5% alcohol. It has a medium-bodied palate with dusty and earthy tannins that reinforce the sensations on the nose.
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.