Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A firm and silky wine with sweet berry and hints of cedar. Tight and focused with linear backbone and long finish. Very fine.
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Wine Enthusiast
Notes of earthy, clove and all spice carry the nose. This is full, juicy and popping on the palate. Flavors of raspberry, mixed spices and exotic tea finish with red-berry leftovers and even more spice notes.
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Wine Spectator
Dried cherry, berry, tea, tobacco, vanilla and spice flavors mingle in this lean, gentle red. Modest tannins and light acidity keep this lively as the elements float across the palate and glide into a spicy finish. Graceful, in the traditional style.
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.