Winemaker Notes
The entire landscape, the dialogue between varieties, life and pleasure, the center of everything. It defines the personality of the estate: the sum of its soils and environments, the influence of mountains and rivers, balanced maturation, the best grapes. Sum and essence in an intense, fresh and clear wine.
Blend: 84% Tempranillo, 11% Graciano, 5% Garnacha
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A step up in price, the 2018 Villota is 84% Tempranillo, 11% Graciano, and 5% Garnacha from a site owned and farmed by the Villota family since 1930. Classic Rioja notes of red and black currants, lead pencil, spice box, tobacco, and vanilla define the bouquet, and it's medium-bodied on the palate, with a round, supple texture, velvety tannins, and outstanding length.
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.