Winemaker Notes
Live, fresh, juicy. Attractive on all occasions. It reflects well the vineyard's personality, with its remarkable proportion of Graciano variety, which provides a vibrant acidity.
Blend: 84% Tempranillo, 11% Graciano, 5% Garnacha
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Deep, lurid ruby. Mineral- and smoke-accented blackberry, cherry and tobacco scents pick up floral and vanilla accents with air. Sappy, expansive black and blue fruit and violet pastille flavors open up steadily, energized by a spicy topnote. Concentrated yet lively in style, with a smoky mineral quality that adds cut to the impressively long, floral- and spice-driven finish.
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James Suckling
Dusty sweet spices to the mixture of berry fruit and chocolate. Rich and flavorful on the palate but fresh and tight with plenty of juicy and ripe cherries and blueberries that last into the sappy, long finish. Fine-grained tannins throughout.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Villota Rioja shows excellent intensity from start to finish. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of black fruit, licorice, and savory spices. Enjoy it with grilled short ribs. (Tasted: August 22, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Villota checks in as 84% Tempranillo, 11% Graciano, and 5% Garnacha. It's slightly more closed and reticent but has similar red, black, and blue fruits as well as floral, spicy, mineral-laced aromas and flavors. Concentrated and medium to full-bodied, with good acidity and ripe tannins, going to benefit from a year or three of bottle age and keep for a decade. Best After 2023 Rating: 91+
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.