Winemaker Notes
Thanks to its acidity and smooth mouth-feel this wine will go well with virtually any dish. It is a good red wine for oily fish, and of course with meat and game.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Ysios is the wavy-roofed, Calatrava-designed winery that graces all those postcards from Rioja. But over the years this Pernod Ricard property has struggled with consistency. Nevertheless, the 2004 is probably the best wine to date from Ysios; it offers creamy but fresh berry aromas backed by cherry, raspberry and plum flavors. With mocha and chocolate on the finish, it has a bit of everything that we’re looking for. Just shy of the 90-point range, but like we said, it’s Ysios’ best wine so far.
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.