Wine Advocate (95)

A real blockbuster, the 2003 La Vina de Andres Romeo (100% Tempranillo) is exquisite, but, again, a mere 200 bottles will make it to America. Lucky readers who run across a bottle, and have the financial resources to purchase it, are in for a decadent treat.

Wine Advocate (98)

The 2005 La Vina de Andres Romeo is a bit more brooding and backward. Opaque purple/black, it has an alluring nose of toasty oak, pencil lead, scorched earth, espresso, truffle, and blackberry. Tightly wound but beautifully balanced, this is an opulent effort that requires patience. Give it 10-12 years of further aging and drink it from 2020 through 2040.

Vinous (95)

(100% tempranillo, sourced from a single 3.5-hectare vineyard that reportedly yielded 10 hectoliters per hectare; fermented in a single open-top wooden tank; 15% alcohol): Opaque purple. Intoxicating scents of black raspberry, boysenberry, incense and violet, along with notes of black pepper and anise. Lush, spicy and expansive, offering powerful red and dark berry compote and vanilla flavors and an exotic candied floral quality. Clings impressively on the endless, subtly tannic finish, energized by zesty acidity.

Tim Atkin MW (96)

Malvasía Riojana, or Rojal, is a very rare grape that’s only found in old co-planted field blends as a rule. But here it takes centre stage in a brilliant wine that’s fermented and aged on its lees in concrete eggs. Saline, focused and refined, with jasmine and wet stone aromas, a creamy mid palate and a long, focused, pithy finish. A stunning debut. 2021 – 2026.

The Bodegas Bhilar Phinca Abejera Rioja Alavesa 2012 embodies the rich terroir of Spain's prestigious Rioja Alavesa region. Nestled in the alluring Basque Country, the acclaimed Bodegas Bhilar demonstrates artisanal winemaking acuity renowned worldwide. The Phinca Abejera Rioja Alavesa is a boutique production, cultivated from old-vine Tempranillo grapes imparting distinct notes of blackberries, liquorice and wild herbs.

Striking a balance between modern winemaking techniques and steadfast tradition, the vintners use indigenous yeast for fermentation in large French oak casks, lending the wine an understated elegance and complexity. Ageing for 36 months in neutral oak promotes the wine's finesse, culminating in a superbly structured palate featuring deep fruits, earthy minerality, and a long, velvety finish.

As a biodynamic and organic estate, Bodegas Bhilar's commitment to sustainable viticulture ensures the continued quality and character of the Phinca Abejera Rioja Alavesa. The 2012 vintage possesses an enviable cellaring potential, inviting discerning connoisseurs to savour its evolution.

Wine Advocate (94)

As we didn't have another recent vintage to compare with the 2010 and the expectations were so high, Roda's CEO Agustín Santolaya insisted on uncorking another excellent vintage, the 2004 Roda I, to check on its evolution. The production and source of the grapes was basically the same as today, 100% Tempranillo that, back then, was fermented in French oak vats with indigenous yeasts, followed by aging in barriques for 16 months. There might be some things in common with 2010, which is the current vintage—a very balanced year with great ripeness and acidity, wines with power and elegance and a very slow development. This 2004 is aging at a glacial pace and should have a long life ahead of it. At the time, they produced 184,447 bottles of this 2004. It has been in bottle since May 2006.

Decanter (95)

From a warm vintage with an early harvest, this is a well-balanced Rioja with considerable complexity. There's a ripe plum character to the black fruit aromas, along with warm tobacco hints and earthy, undergrowth notes. Like a perfectly stretched tapestry, this shows a taut precision to the winemaking, with admirable balance. Polished black fruit, spice and chocolate notes show good persistence. A sense of freshness and fine tannins with juicy grip on the finish; this has life ahead of it.

Tim Atkin MW (96)

Built around a core of Tempranillo from vineyards near Haro, with a splash of Graciano from the Rioja Oriental, this is a superb Roda I from a vintage that is often under-rated in Rioja. Balanced, perfumed and precise, with adroitly handled 50% new wood, a hint of good reduction, some vanilla spice, wild herbs and layers of blackberry and blueberry fruit. Delicious.

Jeb Dunnuck (95)

An old vine selection based on 100% Graciano, the 2016 Rio Mazos was completely destemmed and brought up in 50% new oak. This inky colored effort has a rich, smoky bouquet of blackberries, spicy oak, cedary spice, and violets. With beautiful fruit, plenty of classy integrated oak, full body, a terrific texture, and ripe tannins, it's a beautiful, layered, singular Rioja that’s loaded with character. Drink it any time over the coming decade (and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it keep longer).

Decanter (95)

Dark cherries, vanilla, sweet spice, strawberry and red berry fruits are woven through the long and fresh palate. A refined wine that does itself proud with its long finish, stupendous finesse and seamlessly integrated, ripe tannins. Delicious to drink

Wine Advocate (95)

The 2021 Alma Contador, produced with 91% Tempranillo and 9% Garnacha, feels very ripe, and the label states 15% alcohol. It has notes of stewed fruit, dark spices, smoke and toast. It has a full-bodied palate with abundant tannins and is very powerful and concentrated but with all the components in good balance. This is going to require a little more time in bottle and/or powerful food. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled after 20 months in new French oak barrels.

James Suckling (98)

This is sleek and racy with a polish and beauty that is incredible. Full body, ultra-fine tannins that touch you at the beginning and take you down to a gorgeous depth of fruit. Super. A great single vineyard wine. Drink in 2022.

Wine Advocate (95)

The 2018 Viña del Olivo comes from a plot planted in 1980 that has different soils from the rest of the property, which is mostly alluvial. Here, the soils are composed of clay and limestone. It's 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo, which fermented in 1,000-liter French oak vats followed by 16 months in barrel and a further three months in oak vats. This is raw and young, but it's already been released because the wine sells like hot cakes. It's marked by the toasted barrels and has all the baby fat it needs to be rendered invisible with time in bottle. It has very good freshness and round and sophisticated tannins with purity of fruit and finesse. 13,640 bottles and some larger formats. It was bottled in April 2020.

Tim Atkin MW (99)

Well, well, well. This is one of the best wines of an outstanding vintage, demonstrating that this warm Rioja Alavesa site performs best in cooler vintages. It's a wine that oozes quality from the first sniff, all blackcurrant leaf, coffee bean and wild herbs, leading into a palate of mocha, plum and blackberry. The palate is refined, polished and beautifully freighted, marrying Tempranillo, 15% Graciano and 5% each of Mazuelo and Garnacha to (near) perfection. I can't recall a better wine from the estate. Bravo!

Tim Atkin MW (99)

Well, well, well. This is one of the best wines of an outstanding vintage, demonstrating that this warm Rioja Alavesa site performs best in cooler vintages. It's a wine that oozes quality from the first sniff, all blackcurrant leaf, coffee bean and wild herbs, leading into a palate of mocha, plum and blackberry. The palate is refined, polished and beautifully freighted, marrying Tempranillo, 15% Graciano and 5% each of Mazuelo and Garnacha to (near) perfection. I can't recall a better wine from the estate. Bravo!

Tim Atkin MW (99)

Well, well, well. This is one of the best wines of an outstanding vintage, demonstrating that this warm Rioja Alavesa site performs best in cooler vintages. It's a wine that oozes quality from the first sniff, all blackcurrant leaf, coffee bean and wild herbs, leading into a palate of mocha, plum and blackberry. The palate is refined, polished and beautifully freighted, marrying Tempranillo, 15% Graciano and 5% each of Mazuelo and Garnacha to (near) perfection. I can't recall a better wine from the estate. Bravo!

James Suckling (98)

This is very Asian with black tea, mushroom and bark aromas, and ripe fruit undertones. Full body, round and polished. Edgy structure with blackberry, mushroom skin and cedar. Fantastic finish. Just a baby. Stock up for the cellar. Better in 2020 but already excellent.

James Suckling (96)

Lots of plum character, chocolate, bay leaves and rosemary on the nose. Iodine, too. Full body and lots of concentration, yet this also delivers amazing freshness and balance. Ultra-fine tannins. Finish is very long, flavorful and wonderfully polished. This is all about refinement in combination with power. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (97)

This is so powerful and tightly wound with so much intensity and power. Full body. Crushed berries and hints of walnuts and cedar. Purity in fruit. Very subtle character, but great tension and richness. Drink after 2021.

James Suckling (95)

Black cherries with cedar and dried flowers, as well as dusty earth. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm tannins that are long and polished. Lots of structure. Very typical and focused. Drinkable now, but better in 2024.

Wine Advocate (100)

It's an historical wine, a one-off, semi-sweet white produced at the end of the Spanish Civil War, a wine impossible to replicate, fruit of impossible circumstances, a wine I've had the luck to drink and share with many people on a number of occasions and which never fails to impress everyone. The perfect 1939 CVNE Rioja Blanco Semi Dulce Corona is a mythical wine! 1939 saw the end of Spain's Civil War, and the country was upside down. There were some major battles fought in Rioja, and by the time they had to harvest the grapes, there were not enough men in the village. They must have focused on the best parcels, surely giving priority to red grapes. Some vineyards were overlooked, as happened with the whites that eventually produced this wine. These grapes were harvested extremely late, into November, close to December and their health was not optimal, they had developed some botrytis and were clearly rotten. The people in charge of making the wine surely didn't know about botrytis cynerea, or noble rot, and were surely afraid their grapes were rotten and they would not be able to produce any decent white. So they did the best they could, but the fermentation never finished completely and there was some residual sugar in the wine. So, as they did with all their wines, they put it in oak barrels to mature and kind of put it in a corner hoping nobody would notice its shortcomings. We have to realize that CVNE was already producing quite a lot of wine at the time, so it's not unusual to have a few stray barrels here or there that nobody pays attention to. What is not that normal is that the wine was REALLY forgotten and was "found" during a stock take for an audit in 1970! So the wine aged slowly in barrel for some 30 years! Once found, nobody saw any reason to keep the wine in barrel any longer, so they decided to bottle it. Not knowing quite what to do with it, the bottles were stacked somewhere and the same story was repeated, as the stash was forgotten and basically untouched until thirty something years later: thanks to the daughter of one of the family owners (the winery is still in the hand of the same family that created it back in 1879). The proud father had a vague idea about a somewhat sweet wine that could be served at his daughter's wedding and asked to get some bottles to taste. They uncorked it, tasted it and found a complex, subtle white with great balance between alcohol, acidity and a little bit of residual sugar (around 20 grams), which took the edge off the acidity and made the wine rounder, as old Viura can be too austere. The slow aging, first in an oxidative way during the years in oak provided some nuttiness, and spicy aromas, while the botrytis added some of those dry apricot, beeswax and pollen notes, hinting on honey, but also the long reductive period in bottle made it very elegant and polished, with infinite nuances of white pepper, quince, faint smoke, walnuts, petrol...This redefines complexity, elegance and slow aging. The palate is prodigious, with a gobsmacking (literally!) balance, pungent flavors, freshness, acidity, very faint sweetness and length like only something which has slowly evolved over 70 years can be. The aftertaste should not be measured in seconds, but in minutes, and the empty glass keeps changing and giving different tones for hours. If you leave a little bit in the bottle for the day after (yes, it's difficult, I know!) the wine is even better on the second day. There is no reason to believe that if the wine is as good as it is today it is not going to reach its one-hundredth birthday. The wine is mainly Viura, but there might have been a little bit of the white Garnacha Blanca in the blend. At this stage nobody really knows (or cares). This is simply otherworldly, superb, perfect wine, whose only improvement would come if they had bottled some magnums! A dream. A unique, historical wine. If there is a perfect white Rioja, this is surely it. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2039.

Wine Advocate (93+)

The 2007 Imperial Gran Reserva is again a great wine in the making. Red fruit and plenty of spices (nutmeg), the palate shows great acidity and abundant tannins that need resolving with time in bottle. Great tension and nerve. I think it will take some time to be released, which is good as it will require some patience. Drink 2016-2021.

Vinous (94)

Deep, bright ruby. Highly complex, expansive scents of ripe dark berries, cherry pie, mocha, pipe tobacco and vanilla, with a smoky overtone. Sweet, deep blackberry and floral pastille flavors are complicated by notes of spicecake and bitter chocolate, showing unlikely vivacity on the back half. This ripe and rich but elegant Rioja combines finishes supple, smoky and very long, with velvety tannins making a late appearance to add grip.

Wine Enthusiast (95)

Certain wines exude a sense of elevated excellence. This one gets to that level via aromas of spice cake, baked plum and tobacco aromas. A stocky saturated palate is structured and built to age, while this tastes of cool blue fruits, herbs, coffee and chocolate. A smoothly textured finish deals cocoa and mocha notes. Drink through 2040.

Wine Enthusiast (95)

Certain wines exude a sense of elevated excellence. This one gets to that level via aromas of spice cake, baked plum and tobacco aromas. A stocky saturated palate is structured and built to age, while this tastes of cool blue fruits, herbs, coffee and chocolate. A smoothly textured finish deals cocoa and mocha notes. Drink through 2040.

Wine Enthusiast (97)

This is a fabulous gran reserva from a very good but lightly heralded vintage. Aromas of spiced plum, black olive, fig, tobacco and cassis come together like a puzzle. A deep, pure palate shows near-perfect balance, while this tastes of plum, berry fruits and earthy spice. Smooth, elegant and chocolaty on the finish, this delivers all one can ask for from Rioja. Drink through 2035.

Wine Enthusiast (97)

This is a fabulous gran reserva from a very good but lightly heralded vintage. Aromas of spiced plum, black olive, fig, tobacco and cassis come together like a puzzle. A deep, pure palate shows near-perfect balance, while this tastes of plum, berry fruits and earthy spice. Smooth, elegant and chocolaty on the finish, this delivers all one can ask for from Rioja. Drink through 2035.