Tempranillo Blends (Rioja)

Predominantly Tempranillo, traditionally blended with Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo (Cariñena). Tempranillo gives the backbone: red fruit, leather and a savoury, structured core with firm tannins. Garnacha adds body, warmth and riper fruit; Graciano brings aromatic lift, acidity and ageing potential; Mazuelo contributes colour, tannin and freshness. The blend is built around Rioja's signature partnership of fruit and American or French oak, which lends the vanilla, coconut and dill notes the region is known for. Ageing tiers (Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva) signal time in barrel and bottle, and with it a shift from bright and fruity toward tertiary complexity, dried fruit, tobacco and forest floor.

Conde Valdemar Rioja Reserva

For 124 years, five generations of the Bujanda family have produced some of the finest wines from Rioja. It was Joaquín Martínez Bujanda who started the company with 10 hectares of vines in Rioja Alavasa and over the years the estate has expanded to include vineyards across the region.

Chosen as one of the 5 Best Wine Cellars of Rioja by Wine and Spirits magazine their Conde de Valdemar range of wines includes the crisp, energetic Viura white and a selection of beautifully made Tempranillo wines from Crianza through Reserva and the top-of-the-range Gran Reserva, a blend of Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano from the family vineyards in Oyón, Logrõno and Ausejo.

Country

Spain

Region

Rioja

Appellation

Rioja Alavesa

ABV

14.0

Sweetness

Dry

Ageing

19 months in American and French oak barrels

About Rioja

Rioja is Spain's most famous wine region, set in the north around the Ebro river and named after the Rio Oja. It earned Spain's first DOCa, the country's highest quality tier, and remains the benchmark against which Spanish reds are measured. Three sub-zones shape its range: Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa, cooler and higher, give structured, elegant, ageworthy wines, while the warmer Rioja Oriental (formerly Baja) produces riper, fuller styles often used in blends. Tempranillo is the heart of the region, traditionally partnered with Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo. Rioja's real signature, though, is oak: the long barrel and bottle ageing behind the Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva classifications, which take the wines from bright red fruit toward leather, tobacco and dried-fruit complexity. It is the classic study in how ageing and oak, as much as grape and site, define a region's identity.