Grape

Tempranillo

Its Origins

Juan Carlos López de Lacalle, owner and winemaker of Artadi, is recognised as one of the greatest names in the business in Spain. The winery was once a co-operative of 13 growers who owned well-sited vineyards around the town of Laguardia in the Alavesa wine region of Rioja. Juan Carlos saw the potential of these wonderful vineyards and purchased the Bodega, immediately amending the philosophy and style of winemaking. The winemaking is modern with an emphasis upon fruit driven wines, characterised by the terroir of individual vineyard sites – a far cry from the philosophy of traditional Rioja producers. French oak is used, not American, allowing the principle variety, Tempranillo, eloquent natural expression.

What The Critics Say

93/100 Parker's Wine Advocate, Luis Guttierez

"The 2012 La Poza de Ballesteros comes from a plot opposite Valdeginés where the soils are a little deeper and are quite similar to Valdeginés. However, the wines are very different, and the main difference here is the exposition. This wine has a different style of maturity, more Mediterranean, mixing aromas of plums and aromatic herbs and a voluptuous palate. It is a ripe and showy wine with good complexity and depth, notes of black tea, tobacco, balsamic, and all of it well married with those ripe plums. Within its ripeness and forward character it remains quite balanced; you won't find any excess in the bottle. Again it shows the harmony I see in all the 2012s. Again, this is approachable from now, juicy, ripe and hedonistic. 6,000 bottles produced. 2012 seems to be e very good vintage for Artadi, ripe and powerful, but with very well-integrated oak, serious wines."

93/100 Wine Enthusiast

"This is yet another dense, powerful single-vineyard wine from Artadi. The palate is pure silk and very ripe. Saturated blackberry, boysenberry, toast, chocolate and herbal flavors finish plump and smooth. This delicious, unctuous heavyweight from a hot year is made for early consumption; drink through 2019."

93/100 Vinous, Josh Raynolds

"(100% tempranillo): Inky ruby. Heady, intensely perfumed aromas of red fruit preserves, smoky minerals, licorice and Asian spices. Rich, dense and sharply focused, offering intense dark fruit and floral pastille flavors lifted and sharpened by juicy acidity. Finishes with striking power and persistence, with building but sweet and harmonious tannins that meld smoothly with the wine's juicy, penetrating fruit."