Villota Rioja Tempranillo
Pairs with: Grilled lamb chops with rosemary, slow-roasted pork belly, wild boar pasta ragù, beef brisket, or a plate of aged Manchego cheese and jamón Ibérico
Good for: Elevating a serious dinner party, cellaring for a decade or more, or impressing a wine lover with a deeply soulful, single-estate alternative to standard mass-produced Riojas
Grape: 85% Tempranillo, 13% Graciano, and 2% Garnacha
I am from: Rioja Alavesa, Rioja, Spain (Sourced from the historic Finca San Rafael in Laserna)
The Story: While many Rioja wines are blended from grapes grown across the entire region, Villota is a champion of pure, single-estate terroir. The historic Finca San Rafael has been owned and lovingly cultivated by the Pérez Villota family since 1930, sitting on a stunning, sun-soaked meander directly along the bank of the Ebro River. The family practices old-school, non-interventionist viticulture without chemical herbicides or pesticides, working with low-yielding vines planted between 1930 and 1990. The secret weapon in this red blend is the 13% Graciano—a notoriously difficult grape to grow that gives the voluptuous Tempranillo an unmatched structural spine and electric freshness. Fermented with native wild yeasts, the wine is aged for 14 to 16 months in French oak barrels and finished in concrete tanks to perfectly polish its edges.
Why You'll Love Me: It is an incredibly seamless, elegant, and multidimensional wine that beautifully unites modern fruit purity with classical Rioja soul. It pours a dense, deep ruby-violet color, throwing off a gorgeous nose of ripe cassis, dark plums, and spiced sour cherries, seamlessly layered with complex undertones of graphite, leather, lavender, and sweet cedarwood. On the palate, it delivers a medium-to-full body packed with concentrated black fruit density. Thanks to its river-terrace chalky limestone soils, it boasts a vibrant, weightless flow, held together by a tight grip of powdery, fine-grained tannins and a long, savory finish accented by a hint of dark chocolate and white pepper.
