Rioja - Red Wines

It's Rioja Jim, but not as we know it! Partial carbonic maceration to promote the bright primary fruitiness of the Tempranillo, raspberry and juicy cherry, sappy and bright, with a thirst quenching tang. There's some lov...(read more)

A lovely Crianza from Bodegas Ruconia. This is a firm favourite at L&S. Lots of lively cherry fruit wrapped up in attractive vanilla oak. Medium bodied, the wine holds a good high tone throughout. Another Rioja that...(read more)

This really is a superb vintage of this wine, so much to love in the more traditional Rioja style here, liquorice, coffee, meat juices, leather, redcurrants, herbs and cedar. But the palate then delivers everything in su...(read more)

Pure, supple blackberry and myrtle fruit, floral and with some delicate herbal touches. In the mouth there is a juicy, crunchiness, dark fruit, bilberries, herbs once more, so fresh and pure.

Pies Negros showcases the village of Ábalos, using a series of parcels planted between 1920 and 2010. Marrying Tempranillo with 10% Graciano, it's a deeply coloured, higher altitude style with lots of chalky miner...(read more)

Finer and more fragrant than the 2020 release, Pies Negros is a cuvée of Tempranillo and 15% Graciano from vineyards between 600 and 650 metres in Ábalos. Matured in older oak, it has subtle, stony reductio...(read more)

Roberto Oliván's 'very own house wine', the Xerico is co-fermented Tempranillo and Viura, resulting in a spicy, slightly 'sauvage' wine, with an incredible freshness and energy from whole bunch fermentation. Sligh...(read more)

This is only the fifth vintage of La Dula, but it has already established itself among the best Garnachas in Rioja. Featuring what Sandra Bravo calls "white wine acidity", this hails from vineyards over 600 met...(read more)

Finca de Los Locos is a single, 2.8 hectare parcel in Baños Ebro, planted in 1981 with bush vines of Tempranillo, 20% Graciano and 2% Viura. There is lots of limestone in this sandy vineyard which leaves the wine...(read more)

Anyone who argues that you need old vines to make a great wine in Rioja, or elsewhere, needs to visit Paso Las Mañas, which was planted in 2013 at an extreme 720 metres in Samaniego. Mountain herb aromas are a pre...(read more)

2017 was not an easy harvest, but it produced some beautiful and classical wines, like the 2017 Viña Ardanza Reserva […] It's ripe and aromatic, tertiary, with 14.5% alcohol and mellow acidity, a medium-bodied pal...(read more)

Three very old parcels between 70 and 80 years' old supply the grapes for this whole bunch-fermented cuvée of more or less equal parts Garnacha, Tempranillo and Monastrell. Serious, sappy and tannic, this wouldn't...(read more)