100 Yo Rioja DO

Pristine cherries, plums and a touch of grapefruit with grilled herbs and tile. Lovely texture and transparency here with a mineral twist. Tannins are fresh and vertical. Pure and lively. Drink now. ZEKUN SHUAI, JamesSuckling.com

The 2020 Cemento is 100% Tempranillo sourced from Rioja Alta. As the name suggests, it aged in concrete vats. Exhibiting a purple hue, the reductive nose offers notes of wild herbs and cherries. With a dry, firm and juicy palate, it lingers on delightful fruit notes—a straightforward and tasty Rioja. JOAQUIN HIDALGO, Vinous

Excellent depth and complexity here, showing graphite, pencil shavings, inky blackberries, dark earth funk, black cherries and some roasted spices. Medium to full body with plenty of tight but creamy tannins. Juicy, pretty long and youthful. 100% tempranillo. Better from 2024. ZEKUN SHUAI, JamesSuckling.com

Laderas de Cabama is 100% Tempranillo, crafted from a single plot of 40-year-old vines in Ollauri. It grows on the classic clay/limestone soil of the Rioja Alta. This single-vineyard bottling used to be made in a similar style to Valenciso’s flagship Reserva, in that it was built to age in barrel and bottle before release. From the 2018 vintage, Valenciso has sought to craft Laderas de Cabama in a younger, more fruit-forward style. The fruit is picked a little earlier and the winemaking employs a portion of whole-berry, semi-carbonic fermentation, bringing a more primary, juicy profile.

No new oak is used. Instead, fermentation occurs in cool concrete, followed by 14 months in used French oak barrels. The resulting wine is spicy and rich, with blackberry and plummy fruit, some spice and tobacco leaf notes from the whole-bunch fermentation. It boasts good depth and a tea-scented, full-bodied finish. Great on its own, this will also suit a wide variety of meat dishes.

Being part of the Rioja'n'Roll collective, Artuke is pushing the boundaries of Rioja. The 2022 Artuke Paso Las Mañas is a prime example of this innovation. It is 100% Tempranillo sourced from Samaniego, Rioja Alavesa. Aged for up to 12 months in foudres, this purple wine offers wild herbs and sour cherries on the nose, with violet and cedar hints. Dry and firm on the palate, the juicy and fine-grained tannins convey a compact, vibrant flow. This is a bold, fruit-forward wine bottled in a primary, reductive-like style, showcasing the dynamic spirit of modern Rioja winemaking. JOAQUIN HIDALGO, Vinous.com

Paso Las Mañas comes from one of the highest vineyards in Samaniego, planted as recently as 2013 at 720 metres. Denser and more compact than Artuke's other reds, even in a hot vintage like 2022, this is firm, chalky and very intense, with mountain herb aromas, damson, cranberry and blueberry flavours and a sturdy backbone of tannin.TIM ATKIN MW, Rioja Report 2025

The 2022 LZ is primary, fruit driven, young and fresh, bottled unoaked with moderate ripeness and alcohol. It's juicy and tender, with fine tannins, very nice balance and chalky minerality, transcending the concept of a young unoaked wine. 64,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2023. LUIS GUTIERREZ

LZ is a free-range expression via gravity and concrete. Un-oaked, juicy, deft, utterly typical of its place. Always wonderfully expressive of Lantziego’s cold clay dirt, LZ features crimson-spiced cranberry with rose petal florals and red lavender among plentiful herbs – pure smells of place. The palate is is built on a trademark fruit tannin natural acid twin-track. Simple and beautiful, with plenty of depth, spiced, earthily perfumed, ovoid, lissome and satisfying.

Macán is the joint project of Vega Sicilia of Ribera del Duero and Benjamin de Rothschild of Bordeaux. Together, they craft refined Rioja from prime Alavesa Tempranillo.

Generous, approachable, black cherry, cassis, vanilla, spice. Sleek tannins, polished, modern.