Gold Medal |
Mundus Vini |
Mundus Vini - GOLD
23rd Grand International Wine Award - 2018 |
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92 |
International Wine Review |
The 2015 Casa La Rad Blanco is a superb bottling. It displays a medium yellow straw color, a. waxy nose with a touch of honeycomb and ripe pear; and a hint of yellow mango. It offers a creamy attack and is full-bodied with well integrated flavors. Hints of ripe orchard fruit. Finishes clean and long.
"Spanish Wines of Value and Quality" - June 20, 2019 |
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92 |
Vinous Media |
(made from 50+ year old vines; fermented in 500 liter French oak barrels, with malo and a year of aging in new French oak barriques) Limpid yellow. Powerful, mineral-tinged Meyer lemon and pear nectar scents show very good clarity and complicating hints of anise and toasty lees. Sappy and precise on the palate, offering intense, mineral-laced orchard and citrus fruit flavors and deeper suggestions of buttered toast, peach and honeydew melon that emerge on the back half. Shows impressive energy and finishes silky and very long, with a suave floral nuance hanging on.
2019 - 2025
"Rioja Looks Back and Ahead" - February 21, 2019 |
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92 |
Wine Review Online |
In my experience, most white Rioja is either forgettable or downright bad, for one of two reasons: Either the wines are thin and cheap-tasting, or they’re overoaked and clumsy. This one avoids both of those pitfalls, showing very good substance and depth of flavor, with mostly stone fruit notes but also a juicy tropical layer as well. Light spice and just a subtle whiff of toast from 12 months of ageing in new French oak barrels adds additional aromatic complexity plus some pleasant grip in the finish, which nicely off-sets the juiciness of the 30% Malvasia (a quite notable component, along with 50% Chardonnay and 20% Viura). You’ll have a tough time finding a better modern-style white Rioja than this one.
Michael Franz - October 30, 2018 |
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92 |
Wine Align Canada |
This is a lovely contemporary and creative white Rioja with real class. The chardonnay sits at 50% with malvasia and viura. It is very elegant, supple and creamy with some freshness as well. Lovely lemon grass, mirabel plum, spice and a hint of vanilla on the nose. It is medium weight, so well balanced, supple and nicely intense. The length is excellent.
Tasted December 2018; David Lawrason |
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92 |
JamesSuckling.com |
Impressive fruit purity. Aromas of white peaches, jasmine and some lemon peel, Gentle and fleshy with a long finish. Drink now.
August 2018 |
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91+ |
View from the Cellar |
The regular bottling of Rioja Blanc from Casa La Rad is again a rather surprising blend of fifty percent Chardonnay, thirty percent Malvasia and twenty percent Viura. The chardonnay vines are fully forty years of age, so obviously this has been an important component here for quite some time. The chalky vineyards are farmed organically and the wine is barrel-fermented and then aged in one hundred percent new French barriques for twelve months prior to bottling. The 2015 Blanco offers up a pretty nose of white peach, coconut, limestone soil tones, a bit of almond and a well done framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is crisp, full-bodied, nascently complex and very nicely balanced, with a fine core and good acidity, lovely focus and a long, quite classy young finish. I have no experience with how a Rioja Blanco with this much chardonnay in the blend will age, but this seems to have the balance to do so. Good juice in a rather unique style. 2018-2030+?
Issue #75 – May/June 2018 |
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91 |
Wine Align Canada |
Ripe, notably wood-inflected, dense, round, fleshy, highly concentrated, this has significant flavour density and generous oak influence, though it also has the fruit and weight to support. Good white wine, even if not immediately identifiable as a Spanish white, it's well made with very good length. Drink now, or better yet, hold a year or two in the cellar.
Tasted December 2018; John Szabo, MS |
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91 |
Wine Enthusiast |
From the start, this oak-aged white blend is smooth and nicely knitted together, with peach, vanilla and tropical fruit aromas sticking out. A full-bodied palate is balanced by citrusy acidity, while this tastes explicitly of green apple and oak, with buttery notes rising up on the finish. Drink this elevated acid-driven mix of Chardonnay, Malvasia and Viura through 2025.
May 2019 |
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91 |
International Wine Report |
Aged for 12 months in French oak, this wine is a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 30% Malvasia, 20% Viura, all sourced from vines over 50 years of age. The buttery nose entices right out of the gate with poached pear and brioche elements impressing. The palate shows a really good weight and viscosity with brioche, toasted macadamia nut, white peach and vanilla cream flavors. Nicely balanced, this great wine will age marvelously over the next ten plus years.
June 2018 |
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