2015 Bodegas Vinsacro Dioro Rioja 750 ml

Released Only in the Best Vintages

If you want to taste an authentic red Rioja crafted in an epic, modern style, boasting a nearly-black hue, ultra-concentrated, with an endless, mouth-filling finish, today’s 2015 “Dioro” is for you. The Escudero family’s Bodegas Vinsacro, one of Rioja’s top producers, has been making wine since 1825. Dioro is their flagship offering — made from century-old vines and released only in the best vintages. 2015 was one of the greatest of the last 30 years — said to be for Rioja what 2010 was for Bordeaux. Critics raved over this structured effort, with Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate calling it “an excellent modern version of a classical Rioja” and laying on 92 points. At $22 per bottle on case-buys, we have 200 cases for lovers of big, rich European reds to enjoy now and often.

The Escuderos are a fifth-generation winemaking family with deep ties to Spain’s Grávalos region. In the mid-19th century, Juan Escudero began crafting rustic, powerful wines here amidst the dusty foothills of southwestern Rioja Baja, aging them in large oak casks.

A century and a half later, the Escudero brothers still tend to vineyards on the same lands planted in traditional “vidau” style, with varieties like Tempranillo, Garnacha, and Graciano intermixed. The family’s 370 acres are home to vines 50 years of age on average, though many are more than a cen­tu­ry old. Located on the south­ern slope of Mount Yer­ga, at al­ti­tudes be­tween 1,200 and 2,000 feet above sea lev­el, the soils are littered with pebbles, offering up low-yield harvests and Riojas of extreme concentration.

The Bordeaux-trained Amador Escudero and his brothers decided to depart from their father’s winery and start their own, Bodegas Vinsacro, building a state-of-the-art facility in Pradejón. Their first release came in 1997; a few years later, their 2001 vintage exploded onto the map when Robert Parker fell in love with Dioro, calling it “exceptional” and “full-bodied and ripe, with superb purity.”

2015 is shaping up to be a vintage of equal magnificence in Rioja, the answer to the legendary 2010 on the Right Bank or in Tuscany, offering “powerful concentration and richness” says Jancis Robinson. Vinsacro’s Dioro was drawn off 100-year-old vines, where plots are hand-picked and vinified separately. It was an early harvest after a sunny, dry growing season, the tiny berries packed with sumptuous dark-berry fruit and vibrant acids.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate fell hard for this 2015, calling the palate “full-bodied but perfectly balanced, compact, powerful and serious, with abundant tannins, extract and clout.” Pound for pound, you won’t find this level of chiseled opulence for the price elsewhere in Spain.

- Wine Access Wine Team