Score | Publication | Review | Copy |
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 |
Score | Publication | Review | Copy |
92 | Vinous Media | Shimmering yellow-gold. Pear nectar, peach and tangerine aromas show very good clarity and pick up suggestions of buttered toast, vanilla and chamomile with air. Juicy and broad on the palate, offering ripe orchard and pit fruit flavors that slowly tighten up and take on a floral nuance as the wine opens out. The vanilla and floral notes repeat on the finish, which hangs on with strong, spicy tenacity. 2021-2027 Josh Raynolds - April 2021 |
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90+ | View from the Cellar | The single vineyard bottling of Blanco from Casa La Rad also employs fifty percent Chardonnay in its cépages, with the balance made up of thirty percent Malvasia and twenty percent Viura. The vineyard sits at six hundred and sixty to seven hundred and fifty meters and has chalky soil tones. All of the varieties are barrel-fermented in five hundred liter barrels and then aged in two hundred and twenty-five liter French casks, all of them new. The 2016 version delivers a very refined nose of pear, chalky soil tones, a hint of fresh almond, spring flowers and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied, focused and quite elegant in profile, with a good core, a nice foundation of soil tones, zesty acids and a long, nascently complex and well-balanced finish. The new oak here is done very elegantly, but, at least out of the blocks, the wood covers up the soil signature a bit and it will be interesting to follow the wine in the cellar and see if more Rioja soil elements arrive with bottle age. 2020-2040. Issue #86 - March/April 2020 |
Score | Publication | Review | Copy |
93 | View from the Cellar | The Casa La Rad estate bottling of Rioja Blanco also utilized chardonnay in its cépages, with the blend here fifty percent chardonnay, thirty percent malvasia and twenty percent viura,
with all of the varieties barrel-fermented and raised for a full year in new French oak casks. The 2017 version comes in at thirteen percent octane and delivers a lovely, new oaky bouquet of pear, apple, lemon blossoms, chalky minerality, citrus peel and a well-done foundation of
vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with excellent focus and balance, a lovely core, bright acids and a long, new oaky and complex finish. The new oak here is done with a very, very deft touch. Fine, fine juice. 2022-2045. John Gilman – Issue 98 March/April 2022 |
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92 | OwenBargreen.com | 2017 Casa La Rad Rioja Blanco- The outstanding 2017 Casa La Rad Rioja Blanco is drinking right at its peak. Baking spice dusted melon, white peach and shades of damp earth, with nutty undercurrents all combine on the palate. Delicious to consume now, enjoy over the next seven plus years. Drink 2023-2030- Owen Bargreen - October, 2023 |
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92 | Wine Enthusiast | This light yellow wine offers a bouquet of green apple and freesia. It is full in the mouth, with sophisticated flavors of white peach, marzipan, baking spice and caramel. Touches of jasmine and eucalyptus appear on the lingering finish. M.D. - June/July 2022 |
Score | Publication | Review | Copy |
93 | View from the Cellar | The 2018 Rioja Blanco from Casa la Rad is not your typical white Rioja, as the cépages for this bottling is fifty percent chardonnay, thirty percent malvasia and only twenty percent viura! The wine is barrel-fermented and undergoes malo in two hundred and twenty-five liter French oak barrels, after which it is raised in the same casks for one year. The wine offers up a complex and nicely new oaky nose of pear, lemon, white soils, musky floral tones and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is vibrant, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a fine core of fruit, good soil signature and grip, bouncy acids and lovely balance on the long and nascently complex finish. This is not a classical example of Rioja Blanco, but it is an excellent wine. 2023-2033+. John Gilman - Issue #103 January/February 2023. |