Deep ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe red and dark berries, incense, pipe tobacco and vanilla, lifted by a suave floral topnote. Palate-staining black raspberry and cherry-vanilla flavors are sharpened by a mineral nuance. Smooth, sweet and expansive on the finish, which shows excellent persistence, repeating floral character and harmonious tannins.

The ripe and hedonistic nose is showy with violets and blueberries making it much more aromatic with subtle spices. The palate shows sophisticated, velvety tannins that are laced with texture, good acidity and balance. A great showing for this wine. Accessible and able to age.

…wild, floral and herbal as a whole. Saucy,…salty flavors are powerful, while the finish is tannic, voluminous…

Displays aromas of dark plum, spice, licorice, and smoke. It is flavorful and mouth-filling and reveals vibrant dark fruit with good purity. it’s well integrated with good structure and a long finish. An outstanding wine.

Four varieties – tempranillo, graciano, garnacha and mazuelo – meld in a ripe, cool, harmonious Rioja Alta wine, its bright acidity and gentle tannins woven into silky red fruit. While the texture is supple, the flavors are youthfully intense, needing several hours in a decanter or several years in bottle to show themselves completely.

The 2010 Coleccion Vivanco 4 Varietales is a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, 10% Garnacha and 5% Mazuelo aged without racking for 20 months in oak barrels and has an explosive nose of violets and blueberries complicated by sweet spices and a mineral sensation. It looks like the blends work better than the separate varieties, showing good complexity and balance in a palate with sweet, polished tannins, great purity of flavors and a long, pleasant aftertaste. Superb! Drink 2014-2018.

Blueberry, rubber and mint are the key aromas on what amounts to a linear, narrow nose. This Tempranillo-led blend is juicy and fresh in feel as opposed to thick and heavy. Flavors of plum, mint and peppery spice set up a finish that flashes by with light herbal aftershocks and not much more.

This is a blend of tempranillo, gtaciano, garnacha and mazuelo grown at the Vivanco family vineyards in Rioja Alta. The varieties are vinified separately and aged two years in new French oak before blending. The oak shows first, in a lish French roast coffee scent. What follows is a mineral wash of tannins over a vast sea of fruit. This is meat, rich and savory, more generous than complex, a lovely steak wine.

There’s restraint to the ripeness of this garnacha, the fruit holding to freshness with scents of sage and fennel, tightening around an apple-like acidity. The spice in the finish lends sophistication to an otherwise pleasingly warm and rustic red. A fine match for braised tripe.

The 2008 Collecion Vivanco 4 Varietales is a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, 10% Garnacha, and 5% Mazuelo (Carignan) aged for 20 months in new French oak. The wine was kept sur lie with batonnage during the first 4 months. Toasty oak, smoke, Asian spices, lavender, balsamic, and assorted black fruits inform the nose of this already complex, savory, precision-balanced effort with a lingering, pure finish. It will offer a drinking window extending from 2013 to 2023.

Inky, dark and packed with blueberry and boysenberry aromas. This is a ripe, potent Rioja with a strapping feel, concentration, rugged tannins and a mix of herbal blackberry, prune and plum fl avors. Shows pencil lead and blackberry on the chunky fi nish. Drink now through 2016.

This silky red offers ripe flavors of black cherry, blackberry and plum, joined by accents of toast, mineral and spice. Shows good density, yet remains lively through the toasty finish. Balanced and vibrant. Drink now through 2018.

Full ruby-red. Black raspberry, cherry compote and cola on the nose, with notes of vanilla and clove suggesting oak. Plump and juicy on the palate, offering sweet dark berry flavors and a more serious note of bitter chocolate. The sweet finish shows brisk, spicy cut, a hint of cherry-cola and admirable persistence.

The 2007 Colección Vivanco 4 Varietales offers up a toasty nose with a hint of coconut along with an assortment of red and black fruits. Smooth-textured, concentrated, and lengthy, it has enough structure to evolve for 2-3 years but can be enjoyed now.

Tight on the nose, with dense aromas of black fruit, leather, dried cheese and earth. It’s also fairly smoky and lively, with textured tannins, a generous mouthfeel and complex flavors of berry, pepper and spice. A lively, forward style made from Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha and Mazuelo.