Artuke 2024 La Condenada Tinto 750ml

Appellation: Rioja DOCa, Rioja Alavesa (Baños de Ebro)

Grape Varieties: Field blend, roughly 80% Tempranillo with Graciano, Garnacha and white Palomino Fino

The quality hierarchy, also consistent with the prices of the wines, is pretty clear and defined and clearly followed in a year like 2024. The finest and most complete wine is without a doubt the 2024 La Condenada, a single-vineyard wine from a 0.75-hectare plot in the Paraje Camino del Ciego in the village of Baños de Ebro. It was planted with a field blend of approximately 80% Tempranillo and the remaining 20% a mixture of Graciano, Garnacha and white Palomino Fino. Like the other wines, it fermented with indigenous yeasts and uncrushed grapes and matured in used 600-liter foudres for one year. It's serious, elegant and nuanced, with some floral notes, hints of wild herbs and berries and a subtle spicy twist. It has a medium-bodied palate with great balance and freshness, very fine tannins and superb precision, cleanliness, focus and symmetry. Like in previous years, it should develop nicely in bottle, as it has the stuffing and balance between the components to do so.

Score: 98 points -- Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate, 2026

Food Pairing: Milk-fed lamb roasted slowly in a wood oven, the classic Rioja table centrepiece.