Original: $23.99
-65%$23.99
$8.40The Story
For most of its history, this winery would not have sold you a bottle. Marques de Tomares is one of Rioja's historic estates, founded in 1910 by Don Roman Montana, on the back of a family grape-growing history going back to 1886. If the phylloxera angle is wanted, tie it to the 1886 growing history rather than to the winery's founding., and for decades it sold its wine only to Spain's elite social clubs and top restaurants, never to shops. Vega Sicilia played the same game, which is part of why you have heard of one and not the other. The founding family is still in charge, with grandkids and great-grandkids now working vines their grandfather planted. The Crianza is Rioja's traditional handshake: a minimum year in oak, more time resting in bottle, and none of the modern muscle that swept through the region in the 1990s. It's the bottle to open on a Tuesday when you want Rioja to taste like Rioja.
Description
For most of its history, this winery would not have sold you a bottle. Marques de Tomares is one of Rioja's historic estates, founded in 1910 by Don Roman Montana, on the back of a family grape-growing history going back to 1886. If the phylloxera angle is wanted, tie it to the 1886 growing history rather than to the winery's founding., and for decades it sold its wine only to Spain's elite social clubs and top restaurants, never to shops. Vega Sicilia played the same game, which is part of why you have heard of one and not the other. The founding family is still in charge, with grandkids and great-grandkids now working vines their grandfather planted. The Crianza is Rioja's traditional handshake: a minimum year in oak, more time resting in bottle, and none of the modern muscle that swept through the region in the 1990s. It's the bottle to open on a Tuesday when you want Rioja to taste like Rioja.
