2001 Conde De Valdemar Crianza Rioja

[wondersofwine]

I'm not personally familiar with the wine but K & L, a large California retail operation that also sells wine online, says that is their most popular Rioja wine. It is from Bodegas Martonez which is a pretty good sized operation. They bottle about 150,000 cases of wine annually of which (if I calculated the percentages correctly) about 36,000 cases are the regular Crianza. The wine is 85% from Tempranillo grapes and 15% from Mazuelo grapes. The Crianza spends nine months in stainless steel tanks and 16 months in oak casks, and then additional time in bottle. (The Conde de Valdemar Red Reserva spends 26 months in oak casks).
I think literally Conde de Valdemar translates to "Count of Valdemar" but in this case I think it is just a name chosen by the winemakers to denote some "class" or tie in with European royalty. The name appears in the lineage of Danish royalty.
Sounds like a fun, tasty, basic Rioja wine at a good price.