2018 CVNE Imperial Reserva Rioja 750 ml

CVNE is as close to a sure thing as you get in Rioja. Decanter said it’s among Rioja’s “best producers.” Jancis Robinson included it in what she called “The Rioja Aristocracy,” and Spanish-wine expert Luis Gutierrez of Wine Advocate declared them “one of the great bodegas not only of Rioja, but of the whole of Spain.” 

With their 2018 Imperial Rioja Reserva, they’ve thrown down a bottle that reminds the world why that stellar reputation is well deserved. Dark, saturated, rich, and polished, it inspired a rave from Wine Advocate: “Really very good, getting close to the complexity of a Gran Reserva but with the extra oomph of its youth.”

The Compañia Vinícola del Norte de España—also known as “CVNE,” or the more pronounceable “CUNE”—is a pioneer in Rioja. They produced the first Spanish wine to earn the #1 spot on Wine Spectator’s Top 100, and they were the nation’s first winery to employ gravity-flow technology in the cellar.

Their 2018 Gran Reserva comes from vines 40+ years of age—located in Torremontalbo, Briones, and Villalba—planted in poor chalky clay soils. In Rioja Alta’s cracked and rugged earth, vines have to earn everything they get. The tiny Tempranillo grapes comprising the core of this wine were harvested by hand from largely bush-trained plants. The wine spent two years in French and American oak, followed by another year in bottle before release.

Now, six years after harvest, it’s a complex, elegant, and deeply intense Rioja suitable for a wide array of cuisine, or simply a contemplative night in front of the fire.