2018 CVNE Imperial Reserva Rioja

Winemaker Notes:  Deep cherry red in color. The nose is attractive and complex, combining the fruit driven notes from the blend of varieties with those from the ageing in French and American oak barrels. The palate is well rounded, with the clear presence of supple, silky tannins and concludes with a long and very pleasing finish. We have here a wine which will evolve and develop well in the bottle over the years to come.

Blend: 85% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, Mazuelo y Garnacha

CRITICAL ACCLAIM


Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - "The red 2018 Imperial Reserva keeps the brand profile of finesse, precision and power, produced with grapes that were picked between October 8th and 26th in a year like in the past—cold, rain and snow followed by a warm summer. It's a blend of Tempranillo and 15% Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha that were put through optical sorting and fermented in oak vats with a 20-day maceration. It matured in barrel for 24 months. It's 14% alcohol and has a pH of 3.57. It's a textbook Reserva from Haro, fine-tuning the grapes they use here trying to control the power of this cuvée, which has to be powerful but keeping the freshness. This is quite young and lively, quite impressive, really very good, getting close to the complexity of a Gran Reserva but with the extra oomph of its youth."


Wine Enthusiast - "This deeply hued wine offers a bouquet of dark plum, black currant and aniseed. It is spicy at first sip, with flavors of clove, anisette, blackberry and cassis. Polished tannins make their presence known and then drift off into a cherry and violet finish"