£30 doesn’t go as far as it used to. In wine, it can sometimes feel challenging to find bottles at this pricepoint that offer real complexity, intensity and structure. But it shouldn't; come in to Uncorked and talk to us. When it comes to the 2017 CVNE Vina Real Gran Reserva Especial Rioja, £29.21 will take you a long way. Yes, it’s still a tad on the young side. It probably wants a bit of time in your cellar. Maybe not as much as the 1947 or the 1956 vintages, both of which the Wine Advocate has given 100-point scores to at recent retrospective tastings. But 2017 also offers an excellent vintage, one which the bodega has seen fit to call 'Especial'; and they only put that on the labels of their top years.
CVNE is the Northern Spanish Wine Company, one of the great presences on the scene when it comes to traditionally made Rioja. There are several independently run bodegas under the CVNE umbrella (we are also quite partial to the sibling wineries Imperial and Contino). Vina Real hit the scene in the 1920s, taking fruit exclusively from vineyards in Rioja Alavesa, the smallest, most northerly Rioja sub-region, where vineyards cluster in the sierra foothills.
Everything that goes into Vina Real comes from small parcels over the age of 35, on bush vines planted at between 500-650 metres altitude, on relatively poor, chalky clay soils. It makes for very high quality raw material. It's almost all Tempranillo, with a little Graciano for spice and structure. Gran Reserva is the longest category of cellar aging in Rioja, and the time this has spent in wood prepares it for a long bottle evolution. Right now, the wine is all about raspberry and sandalwood. The barrels it has been raised in are a mix of French and American; the French wood has brought a note of dusty char, and the American has added vanilla and clove. /NT
