Winemaker Notes
Attractive cherry color, the nose is opulent, intense and very complex with predominant aromas of black and red fruits well integrated with toasted hints from the oak. On the palate, the wine is powerful, polished and well balanced with silky tannins which caress the mouth and are followed by a long finish.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
An aromatic and elegant nose showing a beautifully floral, red-berry and earth character. Full body, solid yet ripe and concentrated tannins and a very long and enticing, red-fruit finish. Tannins show balance and refinement. Needs a little time to soften.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Contino only bottles its Gran Reserva in magnum, so I tasted the 2009 Contino Gran Reserva in that format. It's a blend of Tempranillo and 10% each Garnacha and Graciano fermented in cement vats and matured in a mixture of used French (60%) and American barrels for at least two years. A good, modern classical Gran Reserva from what seems to be a very ripe vintage. It is showing some evolution with plenty of earthy notes and some lactic reduction, a bit cheesy, so give it time in the glass or the decanter! The flavors offer ripe fruit, black rather than red, plus spices and leather. Then on the palate it has good freshness, it's medium-bodied with fine tannins ending supple, almost salty.
-
Wine Spectator
Cherry, orange peel, licorice, tobacco and underbrush flavors mingle in this red, which is expressive, graceful and harmonious, in the traditional style, backed by light, firm tannins and citrusy acidity. Drink now through 2025. 50 cases imported.
Contino, the first Rioja château 1973, impelled by CVNE and the owners of the 62-hectare property located in the Rioja Alavesa. The history of the property dates from the 16th century, and is reflected in its name. The “contino” was the officer in charge of a guard corps of a hundred soldiers who protected the royal family "de contino” (continuously) from the times of the Catholic Monarchs onwards. According to the tradition, Saint Gregory, the patron saint of vineyards, passed through the lands of this same Rioja property, giving rise to the use of his figure in the logo of this winery, and to the use of his name for some of the plots now planted with vines. The wine produced on this property, fruity and elegant, is heir to the best Rioja tradition. It is made with an individualised grape harvesting system in which only grapes from the same vineyards that surround the old manor house are used. Their origin in the various plots is noted. The perfect combination of soils, Atlantic-Mediterranean climate and refined technique have made Contino, more than 30 years after the first vintage, a reference product both in and outside Spain. The 62 hectares of Laserna vineyards in Laguardia are protected by the hill called the Cerro de la Mesa, which gives this land a characteristic orientation and mesoclimate. The hand-cut grapes are transported along a short road to the outbuildings so as to avoid damaging their qualities.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.