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.
Blend: 70% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, 12% Grenache, 3% Viura
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of ripeness and richness, but there’s a floral and citrus undertone to the blueberries. Full-bodied and layered with beautiful, ripe tannins and opulent, light earthy character. Smoked meat and ripe berries at the finish. Chocolate, too. It’s soft and flavorful at the end. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Ripe blackberry aromas are a touch malty and baked, with earthy depth and a topping of smoky oak. A sinewy palate is both creamy and braced by firm acidity. Well-oaked raspberry and plum flavors finish with notes of cocoa and vanilla. Drink this fine gran reserva from 2020 to 2035.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Gran Reserva is bottled in magnum, blended from 70% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, 12% Garnacha and 3% Viura. The élevage was extended to three years in used oak barrels followed by a further three years in bottle. It feels quite ripe and a little heady, generously oaked. It's a very dry year, and the wine doesn't have the freshness of the 2010. It seems like the nature of the vintage and the warmish location have resulted in a very ripe year. There is more freshness on the palate, where there are tannins that might need more time in bottle and even some edgy acidity.
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.