Winemaker Notes
On the nose, notes of ripe red fruit, noble woods, and mineral memories. Great harmony in the mouth. On the palate it is powerful, with round and silky tannins, which reveal the extraordinary quality of the plot that gives this wine its name.
Blend: 67% Tempranillo, 23% Graciano, 10% Mazuela
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Medium-to full-bodied, creamy and ripe with silky tannins. Lovely, savory character with herbs, smoked meat, salted olives and cherries. Orange peel, too. Very approachable with a long, supple finish. 67% tempranillo, 23% graciano and 10% mazuelo. From the oldest vineyard of Contino. Drink after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I sense that there is a change in direction in the 2019 Viña del Olivo in search of freshness and elegance form the limestone-rich soils. In a warm year like 2019, the wine was produced with the blend of 67% Tempranillo, 23% Graciano and 10% Mazuelo; it's higher in Mazuelo, which gives it freshness and shows in the wine, which is "only" 13.71% alcohol, harvested early like the majority of 2019s and keeping a pH of 5.56. The wine is quite flattering and has contained ripeness, good freshness and balance but ultimately lacks the complexity and depth of the 2020 that I tasted next to it. It matured in barrel for 12 months and in oak vat for a further four months. 9,773 bottles and 500 magnums were filled in June 2021.
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Wine Spectator
A fresh, linear red, with polished accents of star anise and toast playing off the range of crushed black cherry, eucalyptus and minerally notes of smoke and iron. Well-knit, sculpted tannins emerge to firm the aromatic finish. Tempranillo and Graciano. Drink now through 2029.
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.