Winemaker Notes
Blend: 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Cune Gran Reserva, a blend of 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo, matured in barrel for two years and was kept in bottle for three years before it was released. It had a lot of freshness, with notes of red fruit and an iron-like touch, reminiscent of beef blood and meat, austere and serious. The oak is pretty much in the background. The palate is sleek and polished, with fine tannins and a soft mouthfeel. Very good balance and drinkability.
Rating: 91+
Cvne, is situated in Rioja in the traditional neighborhood of the station, where the oldest wineries of Rioja Alta established themselves, for the main reason of transporting their goods to the port of Bilbao.
In 1879, two brothers decided to set up a business in the recently flourishing trade of the wine business. C.V.N.E., Compañía Vinicola del Norte de España (The Northern Spanish Wine Company) or la Cuné, as it is commonly known in Haro, was created. This cellar still reflects the origins of the company and is kept in the traditional neighborhood of the Haro station.
The Cune winery in Haro, is made up of a group of buildings, mostly from the 19th century and arranged around a courtyard surrounded by pavilions for the purpose of wine production, aging, and bottling.
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.