Winemaker Notes
Deep cherry red in color with reddish hints. On the nose there is a perfect balance between wild berries such as blackberries, raspberries, currants, blueberries and aromas from the barrels, balsamic, licorice, pepper, cocoa and light sweet toffee notes. The palate reveals a wine characterized by its elegance, depth of flavor and fine, velvety tannins. The finish is long and complex.
Perfect for pairing with all types of meat and cured cheese and to be enjoyed on its own.
Blend: 85% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, Mazuelo & Garnacha
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A precise, layered nose that shows excellent purity despite some sweet oak spices. More berry fruit comes out as you give it some time in the glass. Plums, cherries, red berries with dark mushrooms, cured meat, grilled spices, stones, vanilla and iodine. Juicy, spiced berries quickly tighten up on the medium- to full-bodied palate with dusty, powerful tannins, allowing it to expand into the finish. It grows on the palate and the creaminess is already chiselled. This will age beautifully in the next 10-15 years. Drinkable now, but better from 2026.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The Imperial wines are meant to reflect Rioja tradition as remodernized classic wines that can be aged a long time. As part of that, the 2019 Imperial Reserva gets a high percentage of French oak (60%) and more new. Drinking well now, it’s quite full-bodied and powerful in ripe black fruit cradled in firm tannins benefiting from balanced acidity that helps temper the intensity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Imperial Reserva was cropped from a very healthy year with good ripeness and balance, a powerful vintage with a 185-day vegetative cycle. They look for finesse, precision and power, a blend of Tempranillo and 15% Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha put through optical sorting and fermented in oak vats with yeasts selected from the Imperial vineyards and a 20-day maceration, then it matured in barrels, 70% French and the rest American, for 24 months. It has 14% alcohol and a pH of 3.61. It feels very classical, with finesse and power, balanced and serious. It has tannins that call for food. 150,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2022.
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Vinous
The 2019 Reserva Imperial is a blend of 85% Tempranillo, 5% Garnacha, 5% Graciano, and 5% Mazuelo sourced from Villalba, Briones and Torremontalbo in Rioja Alta. Aged for 24 months in a combination of French (70%) and American (30%) oak barrels, this dark garnet wine reveals enticing aromas of blackberry and ripe plums from the Tempranillo, complemented by hints of hops and herbs from the other varieties. Dry, intense and juicy on the palate, it offers a fairly chalky and energetic mouthfeel. This is a classic Rioja with a nod to fruit-forwardness.
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Decanter
Roasted coffee, tar, and blackberry bouquet with notes of coconut on the nose. Lovely freshness on the attack, revealing dark berries, black tea, and more coconut cream, all held together by a firm woody grip. Aged for 24 months in American and French oak. The producer, CVNE (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España), has a history tracing back to 1879.
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Wine Spectator
A sculpted red, with ripe red cherry and currant fruit accented by briary herb, spice and floral notes. Reveals a plush quality to the texture without imparting too much weight, while a minerally underpinning pushes through to drive the lasting finish. Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha.
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.