Cune Monopole Clasico 2015
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Robert
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#17 wine in VinePair's Top 50 of 2018
Straw yellow color with slight golden tonalities. On the nose, this wine is complex, offering fruit notes such a pear, apple, white currant and white flowers -- along with some spice. On the palate, salinity and elegant acidity provide freshness.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The second vintage of the recovered traditional white, the 2015 Monopole Clásico is Viura with a good dollop of Manzanilla Sherry from Sanlúcar that adds biological notes and hints of nuts and spices. 2015 is the best vintage in recent years, with good quality and quantity, quite homogeneous wines from an early harvest. This wine matured in well-seasoned, neutral 300-, 400- and 500-liter oak barrels for eight months and was then blended with the Manzanilla. This is the way Monopole was always produced decades ago. CVNE's classical winemaker, Ezequiel García "El Brujo," died in August 2017, and they added a black band on a corner of the label as an homage to him. It's quite lean and at first you don't notice the biological aromas much; in wines like this that character tends to grow with time in bottle, and it does appear with time in the glass as the wine breathes. It's subtle and with some sharpness and chalky sensations on the palate, very tasty and long.
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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.
Commonly found as a single varietal white or blended with Malavasia and Grenache Blanc, Viura is a vital, leading white grape of Rioja. It also thrives in the lower elevations of the Penedes, where it takes the name Macabeo and adds aromatic and fruity notes to the traditional Cava blend with Parellada and Xarel-lo. Somm Secret—Called Macabeu in France, this versatile grape is prevalent in Roussillon where it makes still, sparkling, dry and sweet wines.
Highly regarded for distinctive and age-worthy red wines, Rioja is Spain’s most celebrated wine region. Made up of three different sub-regions of varying elevation: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental. Wines are typically a blend of fruit from all three, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta, at the highest elevation, is 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 and higher alcohol, which can add great body and richness to a blend.
Fresh and fruity Rioja wines labeled, Joven, (meaning young) see minimal aging before release, but more serious Rioja wines undergo multiple years in oak. Crianza and Reserva styles are aged for one year in oak, and Gran Reserva at least two, but in practice this maturation period is often quite a bit longer—up to about fifteen years.
Tempranillo provides the backbone of Rioja red wines, adding complex notes of red and black fruit, leather, toast and tobacco, while Garnacha supplies body. In smaller percentages, Graciano and Mazuelo (Carignan) often serve as “seasoning” with additional flavors and aromas. These same varieties are responsible for flavorful dry rosés.
White wines, typically balancing freshness with complexity, are made mostly from crisp, fresh Viura. Some whites are blends of Viura with aromatic Malvasia, and then barrel fermented and aged to make a more ample, richer style of white.