Winemaker Notes
Pair with red meats and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
An intense nose with a whiff of leather, mushroom, vanilla oak and baked damp earth. It’s a fascinating red with juicy red fruit, fresh acidity and a spicy finish that gives real pleasure. Sinewy tannins resolve themselves on the finish in an enjoyable, juicy flourish.
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Wine & Spirits
A selection from CVNE’s vineyards in Alavesa, Viña Real is ripe and chocolate-rich in 2011. Aged in both French and American oak, the influence of the oak is prominent at the moment, but there’s plenty of ripe raspberry warmth to fill it. The wine tastes like a savory version of chocolate-dipped raspberries, and it’s hard to argue with its deliciousness, especially if there’s a seared duck breast nearby.
Owned by the CVNE family , Viña Real dates back to 1920. Today this winery is not only a winemaking pioneer in ageing Rioja Alavesa but a timeless brand that has always remained faithful to its roots, with authenticity and sincerity at the fore.
Ever since then, a meticulous balance between tradition and modernity has defined the shape and content of Viña Real.
2004 saw the inauguration of the new Viña Real winery in Laguardia, where the whole process takes place from receiving the grapes to dispatching bottled wines.
Rioja Alavesa grapes are at the very heart of this winery. The winery’s name was inspired by the proximity of its vineyards to the old Camino Real. Clinging to this same patch of earth and blending into the Cerro de la Mesa hill is a monumental 30,000-square metre vat: this is the Viña Real building, an iconic design built in 2004 that masterfully blends the construction into the Riojan terrain.
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.