Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby red in color, clean and bright. The nose shows intense notes of ripe red fruits and notes from barrel aging such as toast, spices and smoke. The palate reveals a well-structured wine with firm but polished, rounded tannins and notes of fruit compote and elegant oak. The long finish adds to the ability of the wine to age well for a considerable time in bottle.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A juicy, outstanding reserva that shows good weight and structure. Probably a bit more opulent this year, but still in line with CVNE's house style, which does not produce weighty wines. Fresh, structured and fine-boned, with excellent length. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Viña Real Reserva was cropped from a healthy year that delivered a ripe wine without excess and 14% alcohol while keeping the freshness and balance. It matured in barrel for 18 months. The nose is very 2019, with notes of damp earth and leather, powerful but with elegance and balance. The vintages are quite marked in this classical Viña Real range, which consists of this Reserva, the Crianza and the Gran Reserva.
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Wine Spectator
Lively and light on its feet, but with good focus to the ripe red currant, black cherry, black tea and mineral notes. Fresh and chewy through the finish, which shows a sweet hint of sassafras root. Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano.
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.