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Violets, graphite and dried flowers join blackberry, red cherry and strawberry in this Imperial Gran Reserva, with liquorice, roasted coffee, cloves and cigar leaf. Juicy and vibrant, with soft, chalky tannins and a long, fruity, balsamic finish.
Available in store
Close85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo
Food pairings: Roast and grilled red meats, lamb, rich fatty fish, or cured cheeses.
Scores:
Winemaking: The grapes were picked by hand and sorted twice, then the whole bunches were cold-macerated and fermented with native yeasts in small oak vats, with malolactic fermentation in concrete. The wine spent 24 months in new and once-used oak barrels (80% French, 20% American), racked every eight months, and was bottled in July 2021, then rested in bottle in CVNE's century-old cellars before release. Imperial Gran Reserva is made only in vintages that CVNE rates as excellent.
Vineyards and terroir: The 2018 comes from the Remedio and Encinas plots in Villalba, at 550 to 650 metres near the Sierra de Toloño, and from the Barbarroja and Antoñanzas plots in Torremontalbo, where 40-year-old, dry-farmed bush vines grow on south-facing clay strewn with river pebbles. A cold, wet winter and spring were followed by a mild summer, and the harvest ran from October 8 to 26.
Family and history: Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (CVNE, better known as CUNE) was founded in 1879 in the Barrio de la Estación in Haro. Imperial, first produced in the 1920s, is the house's flagship Rioja.
In the pictures: The Imperial fermentation hall at CVNE in Haro, lined with large oak vats; CVNE's Nave Eiffel barrel hall; and the Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España winery in Haro. The first two photographs are by Txo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; the third is by Zarateman, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
