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Buy OnlineCompania Vinicola del Norte de Espana (C.V.N.E.) is known colloquially to most Spanish wine drinkers as Cune. The company was founded in 1879 by the Real de Asua brothers and still remains in control of their direct descendants. In the 1920s ownership started Vina Real label.
Balancing the modern and classical in Rioja red, this special Reserva has had two years in oak and two more in bottle. But bright-fruit remains along with complexity, savouriness, and a tannin/oak structure to age further. Heaps of everything and not too much of anything, this perfection is why the big brother Gran Reserva of this wine was #1 in the world from Wine spectator in 2013.
95/100 Tim Atkin MW (2018 Vintage)
"The coolness of the Atlantic vintage in 2018 seemed to suit the more restrained, structured, age-worthy style of Imperial. Marrying fruit from Briones, Torremontalbo and Villalba, with ageing in a 70/30 mix of French and American oak, this is an inky, youthful, structured cuvée of Tempranillo with 15% Graciano and Mazuelo. Intense, layered and beautifully balanced. Drink 2025 – 2040."
94/100 Luis Gutierrez, RobertParker.com (2018 Vintage)
"The red 2018 Imperial Reserva keeps the brand profile of finesse, precision and power, produced with grapes that were picked between October 8th and 26th in a year like in the past—cold, rain and snow followed by a warm summer. It's a blend of Tempranillo and 15% Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha that were put through optical sorting and fermented in oak vats with a 20-day maceration. It matured in barrel for 24 months. It's 14% alcohol and has a pH of 3.57. It's a textbook Reserva from Haro, fine-tuning the grapes they use here trying to control the power of this cuvée, which has to be powerful but keeping the freshness. This is quite young and lively, quite impressive, really very good, getting close to the complexity of a Gran Reserva but with the extra oomph of its youth. 150,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2021. Drink 2022 – 2032."
94/100 Wine Enthusiast (2018 Vintage)
"This deeply hued wine offers a bouquet of dark plum, black currant and aniseed. It is spicy at first sip, with flavours of clove, anisette, blackberry and cassis. Polished tannins make their presence known and then drift off into a cherry and violet finish."
