CVNE
Rioja Imperial Reserva
Rioja Alta
2016

The producer

Compania Vinicola del Norte de Espana – in daily speak referred to as CVNE – was founded in 1879 in the town of Haro in the heart of Rioja. Two brothers founded the estate, which is still today in the hands of the founding family. CVNE comprises five Rioja wineries – CVNE, Imperial, Vina Real, Contino, and Monopole – of which Imperial is the flagship, and further three wineries in other Spanish regions, including Bela in Ribera del Duero. Over the years the CVNE estates has won numerous awards and regularly receives high scores from the world’s leading wine critics.  

The wine

CVNE’s Imperial Reserva is from the winery’s flagship estate and produced from the best vineyards across the Rioja Alta region. The blend consists of 85% Tempranillo, with 15% Graciano, Mazuelo, and Garnacha, and fermentation takes place in concrete and wooden vats of varying sizes with CVNE’s own cultured yeast which is selected from the Imperial vineyards. Finally ageing is carried out in American and French oak barrels, either new or single use, for a minimum of 24 months. This is the younger sibling of the Imperial Gran Reserva, and as such displays more primary vibrancy in the fruit yet has great complexity, balance, and length.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.