2016 Real de Asua
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Tasting notes
The Real de Asua is a selection of hand-harvested grapes (100% Tempranillo) from some of CVNE’s best plots throughout Rioja Alta. From a long and equilibrated vintage, the 2016 Real de Asua is all about balance and poise. Both the vintage and the terroir contribute greatly here, and the essence of Real de Asua is to show the best that any vintage can offer without the constraints of traditional Rioja ageing requirements, spending 14 months in French and American oak. 2016 was a standout vintage in Rioja: “when it comes to 2016, it was one of those rare years when the crop held both quality and quantity. Many talk about it as the best vintage since 2010 (and even since 2004), a year with good freshness and acidity.” (Luis Gutierrez). The result is a wine with brilliant fruit, great depth and textural tannins, superb freshness and a seriously long and elegant finish. Everything is as it should be right now, with the added promise after a few years in bottle of the melting away of the still firm tannins, to reveal even greater complexity, smoothness and elegance. Fragrant black cherry and dark plum fruit on the nose, along with sweet liquorice, tobacco, cocoa nibs and just a hint of vanilla. Very classic with ripe dark fruit and elegant, understated oak in perfect harmony. The texture is fantastic - the tannins and fresh acidity lend a perfectly structured frame, with ample fruit and concentration accompanying them into a long and serious finish. Superbly elegant and certainly showing great promise for evolution in bottle.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
This is structured, with the biggest frame of the wines to date, and yet it is effortless, balanced, powerful but restrained, with black plum, liquorice root, cocoa, raspberry puree, leather, all held together by fine tannins that are shot through with juice. Really start to unpick in this wine what the Vialba soils can deliver, and it is utterly delicious. One of the wines of the vertical. New French oak for malolactic and ageing.
The 2016 Asúa Reserva goes one step further in the Asúa project that started with a Crianza, but this wine wants to be the old Reserva wine sold at restaurants (the Asúa Crianza is more for bars). It's a blend of 85% Tempranillo and the rest Graciano and Mazuelo from their own vineyards in Haro, as the wines from this zone are known for their finesse and aging potential. It fermented in a combination of concrete and oak vats and matured in French oak barrels for 24 months. This has a little less oak than the Imperial Reserva from this same cool year, and the wine has a little more freshness. I was pleasantly surprised and found very good balance between the best characteristics from the more modern wines (precision, freshness and cleanliness) and the spirit of the traditional ones. It has less oak than the modern wines from yesterday and the balsamic and cigar-ash touch of the traditional and more developed Reservas. Surprisingly enough, this closed down in the glass, which points at a serious and straight wine that should be very long lived. 35,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2020. This range should eventually go one step further and include a Gran Reserva.
This is very powerful and rich with amazing depth of fruit and ripe tannins. Full body. Round and chewy tannins. Super depth and beauty in this pure tempranillo. Needs time in the cellar. Better after 2021.
About the producer
CVNE, or Compañía Vinicola del Norte de España (the Northern Spanish Wine Company), is one of Rioja’s leading names. With its various brands – Cune, Viña Real, Contino and Imperial – CVNE produces both large volumes and high quality, with its Imperial Gran Reserva one of the region’s finest wines.