2015 CVNE "Cune" Gran Reserva Rioja

This selection from Cune has a deep, dark, woodsy nose with chocolate cherry and fruitcake scents. Well, hello there! On the palate, relatively grippy tannins, with generous, fresh and clean, oak. This is followed by cherry cola, cinnamon and hard candy licorice flavors. The finish is very long and (surprisingly) quite soft. Preceded by a spicy and bright character. This wine is an excellent balance between new or old world style. It does trend toward the latter. I highly suspect that this will be an excellent candidate for the cellar, well. That's a lot of wine for under 40 dollars!

This is a wine that immediately captures your attention. This delivers the complexity, the depth and the specialness of Gran Reserva with the charming forwardness of a much younger wine. This wine is a perfect example of what makes Rioja great. Sourced from vineyards in the heart of Rioja Alta it is a blend of predominantly Tempranillo with a splash of Graciano and Manzuelo. The wine is then fermented with native yeast in concrete and stainless and then spends 24 months aging in oak; a mix of young and old, French and American. That is Rioja but where it starts to become something even more is an additional 3 years aging in bottle before it was released. Time is one of Rioja’s secret ingredients. What is incredible, in a world where time is getting ever more expensive, this wine is a deal. The winery aged this wine for 5 years in order to qualify for that classification. No other region ages their best wines before selling them to you. OK but what is it like? It is layers and layers of aromatics. It is like walking into a spice shop, but without it being overwhelming. Sweet, savory, pungent, picant, woodsy, herbal with all sorts of highs and lows. All of that on top of a driving dark cherry note. The fruit starts with a dried, almost fruit leather quality that starts to freshen with a little time in the glass. This is so much fun to smell. It opens and develops giving you more and more. I was taken with just the nose, but on the palate the wine delivers, and delivers. It exceeds the expectation of the nose. All the aromatics are there to support the fruit. The wine is on the lighter side of full bodied. There is a lot of structure, very fine tannins, both fruit and oak and fresh driving acidity. How the nose builds in intensity, so does the palate. As the fruit freshens and awakens it takes on more intensity and body. It just keeps on becoming more. Persistent and driving, the finish lingers and makes you want to take another sip. This Gran Reserva delivers; tonight and a decade plus from now.