2018 Cune (Cvne) Imperial Reserva Rioja

"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

"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

"This deeply hued wine offers a bouquet of dark plum, black currant and aniseed. It is spicy at first sip, with flavors of clove, anisette, blackberry and cassis. Polished tannins make their presence known and then drift off into a cherry and violet finish."