CVNE Corona Gran Reserva Rioja DOCa

Description

CVNE Corona Gran Reserva is a late harvested, semi-dry white wine made only in exceptional vintages. This 100% Viura is bottled as a Rioja DOCa has been produced since the end of the nineteenth century. The 1939 vintage was the very first Spanish white wine to obtain 100 points by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

CVNE (CUNE), or to give it its full name, the Compañía Vinicola del Norte de España (The Northern Spanish Wine Company) was established on the 24th of March 1879 in Haro, Rioja. Set up by two brothers, Eusebio and Raimundo Real de Asúa. CVNE is based in the traditional neighbourhood of the station, in the heart of the Rioja wine region. Historically, some of the oldest wineries of Rioja Alta established themselves here in order to benefit from the ease of transport via rail to the port of Bilbao, the most efficient form of transport in those days. Today the winery is the hands of the fifth generation and has seven wineries in five Spanish wine-growing regions inluding CVNE, Imperial and Contino in Rioja and Virgen del Galir in Valdeorras.

CVNE Corona Gran Reserva is produced at CVNE’s Imperial winery which is located in Haro. The 100% Viura grapes for this wine come from CVNE’s single vineyard, La Salceda. This is a plot of 2 hectares located in the village of Villalba de Rioja at the foot Gembres mountains in the Sierra de Cantabria. The evening mist is frequent here and remains into the morning hours. These conditions facilitate the formation of the fungus Botrytis Cinerea. Additionally, the soils here are composed of limestone and clay that help maintain the necessary humidity for the growing and ripening of the grapes.

The weather conditions have to be quite special for the wine to be able to be produced and for the 2015 harvest took place in the first two weeks of December. The grapes are harvesed by hand into small 20kgs crates. The grapes are gently pressed, and the wine must is directly transferred to the oak barrels for fermentation at around 22 to 24C. The barrels used are a combination of different sizes of French oak: one barrel of 400L, one barrel of 300 litres and two barrels of 225 litres, a mixture of first, second and third fill. At the end of the alcoholic fermentation, the wine is cooled to allow the wine to be filtered and to stop  fermentation. This leaves the 2015 CVNE Corona Gran Reserva with 33 g/L sugar. The wine is then aged for 6 years and was bottled in March 2022.

Only 1526 bottles produced.