Rioja Reserva Contino 2019

Contino Rioja Reserva is a truly magnificent wine which benefits from a relatively high Graciano content, giving the wine a lovely freshness which brings elegance and finesse to the wine. The fruit is super luscious with dark red fruit notes, strawberry and dark cherry along with damson and spice notes coming through. It is aged in a combination of French and American oak for two years along with a further year ageing in bottle in the cellar. It is a magnificent example of terroir driven Rioja and a wine that has been ahead of its time for over 40 years.

Contino is a pioneering, 62ha estate that was established in 1973 and lays claim to be the first single estate Rioja. The wineries creation marked a significant step towards the idea of terroir in Rioja, a notion that was overlooked at the time. The Contino estate is based on the concept of a Bordeaux style Chateau with its own surrounding vineyards rather than a winery that bought grapes from several different regions and blended them together. The estate and its vineyard’s sit in a lovely spot within a bend of the river Ebro, Northwest of Logrona in the Rioja Alavasa sub region. The vines are protected from the north by the Cerro de la Mesa hill which creates a unique microclimate where the old bush vines, some of them over 60 years old, thrive. The wines are consistently excellent and developing each year under the direction of head winemaker Jorge Navascués who is putting renewed emphasis on Garnacha and Graciano.