A Rioja Gran Reserva for now or your next 15 birthdays
Over the weekend a customer came into Versi Vino to check out our wine shop and while browsing they made a comment about our Rioja (re-oh-ha) selection saying “Oh, wow, you went in for the kill.” They were absolutely right.
Rioja is a well-known wine region in Northern Spain. Rioja’s king grape is Tempranillo with Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo also grown to add varying characteristics to the Rioja red wine blend. Rioja also produces white wines primarily made from the Viura grape.
There are three subregions of Rioja: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental (formerly known as Rioja Baja).
Unfortunately, labeling laws (prior to 2018) did not allow for Rioja producers to indicate where their grapes were grown on the label. The region as a whole tends to blend grapes from across the subregions with the lesser quality subregions making up most of the inexpensive Rioja wine. Rioja also has particular labelling/aging laws (more severe than general Spanish wine aging/labelling requirements). There are four labelling classifications of aging for red wines: Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva and our first selection of Rioja is the 2011 Contino Grand Reserva.
Do you see where we are going with this?
At the very top of the aging pyramid is the Rioja Gran Reserva – requiring a total of five years of aging; two years in barrel and three years in bottle. Many producers wait even longer than legally required to release their Gran Reserva.
When we were selecting our first set of wines for our wine list, we knew we had to include a Rioja and when we were informed that there were only 11 bottles available of the 2011 vintage of Contino Gran Reserva, we knew we couldn’t pass on ordering them! Why?
1) Contino has been around since 1973 and was created and still owned by a large family-own Producer called CVNE (you may recognize other CVNE other labels: Imperial, Viño Real, Cune)
2) The grapes are manually harvested from three different estate-owned vineyards in Rioja Alavesa (check out how small the sub-region is, it certainly produces some of the best wines of Rioja - Wine Folly Map)
3) Their winery uses state of the art technology to control fermentation temperatures and at 13.8% ABV the alcohol is indicative of the restraint used during the fermentation process.
4) Contino ups the ageing stakes and keeps their Gran Reserva wines for an extra year in barrel – for a total of six years of aging: three years in barrel and three years in bottle.
5) A judicious use of oak. Contino doesn’t smash their wines with loads of American oak, they use various types of oaks (French and American) and levels of newness of barrels which create a well-balanced wine.
The 2011 Gran Reserva is a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, 12% Garnacha and 3% Viura, it is powerful, bold yet elegantly balanced with silky tannins and a long memorable finish. You can easily pair it with red meats – steaks and roasts, charcuterie (Iberico or Serrano jamon), chorizo-based dishes and traditional Spanish Tapas. The 2011 Contino Gran Reserva is ready to drink now and through 2035.
You might even consider buying two bottles, one for now and one for later. Priced at $43.00 (+ tax) they are a steal (they are included in the buy 6-mixed bottles for 5% off or 12-mixed bottles discount for 10% off – if you hunt around, you may even find another discount code that can be combined with the bottle discounts). You can purchase it here.