Viña Real – 1933 to 2004

For the background to CVNE and this tasting, see Viña Real – a classic from Rioja Alavesa.

We tasted 21 vintages, and Víctor Urrutia, general director of CVNE, explained that they had made 'an eclectic selection of vintages, searching not only for the famous ones, but also for unusual ones, things none of us remember ever having tasted'. What we tasted was a superb representation of Rioja history, from the 1930s until the new millennium, and a very balanced selection with three vintages per decade, except for the oldest and two most recent.

The official categories of Gran Reserva...