CVNE riojas back to 1928

This tasting was an eye-opener, a retrospective of the most noble red Riojas made by CVNE, one of the oldest companies in Rioja Alta. They celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004. Even Contino, their ground-breaking single-estate wine which I think of as a parvenu, is 30 years old already. There were some truly great wines here – notably the 1970s. I have given notes specific to each of the three wines tasted as an introductory paragraph before the tasting notes themselves. Wines are then listed from young to old with any comments in italics made by CVNE about the vintage...