{"id":1600,"date":"2014-07-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvne.com\/10-things-every-wine-lover-should-know-about-cvne-by-tim-atkin-mw\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T11:05:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T11:05:01","slug":"10-things-every-wine-lover-should-know-about-cvne-by-tim-atkin-mw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvne.com\/en\/noticias\/10-things-every-wine-lover-should-know-about-cvne-by-tim-atkin-mw\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things every wine lover should know about CVNE by Tim Atkin MW"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it was born out of illness, Rioja’s CVNE is in rude health these days, Tim Atkin MW discovers.
\nPosted Thursday, 24-Jul-2014<\/p>\n

Read original article<\/a>.
\n1. Cune or CVNE?<\/strong>
\nThe Compani\u00e1 Vin\u00edcola del Norte de Espa\u00f1a (a mouthful that is generally shortened to CVNE) is confusingly, yet universally, known as \u201cCune\u201d, pronounced COO-nay. Until 1882, the winery\u2019s full name was even more utilitarian: Corcuera, Real de As\u00faa y Compa\u00f1ia SCM (Sociedad Colectiva Mercantil). As acronyms go, CVNE is probably better than CRAC.
\n2. A cloud with a silver lining<\/strong>
\nCVNE was founded by two brothers, Eusebio and Raimundo Real de As\u00faa, in 1879. The former\u2019s poor health \u2013 more specifically, asthma \u2013 was indirectly responsible for the creation of the bodega. His doctor suggested he leave Bilbao, on Spain\u2019s Atlantic coast, for a drier climate. Rioja, sheltered by the Sierra de Cantabria, seemed a good bet, so Eusebio bought an apartment in Haro.
\n1877 was a good year to arrive. The phylloxera louse was devastating France\u2019s vineyards and, partly thanks to the importation of ideas from the other side of the Pyrenees, Rioja was entering a new era. Eusebio had been educated in Bordeaux, so was at ease in this Franco-Spanish milieu. Inspired by what was happening around him, he decided to create a n\u00e9gociant business buying and blending young wines, working alongside his brother and Isidro Corcuera, a vineyard expert from nearby Logro\u00f1o. CVNE, or rather CRAC, was the result.<\/p>\n

3. Gone but not forgotten<\/strong>
\nThe current owners of the business are direct descendants of Eusebio Real de As\u00faa: Victor Urrutia and his sister Maria are the fifth generation of the family to run CVNE. But because the inheritance went down the female line, the name of the founders only survives in the winery\u2019s flagship red. Real de As\u00faa was first produced in 1994 and is always a varietal Tempranillo. \u201cI don\u2019t care if it\u2019s a modern style or more traditional red,\u201d says managing director Victor Urrutia. \u201cIt just has to be of extremely high quality.\u201d Production is only 5000 bottles.<\/p>\n

4. Keeping wine on track<\/strong>
\nCVNE is located in Haro\u2019s historic station quarter. This comparatively small industrial area is home to a group of wineries, including traditional names like L\u00f3pez de Heredia, La Rioja Alta, Bilba\u00ednas and CVNE. These bodegas valued proximity to the railway line and its access to the markets of Bilbao and beyond.<\/p>\n

5. White wine (and a bit of \u201cChampagne\u201d)<\/strong>
\nMonopole, CVNE\u2019s white, was first produced in 1915 and is the oldest registered white-wine brand in Spain. Today it\u2019s a fresh, unoaked style made entirely from Viura, but it was initially aged in wood and \u2013 bizarrely \u2013 blended with Manzanilla Sherry. What\u2019s even less well known is that CVNE was already famous for its sparkling wine by the 1880s. According to Hubrecht Duijker in his book, “The Wines of Rioja”, the winery imported cellar workers from Champagne every year and had its own subsidiary in Reims, called Eug\u00e8ne Perr\u00e9 et Cie, which sold Spanish sparkling wine as \u201cChampagne\u201d. Whites are not the main focus at CVNE today – they represent less than 5 percent of production \u2013 but 2010 saw the addition of another brand, Contino Blanco, to complement Monopole and a barrel-fermented Vi\u00f1a Real Blanco.
\n6. Three wineries, not one<\/strong>
\nCVNE has three bodegas, each with its own winery and winemaker. These are: CVNE itself in Haro (Maria Larrea), where its Imperial brand has its own separate premises; Vi\u00f1a Real in Laguardia (Eva de Benito) and Contino in Laserna (Jes\u00fas Madrazo). The three bodegas have distinct philosophies and styles and are run as separate entities. CVNE is by far the biggest of the three and only uses grapes grown or purchased in theRioja Alta sub-region, packaging them in a Bordeaux bottle. Meanwhile, Vi\u00f1a Real is a Rioja Alavesa brand, favoring a Burgundy bottle. Unlike its stablemates, Contino makes wine only from its own vineyards in the Rioja Alavesa.
\n7. Rioja\u2019s first single vineyard wine?<\/strong>
\nWhen it was first produced in the 1920s, Vi\u00f1a Real was a single vineyard bottling from one site in Elciego. The parcel\u2019s exact location is no longer known, as over the years the brand sourced grapes from other vineyards. Today, Vi\u00f1a Real produces a Crianza (900,000 bottles), a Reserva (100,000 bottles), a Gran Reserva (20,000 bottles) and a limited production, modern-style cuv\u00e9e called Pagos de Vi\u00f1a Real, so it\u2019s moved on from its origins. But, 54 years before Contino made its first estate wine, CVNE had pioneered the concept.
\n8. A joint venture bears fruit (most years)<\/strong>
\nBefore they established a joint venture with CVNE in the early 1970s, Contino\u2019s various owners used to sell their grapes to the company for use in CVNE and Vi\u00f1a Real. The shareholding was originally divided equally between the growers and the bodega, but since last year and a few changes of ownership along the way, CVNE now owns 95 percent.
\nThis beautiful 64-hectare (158-acres) property on a bend in the Ebro River released its first wine in 1974. Today, the range runs to six different bottlings: Contino Reserva, Contino Gran Reserva, Vi\u00f1a del Olivo, the Contino Blanco and two single varietal reds: Contino Graciano and \u2013 since 2009 \u2013 Contino Garnacha.<\/p>\n

In a normal year, Contino makes anything between 150,000 and 200,000 bottles, but 2013 was not a normal year. The vineyard was hit by a huge hailstorm in September and lost 90 percent of its crop. Jes\u00fas Madrazo estimates that there will only 20,000 bottles of the 2013. \u201cWe managed to make something good by using sorting tables with six people manning each of them,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was tough.\u201d Contino has arguably survived worse things. A TCA infection (thought originally to be cork taint) was a major problem in the late 1980s and all of the winery\u2019s wood had to be replaced.<\/p>\n

9. An awful lot of Crianza<\/strong>
\nCVNE (as opposed to Contino and Vi\u00f1a Real) is what drives the company\u2019s bottom line, accounting for 5.8 million of the 7m bottles it produces. Most of this is dominated by a single wine: CVNE Crianza (labelled “Cune”), which is one of the best-loved and most widely distributed Riojas. Imperial, a brand that dates back to the 1920s, is a smaller part of the CVNE portfolio and has an annual production of 200,000 bottles, divided between Reserva and Gran Reserva. Described by Spanish wine writer, Victor de la Serna, as \u201cone of the icons of Rioja\u201d, it ages brilliantly. Look out for bottles of the 1947, 1959, 1968 or 1995 Gran Reservas. Alternatively, you could buy a more recent, equally celebrated vintage\u2026<\/p>\n

10. American recognition<\/strong>
\nIn December 2013, CVNE achieved a memorable first. In Wine Spectator, its 2004 Imperial Gran Reserva was selected as the number one wine in the publication\u2019s annual Top 100. \u201cIt was an honor for us to be the first Spanish winery to be chosen as number one,\u201d says Urrutia. \u201cAnd commercially it\u2019s been a huge boost for the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While it was born out of illness, Rioja’s CVNE is in rude health these days, Tim Atkin MW discovers. Posted Thursday, 24-Jul-2014 Read original article. 1. Cune or CVNE? The Compani\u00e1 Vin\u00edcola del Norte de Espa\u00f1a (a mouthful that is generally shortened to CVNE) is confusingly, yet universally, known as \u201cCune\u201d, pronounced COO-nay. Until 1882, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wines"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n10 Things every wine lover should know about CVNE by Tim Atkin MW | CVNE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cvne.com\/en\/noticias\/10-things-every-wine-lover-should-know-about-cvne-by-tim-atkin-mw\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Things every wine lover should know about CVNE by Tim Atkin MW | CVNE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While it was born out of illness, Rioja’s CVNE is in rude health these days, Tim Atkin MW discovers. Posted Thursday, 24-Jul-2014 Read original article. 1. Cune or CVNE? The Compani\u00e1 Vin\u00edcola del Norte de Espa\u00f1a (a mouthful that is generally shortened to CVNE) is confusingly, yet universally, known as \u201cCune\u201d, pronounced COO-nay. 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Posted Thursday, 24-Jul-2014 Read original article. 1. Cune or CVNE? The Compani\u00e1 Vin\u00edcola del Norte de Espa\u00f1a (a mouthful that is generally shortened to CVNE) is confusingly, yet universally, known as \u201cCune\u201d, pronounced COO-nay. 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