Contino Reserva 2020

Tasting note

• Ruby red, clean, medium robe,
• Nose of red fruits and vanilla, intense.
• On the palate it is broad, tasty, with a warm sensation and a long aftertaste, very round and balanced.

Development and Aging
From well-selected Tempranillo grapes: 86% | Graciano: 6% | Mazuelo: 6% | Garnacha: 2%, in perfect state of maturation and harvested manually from our own vineyards around the Finca de San Rafael. Grapes that after destemming fermented in stainless steel tanks of 12,000 liters. at a temperature of 28-30ºC and after a maceration of 15 to 20 days they undergo malolactic fermentation that refines the wine, leaving it at its proper acidity. It is followed by a transfer to barrels (NOT new) of American oak 10% and French 90% where they will remain for 18 months, aging that is completed with at least two years in the bottle, aging in the cellars until it is released on the market.

History
Contino, the first château in La Rioja was born in 1973 promoted by the centenary winery CVNE and the owners of the 62-hectare estate located in the Rioja Alavesa. The history of the property dates back to the 16th century and is included in its name. The "contino" was that officer in charge of a guard of a hundred soldiers who watched over the royal family "continuously" since the times of the Catholic Monarchs. Tradition tells that Saint Gregory, the patron saint of the vineyards, passed through the lands of this same Riojan farm, and thus his figure appears in the anagram of this winery, and lends his name to some of the plots now planted with vines.

The wine produced on this property, fruity and elegant, is heir to the best Rioja tradition. It is carried out with an individualized system of harvesting grapes, coming only from the same vineyards that surround the old manor house and their origin from the different plots is marked. The perfect combination of soils, Atlantic-Mediterranean climate and refined technique have made Contino, more than thirty years after its first vintage, a benchmark both inside and outside Spain.

Vineyard
The 62 hectares of Laserna vineyards in Laguardia are protected by the Cerro de la Mesa and located in a meander of the Ebro River, which gives this land its own orientation and mesoclimate.

The Vineyard descends gently towards the Ebro, in a terrain with adequate and deep permeability that allows the development of the roots in search of the water stored naturally in the subsoil. It extends into three terraces of sandy calcareous soil in the deepest layers and clayey calcareous soil in the middle and superficial layers, in which boulders typical of alluvial terrain abound.

The proximity of the vineyard to the winery allows the freshly cut grapes to begin fermentation in small-capacity tanks in which the grapes from the different plots are separated, differentiating by variety according to the specific harvest conditions.

Store
In Viñedos del Contino, tradition and innovation coexist in perfect harmony. Modern wine-making warehouse, with a selection table and small-sized tanks, adapted to the plots and varieties. Fermentation tanks with reduced capacity collect the production of each plot of the farm individually and, depending on the characteristics of the grape, it will be elaborated in one way or another.

Cellars from the 16th century keep the wines in the best conditions of temperature and humidity.