Real de Asúa Magnum 2018

The 2018 Real de Asúa, a pure Tempranillo first produced in 1999, has been produced from 2018 onward with grapes from a vineyard in the paraje (zone) known as Carromaza from the village of Villalba de Rioja. The vineyard was planted with head-pruned vines on sandy soils at 600 meters in altitude at the foot of the Sierra Cantabria in a cool and windy zone with around 700 liters of rain per year. This 2018 fermented in small French oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in new and second use barriques for 12 months (down from 18 months in the previous vintage). This could very well be a new wine, from one of their freshest vineyards in a cool vintage, with lots of freshness and much more integrated oak than in the past. It's still very young and has tannins to be resolved by time in bottle, but it should develop very nicely and make old bones. 3,125 bottles were filled in February 2020.

Named after one of the founders of CVNE, Real de Asúa is a modern style red made entirely from Tempranillo grown above 600 metres in Villalba and aged in new French oak. Youthful, glossy, structured and built to develop in bottle over the next decade or so, this needs time to integrate its toasty wood, but who's in a hurry? 2026-38