Contino Reserva 2015

Tasting Notes:

• Ruby red, clean, middle layer,
• Nose red and vanilla, intense fruit.
• The palate is broad, tasty, with warm feeling and long aftertaste, very round and balanced.

Production and Aging
Well selected grapes from Tempranillo: 85% | Graciano: 10% Garnacha and Mazuelo: 5%, in perfect state of maturation and manually harvested from our own vineyards around the Finca San Rafael. After de-stemming grapes fermented in stainless steel tanks of 12,000 liters. Tª to 28-30 ° C and after a maceration of 15 to 20 days malolactic fermentation that made the wine refines leaving it in its proper acidity. It follows a transfer to barrels (not new) 40% American oak and French 60% where they will remain two years, parenting complete with at least two years aging in the bottle soaked to its market.

History
Contino, the first château of La Rioja was established in 1973 driven by the century-old winery CVNE and owners of the estate of 62 hectares located in the Rioja Alavesa. The history of the property dates back to the sixteenth century and is collected in the same name. The "Contino" was one officer in charge of a guard of one hundred soldiers who were watching "Contino" by the royal family since the time of the Catholic Monarchs. Tradition has it that St. Gregory, the patron saint of vineyards, passed through the lands of the same riojana farm, and thus his figure appears in the anagram of this winery, and lends its name to one of the plots now planted with vines.

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

Vineyard
The 62 hectares of vineyards in Laguardia Laserna are protected by the Cerro de la Mesa and located in a meander of the River Ebro providing guidance to this land and own mesoclima.

The vineyard slopes gently toward the Ebro, on a proper and thorough permeability allowing the development of roots in search of water stored naturally underground. It extends over three terraces of calcareous sandy soil in the limestone and clay layers deeper in the middle and upper layers, where boulders own alluvium abound.

The proximity of the vineyards to the winery allows the freshly cut grapes start fermentation in small capacity in which the grapes from different plots, differing by variety according to the specific conditions of the crop are separated.

Cellar
In Contino vineyards coexist in perfect harmony, tradition and innovation. Modern winemaking ship, with table selection and deposits of small size, adapted to the plots and varieties. Fermentation tanks with reduced capacity collect the production of each parcel of property individually and, depending on the characteristics of the grape, it shall be prepared in one way or another.

Openwork sixteenth century keep the wines in the best conditions of temperature and humidity.