Imperial 1960 Gran Reserva

Wine: Imperial 1960 Gran Reserva
Winery: CVNE - Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (Haro, Rioja Alta)
Appellation / Zone: D.O.Ca. Rioja
Varietals: 70% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacha, 10% Mazuelo and Graciano, 5% Viura
ABV: 13% 

Winemaking:
The wine spent 12 months in large oak vats for fermentation and stabilization before racking. It matured for 10 years in semi-neutral 225-liter barrels (70% American oak, 30% French oak), with a maximum barrel age of 15 to 20 years. Subjected to periodic manual rackings. Depending on the vintage, it rested for 36 to 60 months in the winery’s underground cellars before its release in the mid-1970s. Recorked every 20 years to ensure preservation. 

 

Tasting Notes

 

Appearance: Pale ruby-red with low depth; evolved, translucent, and showing very little extraction. Clean, though it features a significant amount of very fine sediment adhered to the base. Muted brilliance with a matte finish and faint amber and reddish reflections. Broad, tawny (atejado) rim, barely distinguishable from the meniscus. The cork was in perfect condition: elastic and unsullied across three-quarters of its length. 

 

Nose: Simultaneously powerful and elusive. A baroque and contradictory bouquet with a "labyrinthine" quality of shifting descriptors. It opens with curious reductive notes of salt-cured meats, lemon brine, pickled capers, and an iodized backdrop of caulk, tar, and a fishing port. It requires time to settle. Eventually, it reveals a savory core of cured meats joined by luxurious wood, cedar, old leather, pink peppercorns, withered flowers, and a mineral edge of pencil lead, graphite, and hydrocarbons. Its behavior aligns more with the 1959 vintage than its own.

 

Palate: Caressing, fluid, and completely poised. Diaphanous on the palate, it sheds the darker, more stubborn character shown on the nose. Entirely devoid of toasty oak influence, it features silken tannins and an exceptionally elegant flow. Its apparent lack of complexity is a facade; it is far from simple. Ideal acidity, enveloped in reduced fruit and a refreshing, surrounding coolness. Perfectly balanced and smooth, without a single flaw.

 

Commentary:
This is an Imperial unlike any other tasted to date. It is a bewildering yet magnificent wine that truly lives up to its name. Its structural integrity and lack of "wrinkles" after more than half a century are a testament to CVNE's historic winemaking excellence.

 

Personal Score: 96
Tasting Group Average: 95