x
  • Country ranking ?

    87
  • Producer ranking ?

    9
  • Decanting time

    45min
  • When to drink

    now to 2025
  • Food Pairing

    filet with green peppercorn

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

Close

Vina Real Gran Reserva 1959 Parker 100 points

1959 was one of the best vintages in the history of Rioja, even though 1958 was classified as excellent and 1959 "only" received a very good score. Nowadays most of the wines from 1959 are still in very good shape. I have been lucky enough to drink the 1959 Viña Real Gran Reserva before and some bottles had been flirting with perfection. The one that sparkled this tasting note clearly was. The wine was not bottled until June 1968, nearly nine years after the harvest. Motown Records was founded in 1959, the year when a chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper piloted by Roger Peterson went down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four on board. The tragedy was later termed "The Day the Music Died," popularized in Don McLean's 1972 song "American Pie." Fidel Castro became Premier of Cuba, the Barbie doll made its debut and the original Mini Cooper car was launched. The film "Ben-Hur," starring Charlton Heston, was released and became a great hit, eventually winning 11 Academy Awards. The American President was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Imagine how they harvested those grapes in Rioja. This was an amazing vintage and this was a superb bottle, all complexity and elegance, really developed, with great acidity. It is really long and balanced, with surprising balsamic, youthful aromas. Harmonic, young but developed, intense but light, somehow contradictory, but everyone was in agreement: glasses were soon empty, the best sign for a favorite wine. Judging by this bottle, this wine could go on, and on, and on and on...Anticipated maturity: 2015-2035.



I think context is very important in wine, and when I drink old bottles I always think how the world was when they harvested the grapes: what happened that year, how people lived and how they made the wine. It's sometimes mind boggling to drink some very old wines, a real privilege which, I often say, is as close as you can get to time travel. So I've given some context to all these wines. I'm told nobody reads the tasting notes and people only look at the scores, let's see if we get some reaction on these. Even though the tasting was excellent, I expected even more; we had too many corked wines and some vintages had shown better on other occasions. But such is the case with old wines, there are no great vintages anymore, only great bottles. Highlights of the tasting were 1959, 1947 and 1938. On top of those, there was one outstanding and perfect wine that day, and, as I might not find better excuse to publish a note on it than now, I've included it here. It's an historical wine, a one-off, semi-sweet white produced at the end of the Spanish Civil War, a wine impossible to replicate, fruit of impossible circumstances, a wine I've had the luck to drink and share with many people on a number of occasions and which never fails to impress everyone. The perfect 1939 CVNE Rioja Blanco Semi Dulce Corona is a mythical wine!

Close

The Story

The Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (CVNE), launched the Viña Real brand in the 1920s becoming one of the pioneering wineries in making crianza wines in oak barrels in this area. A careful balance between tradition and modernity has defined the form and content of Viña Real. 

Made with high quality grapes harvested by hand from our better plots in Rioja Alavesa. The fermentation takes place in stainless steel vats at controlled temperatures with a frequent dropping of the juice over the skins in order to maximise extraction. Malolactic Fermentation is carried out in French and American oak barrels, and then, the wine is manually racked to stabilise and get rid of deposits. After the cask ageing for 2 years, the wine is clarified with white of egg to achieve the silkiness and shiny final colour. Aging in bottle 36 months.

The Viña Real winery in Laguardia, designed by French architect Philippe Mazières, is composed of three buildings. The main one is constructed with red cedar in the form of a fermenting vat. The natural light, the caves dug to store the wine and the leading-edge technology - with the use of gravity, the installation of the first vertical hopper in Spain - define this monumental work.

 

 

 

Close

Tasting note

Be the first one to make a 20s tasting note!

Written Notes

The procession of ‘59s continued with a 1959 Cune Rioja Reserva Especial Vina Real. Aromas of chocolate, game, iodine and lots of leather sat perched in the glass, alert and ready for duty. The palate was also very leathery, still young and with a nice citrus smack to its finish. The Unico that followed made the Cune seem drier and outclassed this excellent Rioja, although others did prefer the Cune, as difficult as I found that to believe
  • 93p
Medium intense, brick red colour with touch of haziness. Rich and developed nose is full of cassis, soy, leather, horse saddle and tobacco. Vivid medium-bodied palate with moderate level of volatility adapting well with soften tannins and ripe dark fruitiness. Such a lovely, delicate wine with silky texture, beautiful length with great balance. One of the best Vina Reals ever!
  • 97p

Cold June. Rainy harvest. Deep ruby. Sweet and lively and transparent. Furry on the finish though and slightly dry. Lacks a little lift and life.

  • 86p
Load more notes

Information

Origin

Haro, Rioja

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Best buy

Investment potential

Average

Fake factory

None

Other wines from this producer

Clarete

Contino Gran Reserva

Contino Rioja Garnacha

Corona Reserva

Crianza

Cune Gran Reserva

Cune Reserva

Imperial Gran Reserva

Imperial Reserva

Medianas

Monopole

Real de Asúa

Viña Real Crianza

Incorrect Information
If you found some information that is wrong, let us know
Are you sure you want do delete this wine? All information will be lost.
Are you sure you want to recommend this wine?
Are you sure you want hide this written note ?
Are you sure you want show this written note ?
UPGRADE MEMBER PLAN
Upgrade your membership now, it's quick and easy. We use PayPal, the world's largest payment system, it accepts all credit cards. Once you've chosen your membership level, you'll go directly to PayPal. You can cancel your membership at any time.
Thank you for your support!
 

Pro Member

 

Winemerchant Member

 

Winery Member

 

User

 

HOW TO USE TASTINGBOOK?

We recommend you to share few minutes for watching the following video instructions of how to use the Tastingbook. This can provide you a comprehensive understanding of all the features you can find from this unique service platform.

This video will help you get started



Taste wines with the Tastingbook


Create Your wine cellar on 'My Wines'



Explore Your tasted wines library



Administrate Your wine world in Your Profile



Type a message ...
Register to Tastingbook
Sign up now, it's quick and easy.
We use PayPal, the world's largest payment system, it accepts all credit cards.
Once you've chosen your membership level, you'll go directly to PayPal, where you can sign up for a free 7-day trial period. You can cancel your membership at any time. We wish you a rewarding journey to the world of Fine Wines.

Free 7 days Member trial

 

Member

 

Pro Member

 

Winemerchant Member

 

Winery Member

 

User

  Register