2021 Real de Asua
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Tasting notes
Named originally for the founding brothers of the winery, the 2021 Real De Asua Carromaza was made for the first time in 1994. In 2019, the winery changed the concept for the wine and named it for one of the best high-altitude vineyards it has as well. Low yielding, in calcareous soils, it’s a low-production 100% Tempranillo that’s fragrant and flowery with an intense fruit expression. It’s in its prime and should continue to taste great another 12-15 years.
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Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Such an exuberant, floral nose with lots of berries, plums, dark cherries, ink and touches of dark minerals, mussels and spices. Quite pristine and naked, with a medium to full body and a mouthful of powerful, sensuous tannins. Great tension. A super-confident, single-vineyard wine without much adornment. Drink or hold.
Charred sandalwood, taut fruit, eucalyptus and mint, with waves of cloves and rose petals. As it opens you suddenly get studded by anis, fennel, not overly marked by the oak, with a savoury edge that makes for a mouthwatering finish. 50% new oak for ageing, 225l barrels from Troncais, 3.63ph. Generous and accessible, this will age well but no need to wait more than a year or two to begin enjoying. The 2021 vintage saw an extended growing season in Rioja because of a great late September and October weather.
I also tasted the 2021 Real de Asúa, which was already in bottle. 2021 was cooler, and the wine has a little less alcohol than the 2020 I tasted next to it. It comes from the same vines and the process was similar, but in this case, they didn't use any new barrels in the aging, which took place in 100% second-use barriques. This was very recently bottled and felt a little dizzy, with a slightly blurry nose, somehow creamy and with a more oxidative touch and a more solid palate, a little more exuberant and with abundant tannins that need time to get polished and/or powerful food. I might be getting it wrong, because the harvest was better than 2020. But today, the wine is still a bit of a question mark. Time will tell... 14,493 bottled produced. It was bottled in January 2024.
About the producer
CVNE, or Compañía Vinicola del Norte de España (the Northern Spanish Wine Company), is one of Rioja’s leading names. With its various brands – Cune, Viña Real, Contino and Imperial – CVNE produces both large volumes and high quality, with its Imperial Gran Reserva one of the region’s finest wines.