Wine Blogging Wednesday #15 - Small Production Wines.  Add/Read Comments

This months theme for Wine Blogging Wednesday is limited production wines; wines where there are fewer than 250 cases made. A difficult theme as selected by Gastronomie-SF; difficult in that some research is needed to find production figures. 250 cases is not very much wine at all. This one comes in way over sadly, at 20,300 bottles or 1690 cases but I didn't know this until I had already selected the wine!

Wine Tasting Note: Bodegas Contino Viña del Olivo Reserva, 2000, Rioja, Spain.
Waitrose £45.
A lovely nose with a porty, spirity edged overlaying an elegant savoury-tomato aroma. A traditional Riojan spicy palate with suer balance. Herby, leathery complexity, plenty of tannin and a long very moreish finish. Alcohol 13.5%. A blend of 95% Tempranillo and 5% Graciano aged in a mix of French, Hungarian and American oak. In 1974, CVNE established Contino, a separate estate with its own vineyards in Laserna to produce one of the first single vineyard, chateau bottled wines in Rioja. Contino makes only one wine, a reserva in good vintages and a crianza in lesser ones.
Scribblings Rating - 92/100

Incidently the crest at the top of the label shows Saint Gregory, founder of the Benedictine monastic order and the patron saint of vine growers.