2013 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Blanco

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 80 points

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  10/16/2014 - forceberry wrote: 80 Points

  100% Viura. The must is macerated with the skinis for 6-8 hours. Fermented in new American oak barriques and aged in the same barrels with periodical bâtonnages over 4 months. 13,6% alcohol, 5,4 g/l acidity, pH 3,28, 0,40 g/l VA, 99 ppm sulfites of which 28 ppm free.
  
  Pale, limpid greenish color. Very rich, toasty and oaky nose with over-the-top aromas of chopped nuts, sweet tropical fruits, banana, some pineapple juice, light vanilla character and a little bit of coconut sunscreen. Typical of Viura, the wine is bone-dry, rather light-bodied and racy on the palate with refreshingly straightforward flavors of tart green apples. However, there is also that unctuous oak part with pronounced flavors of vanilla, toasted wood, roasted nuts, cocoa and woody bitterness. The contrasts between the light body and heavy, sweet American oak, or bracing acidity with woody oak bitterness make the wine come across as rather unbalanced. The finish is rich, toasty and racy yet unctuous with flavors of roasted nuts, cream and browned butter, tart green apples, some vanilla and a little bit of ripe zesty citrus fruits. The high acidity lends a lot of length to the aftertaste.
  
  I found the light body and refreshing acidity very enjoyable here, but aromatically this wine was anything but attractive to me. Sure, the Viura packed enough intensity to cut through, but overall the fruit felt perhaps even too light and racy compared to the unctuous oak treatment, so that the fruit and the oak flavors didn't feel like they were talking the same language. Overall it felt like the fruit needed a lot more weight and concentration to suit this kind of oaking, but even then the oak most likely would come across as quite disjointed. Now the heavy-handed oak character feels like an extraneous part of the wine that only serves to give it weight and richness without any sense of balance or integration. Perhaps the oak will integrate to some extent with aging, but most likely the wine will remain rather disjointed, no matter how old it gets. I'm not particularly impressed.

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