The 2016 C.V.N.E. “Imperial” Rioja Gran Reserva is a flagship, classically built Tempranillo blend from vineyards in Rioja Alta around Villalba, Briones, and Torremontalbo. It is a blend of mostly Tempranillo, with small shares of Graciano and Mazuelo, hand-harvested, fermented in temperature-controlled vats, then aged about 24 months in a mix of American and French oak with traditional candlelight rackings, followed by roughly three years in bottle before release. The long, even 2016 season shows in the glass as red and black cherry, plum, dried orange peel, tobacco, cedar, and a clean balsamic note, framed by fine, granular tannins and fresh acidity. Enjoyable now after ample time to open up, but with a prime window stretching well into the mid-2030s. This still has a long life ahead, and for clients, this is a top-tier Gran Reserva with a long track record of excellence and a smart buy for both drinking and cellaring.

James Suckling 98 pts! Polished and structured with firm, very fine tannins. Lots going on here, with layers of black fruit, dried spices, graphite, coconut and cracked pepper. Full-bodied and so intense. Keeps going. Long. The tannins are so fine and so numerous. One of the greatest modern gran reservas. 85% tempranillo, 10% graciano and 5% mazuelo. Try in 2025.

John Gilman 95+ The 2016 Imperial Gran Reserva from Cuné is a truly superb young wine. The bouquet is deep, precise and already beautifully complex, delivering scents of black cherries, black raspberries, cigar wrapper, cloves, a refined base of soil, sandalwood and a touch of toasted coconut in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, elegant and rock solid at the core, with fine soil undertow, great balance and grip, ripe, buried tannins and a long, complex and utterly classical finish. This wine will eventually be liquid velvet in the mouth, but it will need some cellaring time before it gets to that stage of its evolution. Great juice. (Drink between 2032 - 2100)

Wine Advocate (Luis Guiterrez) 95 pts! The classical 2016 Imperial Gran Reserva was produced with a blend of 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo from grapes that were picked between October 10 and 25 with good ripeness, delivering a wine with 14.5% alcohol after fermenting in small oak vats followed by malolactic in concrete and two years in barrel and three in bottle. I was quite surprised, because the wine was quite closed and needed energetic swirling and time in the glass to reveal its true colors. It has more stuffing and finesse than the reserva. 2016 was a very good vintage, with freshness and balance to develop nicely in bottle. The tannins are very fine, and the wine is tasty and long. 50,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2019.