The extremely affordable 2016 Viña Real Gran Reserva Especial recovers the 'Especial' mention from the old Reserva Especial vintages from a very good year. It's a classical Rioja Alavesa blend of 95% Tempranillo with 5% Graciano from their own vineyards. It's open and expressive, with notes of berries, fresh blood and iron, orange peel and sweet spices with the oak still present and in need of some more time in bottle. The palate is medium-bodied and feels lean and serious, with abundant chalky tannins. This should be a classical vintage of this wine in the making. It matured in barrel for two years and no less than three in bottle. It was bottled in March 2019. Drink date: 2023-2034. Score - 95. (Luis Gutiérrez, robertparker.com, July 14, 2022)

Viña Real is sometimes overlooked within the CVNE portfolio in favour of Imperial and Contino, but is capable of producing outstanding wines like this. A marriage of Tempranillo with 10% Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano, it has aromas of red berries and white pepper, fine oak and appealing freshness and palate length. Drink date: 2022-2028. Score - 94. (timatkin.com, Rioja Special Report 2020)

Excellent, benchmark-quality Rioja crianza that shows the spicy side of the vintage. Peppery, juicy and bright, with a medium body and a nice chew of fine-grained tannins. Quite long. A smart buy. Drink or hold [into the mid-2030s]. Score - 93. (jamessuckling.com, Aug. 8, 2024)