BigHammerWines.com

CVNE (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) is Rioja royalty. The bodega was founded in 1879 in Haro — the town where modern Rioja was born — and five generations of the same family have been running it ever since. When critics talk about the great houses of Spain, this is one of the names that comes up every time.

Real de Asúa is their flagship. Named after the founding brothers, this is the wine CVNE makes when they want to show the world what their best vineyard can do. Since 2018, every bottle comes from one single plot: Carromaza, a 2.37-hectare site in the village of Villalba, 600+ meters up in Rioja Alta. The vines are 30 years old, head-trained, hand-harvested, and protected from Atlantic weather by the Sierra de Cantabria mountains. The 2020 vintage was fresh and cool — the kind of year that produces Rioja with real elegance rather than heavy ripeness.

Here's what makes this bottle a big deal: James Suckling gave it 97 points and said only one 2020 Rioja in the entire region scored higher. Decanter matched it at 97. Wine Advocate came in at 96+. Production is tiny — about 1,200 cases worldwide — and CVNE sells this wine on La Place de Bordeaux alongside the world's most coveted labels. Almost none of it reaches the U.S.

If you've never tried a top-tier single-vineyard Rioja, this is the bottle that shows why collectors get excited about the category. It has the structure to age a decade or more, but it drinks beautifully right now with a proper decant.