The 2008 Reserva is a blend of 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano and 5% between Mazuelo and Garnacha, inox fermented and aged in used oak barrels of which 40% were made of American wood and the rest were French. 2008 was a challenging vintage and they didn’t produce many of the special wines that year, so the best fruit went towards the Reserva. It has a very lactic, sweet nose, with notes of orange rind and cherries. As Contino is a warm vineyard, the cold years make for quite balanced wines, and this 2008 has good acidity, not terribly complex, but clean with a slight herbaceous touch. Fine-grained tannins and acidity will make it age gracefully. 254,000 bottles produced. Drink 2015-2023. Contino is not a brand name from CVNE, it’s a completely separate winery and vineyard in Laserna in the municipality of Laguardia in Rioja Alvesa created as a joint-venture with the owners of a superb vineyard, house and old caves in a meander of the Ebro river in 1973. It is considered the first chateau style winery in Rioja. All their wines are produced with their own grapes sourced from the 63 hectares of vineyards within their San Rafael estate. The style is terroir-driven, classical-modern. In 2013 they suffered a terrible hail storm on September 6, so we’ll see little Contino from the 2013 vintage. They just started experimenting with white in 2006 and they have only sold a couple of vintages. The Vina del Olivo was not ready with the new vintage (2010) so I quickly tasted the 2009, which showed extremely fresh and Atlantic for a powerful vintage, a highly drinkable wine which is already reviewed and available on the database. Imported by Europvin USA, Van Nuys, CA; www.europvin.com