CVNE / Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España

CVNE was founded in 1879 in Haro by the brothers Eusebio and Raimundo Real de Asúa, after a trip to Haro initially taken for health reasons. The company was established in the Barrio de la Estación railway station quarter, and over more than 140 years the winery has grown around the Aldea del Vino (Wine Village), a courtyard flanked by stone buildings with ceramic tile roofs. CVNE was one of the first bodegas to bottle and export its wines. Monopole was born in 1915, and the first Viña Real and Imperial wines followed in 1920. In 1940 the company inaugurated El Carmen, a winemaking facility using epoxy-lined concrete. In 1973 CVNE and the family owners of Contino created Viñedos del Contino. The El Pilar winemaking facility, inaugurated in 1989, was the first in Spain to use gravity to move must, and the gravity-flow concept is still used at the CVNE, Imperial and Viña Real wineries. Real de Asúa was created in 1994 as a tribute to the founding brothers, and in 2004 King Juan Carlos I inaugurated the new Viña Real winery in Laguardia. The group then grew beyond Rioja: Roger Goulart, a cava house dating from 1882, joined in 2017; CVNE acquired Virgen del Galir in Valdeorras in 2018; Bela was born in Ribera del Duero in 2019, the company's 140th anniversary year; and Bodegas La Val in Rías Baixas became part of the group in 2023. In distribution, CVNE acquired the Japanese distributor Mikuni Wines in 2014, created Vinos Montenegro in 2015, and in 2024, through Montenegro, acquired the wine club Vinoselección, founded in 1973. As of October 2026, the family's most recent addition is Davalillo Castle, a monument in La Rioja dating back to the 13th century, which the family wants to restore.

• 1879: founded in Haro by Eusebio and Raimundo Real de Asúa.
• 1915: Monopole; 1920: the first Viña Real and Imperial wines.
• 1973: Viñedos del Contino created by CVNE and the family owners of Contino.
• 1989: El Pilar, the first winemaking facility in Spain to use gravity to move must.
• 1994: Real de Asúa created; 2004: new Viña Real winery in Laguardia.
• 2017 to 2023: Roger Goulart, Virgen del Galir, Bela and Bodegas La Val join the group.

CVNE was founded by Eusebio and Raimundo Real de Asúa, and the company has been run by the same family over five generations. Eusebio's daughter Sofia, known in the family as Bela, was the great-grandmother of the family members managing the company, and the fifth generation descends from her; the Ribera del Duero winery Bela is named in her honour. Víctor Urrutia is CEO and María Urrutia is Marketing Director, both of the fifth generation of the founding family. In 2014 the company brought back Ezequiel García, its historical winemaker known as El Brujo (the wizard), who had led wine production there for more than three decades, to make Monopole Clásico.

• Founders (1879): Eusebio and Raimundo Real de Asúa.
• CEO: Víctor Urrutia; Marketing Director: María Urrutia; both fifth generation.
• Ezequiel García (El Brujo), CVNE's historical winemaker, returned in 2014 for Monopole Clásico.

Imperial is made in a small independent winery within the original CVNE facility in Haro, which also produces Real de Asúa. Grapes for Imperial come from CVNE's own vineyards in Villalba, Briones and Torremontalvo in Rioja Alta. In Villalba, the Remedio and Encinas estates lie between 550 and 650 metres, close to the Sierra de Toloño, and account for 12 of the 42 hectares CVNE owns in the village; in Torremontalvo, the San Quilez and Pico de Aguila vineyards lie at 450 metres and account for 30 of the 70 hectares CVNE owns there; and in neighbouring Briones, Imperial takes up 10 hectares. All these vineyards are older than 40 years, planted mainly to Tempranillo with Garnacha and Graciano, in calcareous clay soils poor in organic matter, with low-yield, head-trained, mostly south-facing vines. Real de Asúa comes from the Carromaza plot, a cool hillside at 600 metres that is heavily influenced by Atlantic weather patterns and naturally protected by the Sierra de Cantabria; its Tempranillo vines are trellis-trained in sandy clay soils over deeper red clay. The Asúa wines are made exclusively from Haro grapes grown in clay-calcareous and clay-ferrous soils above 500 metres. Monopole Clásico comes from a Villalba de Rioja vineyard of over 5 hectares in calcareous soils, east-facing and above 600 metres. Around half the grapes for Cune Crianza come from CVNE's own vineyards in Haro and nearby towns, and the rest are bought from local growers. Viña Real Reserva comes mainly from Rioja Alavesa vineyards around Laguardia and Elciego, and the Viña Real winery, built in 2004, blends into the Cerro de la Mesa hill. Viñedos del Contino, founded in 1973, is centred on a former manor house at Laserna in the municipality of Laguardia, surrounded by 62 hectares of vineyards along a bend of the Ebro. Outside Rioja, Virgen del Galir has more than 40 hectares of terraced Godello and Mencía vineyards in Éntoma and Las Ermitas, Bela is in Villalba del Duero, Burgos, and La Val has 90 hectares in Rías Baixas.

• Imperial: own vineyards in Villalba, Briones and Torremontalvo, all older than 40 years; the Villalba estates lie at 550 to 650 metres and the Torremontalvo vineyards at 450 metres.
• Real de Asúa: the Carromaza plot at 600 metres, sheltered by the Sierra de Cantabria.
• Viña Real Reserva: mainly Laguardia and Elciego in Rioja Alavesa; the Viña Real winery on the Cerro de la Mesa dates from 2004.
• Viñedos del Contino: 62 hectares at Laserna, along a bend of the Ebro.

Imperial takes its name from a special bottling for the English market in a bottle known as the Imperial Pint, approximately half a litre, and is made only when harvests are exceptional. For Imperial Gran Reserva, grapes are hand-harvested with a double selection in the vineyard and the winery, chilled as whole bunches, and carried by gravity to small oak vats; fermentation uses indigenous yeasts at 28 to 29ºC, and malolactic fermentation takes place in concrete vats. The wine then ages for two years in French and American oak barrels, new and from one wine, racked every 8 months, followed by bottle ageing in the century-old cellars until release. Imperial Reserva is fermented with the house's own yeasts, selected from the vineyards destined for Imperial, in oak vats of 80, 120 and 160 hectolitres, with a maceration of about 20 days; each vineyard's wine is aged separately in American and French oak and blended only once ageing is complete. Barrels for Imperial age in the Eiffel cellar, built in 1909 by Gustave Eiffel's studio, whose roof rests on steel trusses running from wall to wall without columns. Real de Asúa has its own winery, built in 2005 within the walls of the original Haro site, where the grapes are fermented in French oak barrels and small glass-lined concrete tanks. Monopole is made from Viura; its French name denotes a wine from a single vineyard. Monopole Clásico, the re-edition with which Monopole returned to its former style in 2014, is fermented in stainless steel and aged on its fine lees for around 8 months in previously used barrels and casks of 300, 400 and 500 litres. Corona was born at the end of the 19th century as a semi-dry white wine and is made only in exceptional vintages. Cune Crianza has been produced every year since the company was founded; it is fermented in stainless steel at 25 to 27ºC and aged for one year in American oak barrels. Viña Real Reserva is fermented in gravity-fed stainless steel tanks at 28 to 30ºC, aged for an average of 22 months in new single-use French and American oak barrels, and then rests in the Viña Real cellars for at least a year and a half before release.

• Imperial Gran Reserva: indigenous yeasts, malolactic fermentation in concrete, two years in French and American oak, then bottle ageing before release.
• Monopole Clásico: Viura fermented in stainless steel, around 8 months on fine lees in used barrels and casks.
• Cune Crianza: one year in American oak; produced every year since the company's founding.

Wine Spectator named the Cune Imperial Rioja Gran Reserva 2004 its 2013 Wine of the Year, the first time a wine from Spain claimed the top ranking in its annual Top 100, and scored it 95 points. As of 2017 it remained the only Spanish wine to have been named Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year.

• 2004 Imperial Gran Reserva: Wine Spectator's 2013 Wine of the Year, 95 points; the first wine from Spain to top its Top 100.

CVNE gives Imperial 'its own style: fine, precise and powerful,' and aims for Cune to be 'a classic Rioja Alta wine: fine, with a long finish.' The house characterises Monopole as 'dry with a subtle salty finish, austere with high acidity,' and Viña Real's wines as having 'excellent ageing potential, body, structure and aromatic intensity, predominantly fruity.' Víctor Urrutia told Wine Spectator in 2013: 'I feel Imperial falls in the middle of the traditional/modern divide.'

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://cvne.com/en/history/, https://cvne.com/en/family/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/cune/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/imperial/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/vina-real/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/monopole/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/asua/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/vinedos-del-contino/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/roger-goulart/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/virgen-del-galir/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/bela/, https://cvne.com/en/wineries/la-val/, https://cvne.com/en/wines/real-de-asua/, https://cvne.com/en/wines/monopole-clasico/, https://cvne.com/en/wines/imperial-gran-reserva/, https://cvne.com/en/wines/imperial-reserva/, https://cvne.com/en/sustainability/, https://cvne.com/en/wines/cune-crianza/, https://cvne.com/en/wines/vina-real-reserva/. Secondary sources: Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja winery listing (https://riojawine.com/en/bodegas-rioja/cvne) and Wine Spectator (https://www.winespectator.com/articles/iwine-spectator-i-announces-its-2013-wine-of-the-year-49272, https://top100.winespectator.com/2013/wine/1-cune/, https://www.winespectator.com/articles/2017-new-york-wine-experience-wine-star-cune-victor-urrutia). Last verified 2026-10-14. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.