Imperial wines are only produced in excellent vintages, and are the maximum expression of our soils and the care of our vineyards in Rioja Alta. Imperial has its own fine, precise and powerful style.
With Imperial we want to transmit the expression of our soils and the care of our own vineyards located in specific villages of Rioja Alta. The grapes for Imperial come from our own vineyards in Villalba, Briones and Torremontalvo. In Villalba, the small Remedio and Encinas estates, located between 550 and 650 m above sea level, very close to the Sierra de Toloño and with a climate of Atlantic and continental influence. These are 12 hectare estates within the 42 hectares that CVNE owns in this village. In Torremontalvo, our vineyards of San Quilez and Pico de Aguila are located at an altitude of 450m and a somewhat more moderate climate than the plots in Villalba. They are about 30 hectares of the total of 70 hectares that CVNE owns in this village. Next door in Briones, Imperial is selected on 10 hectares of property (house vineyard). All these vineyards are over 40 years old, the main variety is Tempranillo, although there are intermingled vines of other Rioja varieties such as Garnacha and Graciano. The soils are calcareous clay, poor in organic matter and of low production, mostly oriented to the south and with goblet pruning.
The grapes are hand-picked in 20 kg boxes. These boxes remain 24 hours in a cold room in order to prevent oxidation, stabilize the color and preserve the aromas of the fruit. After these 24 hours, a second selection of the grapes is made and the grapes are fermented by gravity in oak vats of different capacities, 80, 120 and 160 Hl depending on the size of the estate. For the alcoholic fermentation we have our own selected yeasts in the vineyards destined for Imperial. Maceration is extended for approximately 20 days during which we alternate different types of pumping-over depending on the evolution of the fermentation and the tasting of the wine. Malolactic fermentation takes place in concrete and wood before aging in American and French oak barrels, new barrels and single wine barrels. We keep the wine from the different vineyards separately, each estate ages the wine in the type of barrel that best suits its organoleptic characteristics and it is at the end of the aging process that we carry out the final assemblage before fining and bottling.
