CVNE Wineries

The Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España, CVNE —or 'la Cune', as it is familiarly known in Haro—, was founded in 1879 and was one of the first wineries to bottle wine in La Rioja. What began as a project by two brothers (Raimundo and Eusebio Real de Asúa) continues today in the hands of the same family (now in the fifth generation) and includes four wineries: CVNE, Imperial (an independent winery within the original CVNE winery), Royal Vineyard and Viñedos del Contino. Throughout its long history, CVNE has always been known for respecting tradition and delicately adapting it to modern times, becoming a true benchmark for Rioja wine lovers around the world.

CVNE was only six years old and began to receive awards at international competitions, which gave the winery a boost. In the following years, the legendary studio of A. Gustave Eiffel designed the so-called Nave Eiffel, which houses the barrel park and was a true architectural revolution at the time. In 1940, the first concrete winemaking warehouse in Spain was opened, which is still fully operational today, and in 1989 the El Pilar winemaking warehouse was born, the first in Spain to operate by gravity and which showed a path that many other wineries have followed, seeking the utmost respect for the grape.

As the infrastructure grew, the awards continued to accumulate in such renowned places as Antwerp or Bordeaux and between 1915 and 1920 new brands began to appear such as Monopole (the oldest white wine brand in Spain) or Royal Vineyard (elegant aged wines). In 1920 Imperial arrived, undoubtedly one of the great classic red wines of Spain, and in 1973 one of the culminating moments in the history of CVNE took place: the birth of Viñedos del Contino, the group's true château-winery. In 2013, the Imperial Gran Reserva 2004 was named the best wine in the world by the prestigious American magazine Wine Spectator, marking a historic milestone for Spanish wine.