2016 CVNE 'Asúa' Rioja Crianza

A new crianza, 2016 Asúa was produced mostly with Tempranillo and 15% made up of the other traditional red grapes—Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo. This is produced with grapes from Haro, so in the future, it will be a village wine. What I like is that the wine has the profile, the seriousness and rectitude of the wines from Haro, if you like a mini Imperial. It might be a little more floral, but it has the darker fruit tasted next to the Viña Real Reserva. 2016 was a slow-ripening year with a very long cycle of 161 days, after which the wine is only 13.5% alcohol. This fermented in small stainless steel tanks with selected yeasts and matured in used French and American oak barrels for 12 months. It's serious but easy to drink and has the approachability and freshness of 2016. 150,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2018. They started producing this in 2014, but this is the first time I tasted it.