Wines bought to a retired wine distributor of Haro, La Rioja, in 2017. Stored in private cellar up to today. Bottle in outstanding condition: excellent filling level, cork, color, capsule, label, no leakage. Fully mature and therefore drinking well now, or cellar for next 25-30 years. Imperial was first produced in the 1920s. It is always bottled in a Bordeaux-shaped bottle and is named after the Imperial pint bottles it was once sold in. This wine is traditionally a majority of Tempranillo with a bit of Graciano, Mazuelo, and Viura largely from the Rioja Alta. Vinified in a big wooden vat from the founding time of the winery (1877) without temperature control, for 12 months and then racked to cask. Aged for 8 years, 96 months. Racked 12 times, once every 6 months in the first years, using the traditional cask-to-cask Riojan method. Hand bottled directly from the barrel, bottle by bottle. Not filtered. 94+/100 Johan Gilman (View from the Cellar): "I had not drunk a bottle of the 1973 Imperial Gran Reserva from CVNE since the autumn of 2014, when I was last in the Rioja region, and the wine has not been touched by time over this past two and a half years. At age forty-four, the wine is at its absolute summit of peak maturity and drinking with great vibrancy and breed, as it soars from the glass in a complex and pure blend of cherries, woodsmoke, Rioja spice tones, a beautifully complex base of soil, a touch of dried eucalyptus and a discreet framing of coconutty American oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still shows the vigor of youth, with a superb core of fruit, fine soil inflection and a very along, complex and perfectly balanced finish. This bottle was a touch more red fruity than the one that I tasted at the bodegas in October of 2014, with just a touch of remaining tannin and the structure to continue to cruise along at this very high level for at least another thirty years! Great juice". *** All international parcels are shipped with the highest standards of quality: through the premium “UPS International Express”, the fastest service against signature provided by the courier. Packed in a special wine box officially certified by UPS / DHL. Bottles are packed individually, one by one, and wrapped in a 3 layers bubble wrap. Due to the nature of the wine and the value of the products all lots are shipped with insurance coverage. ***