El Coto's 'Coto de Imaz' Rioja Reserva is an intensely cherry-coloured wine with complex aromas of ripe fruit and cocoa. It has a smooth, velvety mouthfeel with ripe tannins and good acidity, making it a great accompaniment for game, red meat, and beef dishes. Enjoy at a temperature of 16-18°C.

About the Producer

El Coto was founded in 1970 in Rioja Alavesa and has grown from modest beginnings into one of the best known of Rioja producers. Its first bottling was released in 1975.

Today, El Coto has over 700 hectares of vineyard in production across the three Rioja DOCa sub-zones of Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa. 

El Coto is the leading quality brand in Rioja and among the top-selling Spanish wines in Europe.

El Coto is the largest vineyard owner in the Rioja region which provides a tremendous ability to control the quality of the grapes which go into their wines.  Most of the fruit used is sourced from their own sites.  Their outstanding Red wines  are made with grapes picked primarily in the heart of Rioja Alta at their own estate at Cenicero.  An increased focus on sustainability, in both the winery and the vineyard, includes the use of cover crops and preventative pest management.  They are not just stopping at sustainable agriculture either, currently El Coto are in the process of converting around 40 hectares of vineyards in Los Almendros.

Vineyard and Winery

The ‘Coto de Imaz’ wines are made from a selection of the best Tempranillo grapes grown in El Coto’s vineyards in Cenicero, Rioja Alta. The soils here are limestone-rich clay and produce grapes of great flavour intensity and excellent levels of acidity, crucial for the making of Reserva and Gran Reserva wines which undergo extensive oak ageing.

Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes were sorted, destemmed and crushed. Fermentation took place in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks at 22-27°C, with maceration for around 18 days and frequent pump overs, looking for the perfect balance between fruit and extraction. After malolactic conversion in tank, the wine was transferred to new, 225-litre American oak barrels where it was aged for 18 months before the final blend was assembled and bottled. After this, the wine was aged for a further 18 months in bottle before release.