A daring red for the summer barbie

2015 CVNE Imperial Reserva This mellow and complex red is perfect for a summer barbecue – or an autumnal game dish, a wintry beef stew, or a succulent spring lamb.

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2015 CVNE, Imperial Reserva, Rioja, Spain £19.75, selected Co-ops

I have seen this wine a fewtimes recently and every time I taste it, I love it. It's interestingthat there are quite a few merchants retailing it right now and, because of this, you mightas well look around for a lowprice. You may be able to find it cheaper if you surf the internetfor a few hours, but you will not find it on the high street for less cash than this bonkers Co-op price tag of £19.75.

CVNE is a legendary estate and 2015 is a stellar vintage. It is a fairly fleshy vintage, too, and this means that it is drinking well already, but there is also the stamina here for this wine to develop well for a decade, too. You can have fun with this wine opening bottles whenever you like over the next ten years and, every time,it will tell you adifferent story.

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Made from 85% tempranillo and 15% graciano, mazueloand garnacha grapes,all old vines, and built on a fairly sturdy 14% alcohol framework, it uses both Americanand French oak in itsrecipe and this both accentuates its classical stance and also brings some flair. With four years of maturation, half in wood and half in bottle, this wine is already mellow and complex and I cannot think of a more daring wine for a summer barbecue or, for that matter, an autumnal game dish, a wintry beef stew, or succulent spring lamb.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)

Matthew Jukes
Wine columnist

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.