WINE OF THE WEEK: C.V.N.E. Imperial Rioja Reserva 2019, Rioja, Spain

£22.40–£29.50, Majestic, de Burgh Wine Merchants, Co-op, Booths, Ocado

This has already featured in my Festive Red Wine Guide 2025, but it’s so good, so appropriate for Christmas and also relatively widely available that I’m revisiting it here where I’ve got space to add a bit more information.

First off, it’s called Imperial because it was originally shipped to the UK in imperial pint size bottles, as some Champagnes used to be.

Secondly, the name of the producer is Compañia Vinícola del Norte de España, which is a bit of a mouthful and so was soon shortened to C.V.N.E. Or sometimes to Cune, which has been the name on some of the company’s other wines since a printer early on mistakenly put a ‘u’ instead of a ‘v’ on the labels.

Thirdly, to my tasting note in the festive wine guide, where I wrote, ‘its balance and concentration of succulent, glossy fruit, oaky cedar and mocha notes and satin texture are flawless.' I can now add that the dark fruit has wonderful intensity, the cedar notes are spicy, fresh and sweet all at the same time and the tannins are finer than fine.

The grapes (mostly Tempranillo) come from C.V.N.E.’s best and oldest vineyards (40-plus years) and are hand harvested and selected. Fermentation in French oak vats is followed by ageing in both American and French oak casks for two years and then two more years in bottle.

It pairs very well with roast meats, especially roast lamb, or, as I served it recently, with 7-hour leg of lamb. It also goes with stuffed roast goose (my stuffing recipe) and roast, caramelised vegetables of almost all kinds – roots, squashes, alliums, peppers, tomatoes. And for those having a traditional turkey fest this Christmas – apparently fewer people are – this could be your red wine.

C.V.N.E. Imperial Rioja Reserva 2019, Rioja, Spain

£22.40–£29.50, Majestic, de Burgh Wine Merchants, Co-op, Booths, Ocado (in Ocado there's 25% off any 6 bottles until 24.12.25, which brings the price down to £22.13 per bottle).

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