A charm filled Rioja that makes lovely easy drinking. Hand harvested to select only the ripest Tempranillo grapes from the old vines, the 2020 is complex and elegant with luscious, subtle spice notes and velvety smooth tannins. Bursting with high-spirited summer berries and fragrant vanilla oak, and tinged with the charisma of ripe strawberries for a tantalisingly delicious mouthful. You’ll enjoy the Rioja most when paired with authentic tapas, grilled lamb or rabbit stew.

As Robert Parker says, “Spain leads the world for sensational wine bargains of character and soul”, none more so than its mature reds. Nowhere else produces mellow, barrel-aged wines of such remarkable quality and price. Take Palacio del Conde – a gorgeously complex, oaky 2015 from Valencia. Part of this region is close to the coast, while the more southerly part is inland, up in the hills, and dry. It’s there that winemaker Marta Martínez selects the finest, hand harvested – from 50 year old vines – Tempranillo grapes for this Gran Reserva, then ages the wine for three years in oak barrels. A wonderfully fragrant, silky red with mature redcurrant and strawberry fruit and a rich, toasty character. Sublime with roast lamb or tapas. Its three recent Gold wins show its drinking beautifully now.

Jeff and Vicky Dewar established Willow Bridge Estate after acquiring a spectacular 180ha hillside property in the Ferguson Valley. Under winemaker Kim Horton, many of its wines offer exceptional value for money. This Solana Tempranillo has loads of plum and raspberry fruits. A style that exudes vibrancy and complexity. Distinctive generosity of dark berry fruits with mouthwatering tannins which match perfectly to food. Aromatics of rose hip, licorice and black jube, blueberry fruits with dark plums. Powerful, long and lingering, loads of plum and raspberry fruit, spice and minerality, sitting neatly with savoury tannin and licks of vanilla.

Our Selección Especial Numerada range is reserved for some very special one-off parcels of wines where our Buyer for Spain has negotiated a great-deal price in exchange for winery anonymity. That’s exactly what you have here and this magnificent Gran Reserva Rioja has all the credentials. It’s pure, old-vine Tempranillo, which accounts for this great wine’s incredible intensity. Ageing for over two years in a mix of tight-grained French oak barrels and more opulently vanilla-scented American oak, and finished with over 30 months ageing in bottle, has lent layers of mesmirising complexity and length. This is a wine to savour – an ideal wine to save with slow-roasted lamb shoulder, game dishes or exotic mushroom tapas.