#Syrah

Sep 15

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Garrigue Grande 2020, Coteaux de la Cabrerisse, Languedoc, France

£7.99, in any 12 bottle mix Laithwaites I think this is a first for me – and likely to be for most wine drinkers – a Coteaux de la Cabrerisse. It’s the only wine sold in the UK from this tiny IGP (formerly Vin de Pays) and Domaine Garrigue Grande is one of only two producers using the designation (Château de Caraguilhes is the other). The producers are Anne and Xavier Volontat, the seventh generation to run their family wine estate, Château Les Palais, based in a 12th-century

Jul 7

WINE OF THE WEEK: Petite Immortelle 2018, Côtes du Roussillon Villages, France

£10.90–£12, Gorey Wine Cellar, lovewhatyoueat, Bath Road Beers, Beckford Bottle Shop, Cork of the North, SW Bottle Shop, Red & White An approachable, fruity red that's just right for the season. That's not to say it wouldn't go down well in winter too, it's just that it's really refreshing drunk lightly chilled on a warm evening. In terms of flavour, think sun-dappled raspberries plucked straight from the bush, mulberries, peppery spice and a whiff of garrigue herbs. The blen

Jun 23

WINE OF THE WEEK: Pierre Jaurant Saint-Chinian 2020, Languedoc, France

£5.99, Aldi Saint-Chinian is an appellation I look out for in restaurants. The wines – white and rosé as well as the more abundant reds – are usually better value than more familiar names. More than that, it’s a region where quality-focused estates are doing interesting things and in both the appellation’s soil types, the higher altitude schists in the north and west and the limestone and clay in lower areas to the south. And it's one of the regions I look to in supermarkets

Jan 28

New Year, New Wines, New approach: the Blind Spot Australian range gets a makeover

Wines made by Mac Forbes with grapes paid for upfront by The Wine Society. The one-off exception is the Dolcetto, which was made with a purchased parcel of wine, as all the range used to be The Wine Society's Blind Spot Australian range has been a fixture for about a decade, but the latest arrivals mark a change in direction. And we're not just talking about labels here, dramatically different though they are. Instead of being parcels of wine that winemaker Mac Forbes picked

Dec 9, 2021

WINE OF THE WEEK: Finca Moncloa 2017, Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain

£16.99, Ocado This fascinating red wine is a Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz. In other words, it's from sherry country, where there was an old tradition of making red wines that had largely lapsed. A small-scale revival has got underway this century, helped along by the granting of the Vino de la Tierra designation in 2005. Moncloa is produced by the González family of González Byass and Tio Pepe sherry fame from their own vineyards and is a blend that includes what they say is an

Aug 12, 2021

WINE OF THE WEEK: Cedro do Noval Tinto 2018, Vinho Regional Duriense, Portugal

£19.99, Cellar Door Wines, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Street Wines; £69 for 6 en primeur, Tanners Wines An inviting, approachable but cellar-worthy Portuguese red from the team at the Quinta do Noval port estate in an excellent vintage. Generous, perfumed and fruity with floral notes, dark cherry, damson and a touch of liquorice carried by soft, cedar and sandalwood spice, sleek tannins and the energising, mineral lick of wet rocks that is so characteristic of wines, both red

Jul 22, 2021

WINE OF THE WEEK: Familia Torres Purgatori 2017, Costers del Segre, Spain

£17.99–£19.95, Fine Wines Direct, Vinvm, Amazon I hardly need say that I wouldn't have chosen this if drinking it was like purgatory, but why would anyone (hipsters aside) give the name to their wine? Simple: conditions on the remote L'Aranyó estate from which it comes are so extreme – high, hot, arid – that Benedictine monks were sent there to work the land as penance and the farmhouse built by the Abbey of Montserrat in 1770 became known as the 'farmhouse of the exiled'. Wh

Jan 7, 2021

WINE OF THE WEEK: Château Courac Côtes du Rhône 2016, France

£8.95, The Wine Society This is one of my house wines, one I turn to when I want the vinous equivalent of a comforting, warm hug. With more Syrah than Grenache in the blend, it's full and generous with a twist of fresh white pepper to season the plush raspberry fruit and deeper tapenade and game notes. 2016 was an exceptional vintage in the southern Rhône, but even in less favourable vintages such as 2013 Joséphine and Frédéric Arnaud make a success of their straight Côtes du

Dec 4, 2020

The Festive Red Wine Guide 2020

However different this Christmas turns out to be, wine is going to be at least as vital as usual. Here then is my round-up of red wines to cater for all kinds of occasion during the festive season, or no occasion at all. As always, wines are in 75cl bottles unless stated and are listed in ascending order of price, give or take differences in retailers’ prices and special offers. If you're in the money, you'll know to scroll down and start at the end. A couple of other things

Nov 5, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine de Bréseyme Brézème Côtes du Rhône 2017, France

£22, The Wine Society I'm getting in early with this because when I tried to recommend the 2016 it had sold out (Wine Society members clearly know a good new thing when they see it). If you tasted the 2016, you'll know that it was northern Rhône-style Syrah at its most bewitchingly pure, perfumed and peppery. The 2017 is equally delicious, but more opulent – more Cornas, perhaps, than Côte-Rôtie – although both are a comfortably moderate 12.5% abv. The 2017 opens with a wave

Jun 11, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Château la Canorgue Rouge 2017, Luberon, France

£15.95, Yapp Brothers I wasn't planning to do another Provence red as Wine of the Week so soon, but I can't resist this and it's altogether different. Despite not being all that far geographically from Château Vignelaure – around 60km to the northwest – it's a different region. This is Luberon, where Provence meets the southern Rhône and the grape varieties reflect the southern Rhône. Château la Canorgue's red, a blend of Syrah, Grenache and old-vine Carignan, is dark, powerf

Apr 9, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine de Mourchon Séguret Tradition 2017, Séguret Côtes du Rhône, France

£14.99–£16.95, Averys of Bristol , Black Dog Wines (UK) I’m often surprised by the wines I find I haven’t featured here before. This estate-bottled red Séguret is a case in point. I blame Domaine de Mourchon’s Loubié Rosé, the release of which is always one of the early delights of the new rosé season. Judging by the number of the times I have recommended various vintages (here and here for example), the rosé seems to deflect me from the very good Mourchon reds. Not this time

Mar 26, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Pas d'Histoires Le Rouge Syrah 2018, Pays d'Oc, France

£14, Red Squirrel Wine The name of this wine, "no fuss", may seem oddly inappropriate right now, but it's the kind of mellifluous, carefree red – what the French call a vin de soif – that's so comforting to have to hand at times like this. None of us, after all, is going to be hopping across the channel and speeding off to the south of France to buy our own any time soon. I bought it as part of an excellent-value mixed dozen (the Home School Reds case at £90) but it's availab

Jun 26, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Finest Saint-Chinian 2017, Saint-Chinian, Languedoc, France

£7.50, Tesco I’ve got a soft spot for Saint-Chinian, Minervois’ less well-known northeast neighbour, and always look for it on restaurant wine lists (usually in vain, it has to be said) and if I need to grab an impromptu bottle of red in a wine shop or supermarket. It’s usually good value, whether cheap like this or a more expensive single-estate wine, but more important is its characteristic flavour: sometimes intensely stony and savoury, sometimes more obviously fruity and

Feb 14, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Boschkloof Syrah 2015, Stellenbosch, South Africa

£19.99, WaitroseCellar.com and 17 branches This cracking Syrah – full-bodied and velvety but with a peppery freshness that has echoes of the northern Rhône – is from the Borman family, whose farm is on the granite Polkadraai hills west of Stellenbosch. It starts with an inviting perfume of violets and peppery spice, adds a savoury suggestion of game, moves through rich red and darker fruit and draws on complexity and immaculately polished tannins from 14 months' ageing in oak

Sep 20, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Seresin Syrah 2016, Marlborough, New Zealand

£19.99–£24.70 Noble Grape (UK), The House of New Zealand Wine, The New Zealand Cellar It's always a thrill to taste a debut vintage, not least when it's from an estate you've long admired. Seresin in Marlborough, founded and steered by filmmaker Michael Seresin, makes beautiful wines, especially Pinot Noirs from different vineyards, but this is the first Syrah and it's characteristically expressive and pure. It's very much in the cool-climate Crozes-Hermitage mould with tangy

Sep 6, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Taste the Difference Saint-Chinian Syrah Grenache 2016, Saint-Chinian, France

£9 (or £8 on offer), Sainsbury's This is the new vintage of a generous, warm-hearted red blend that's one of the best wines in Sainsbury's range in terms of quality-price ratio (especially on offer at £8 online and in most stores). Syrah and Grenache provide the blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, peppery spice and aromatic herbal notes of the garrigue, while partial ageing in French oak barrels rounds it out with subtle toasty notes. It's a winner with lamb – braised shanks,

Jul 12, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine de Mourchon Loubié Rosé 2017, Séguret Côtes du Rhône Villages, France

£10.95–£13.99, The Wine Society, Exel Wines, The Black Dog Wine Co (UK), Averys of Bristol The McKinlay family's Loubié rosé, is always mouthwatering, but the 2017, which they bottled earlier than usual, is better than ever – brimful of wild strawberry, spice and cherry aromas, bright strawberry-soda and red-apple fruit shot with cranberry and rosemary, and finally a lingering, leafy freshness. I first tasted it at the end of February and then again in mid-May, blind, when it

May 17, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Campo di Sasso Insoglio del Cinghiale 2016, Toscana, Italy

£21.50, Corney & Barrow I’ve drunk earlier vintages of this opulent, satin-smooth red at the estate with wild boar (the local cinghiale of the label) and it’s a seamless pairing, but it’s such a supple, ample and well–tuned wine it’s a match for all sorts of food – darker meat, lighter meat, vegetable dishes, cheese... Campo di Sasso is a 46-hectare estate near Bibbona in coastal southwest Tuscany that was established by, and belongs to, Lodovico Antinori, one of the famous F

Apr 5, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Eschaffins Cairanne Côtes du Rhône Villages 2015, Rhône, France

£13.50, Yapp Bros I haven’t seen the label of the follow-on vintage of this generous, warm-hearted southern Rhône, but for the first time it won't have to carry the words Côtes du Rhône Villages. Like Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Rasteau before it, Cairanne has been elevated to full AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) status. Houpla! What difference will it make? Well, prices aren’t going to go down, for sure, but in recognition of its new position in the hierarchy Cairanne's p