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WINE OF THE WEEK: Adnams Selection Malbec El Dominio 2017, Mendoza, Argentina

Oct 11, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Adnams Selection Malbec El Dominio 2017, Mendoza, Argentina

£9.99, Adnams Bright, pure, succulent, supple and fresh with proper concentration and yet a lightness of touch – hallmarks of Susana Balbo, a leading winemaker, consultant and inspiration to the Argentine wine industry since the 1980s. It's her son José who now leads the winemaking at El Dominio del Plata, the family estate in Mendoza's high Lujàn de Cuyo region, so he can take credit for the blackberry and black-pepper depth, satin texture and subtle oak of this Malbec, but

WINE OF THE WEEK: Fabre Montmayou Reservado Cabernet Franc 2015, Mendoza, Argentina

Mar 8, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Fabre Montmayou Reservado Cabernet Franc 2015, Mendoza, Argentina

£15.99, or £12.49 in a mix of 12 or more, Laithwaites Argentina nailed its red wine colours to the Malbec mast years ago, but it’s also turning out in much smaller quantities some very smart Cabernet Francs. Exhibit number one: Fabre Montmayou Reservado, made by Bordeaux ex-pat Hervé Fabre who has recently added three estates in Cahors, Malbec's French motherland, to his Mendoza and Patagonia portfolio. His 2015 Reservado Cabernet Franc combines depth and complexity with typi

WINE OF THE WEEK: Château Recougne 2015, Bordeaux Supérieur, France

Feb 22, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Château Recougne 2015, Bordeaux Supérieur, France

£9.99, or £8.99 in any mix of six bottles, Majestic Bordeaux Supérieur – everyday claret – doesn't come much better than this, and certainly not at this price. The excellent quality of the 2015 vintage helps, but the Xavier Milhade family, who've owned Recougne since 1938 (happy 80th anniversary), produce good wine every year. The 2015 is polished, perfumed and velvety with rich mulberry, spice, coffee and chocolate flavours, supple tannins and cedary freshness. It's perfect

WINE OF THE WEEK: Abbotts & Delaunay Domaine de la Métairie d’Alon Pinot Noir Le Village 2015, P

Jan 11, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Abbotts & Delaunay Domaine de la Métairie d’Alon Pinot Noir Le Village 2015, P

£15.99, or £13.99 in any 6-bottle mix, Majestic This is a best of both worlds Pinot Noir – cherry and raspberry perfume and fruit, gentle earthy sweetness, almondy spice and supple texture, making it Burgundian in style but with a touch more of the sweet fruit and flesh you find in new world Pinots. In fact it comes from neither place, but is made by a Burgundian, Laurent Delaunay, in the region he thinks has what it takes to make the best Pinot Noirs in France outside Burgun

WINE OF THE WEEK: Lismore The Age of Grace Viognier 2016, Cape South Coast, South Africa

Oct 26, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Lismore The Age of Grace Viognier 2016, Cape South Coast, South Africa

£20, Oddbins and oddbins.com Dazzlingly good Viognier from a winemaking paradise in the foothills of spectacular mountains deep in the south of South Africa. Or, to put it another way, a winemaking paradise in the middle of nowhere, three hours’ drive from Cape Town. The Age of Grace Viognier, from vineyards in the cool, high-altitude Elgin region, has a touchstone floral perfume – a combination of jasmine and honeysuckle – and flavours of white peach and apricot wrapped arou

WINE OF THE WEEK: Avancia Cuvée O Godello 2016, Valdeorras, Spain

Oct 12, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Avancia Cuvée O Godello 2016, Valdeorras, Spain

£16.99/£14.99, Majestic Godello grows in the far north west of Spain, like the better known Albariño, except that Godello's stronghold of Valdeorras is inland from Albariño's damp, coastal heartland of Rías Baixas. The wines they produce aren't a million miles apart in style. Both are aromatic, often with peach, citrus and mineral flavours, but Godello has more richness and flesh, which can make it a deal more satisfying than a bog-standard Albariño. Cuvée O combines peach an

WINE OF THE WEEK: Finca Carelio Tempranillo Barrica 2014, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

Jul 13, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Finca Carelio Tempranillo Barrica 2014, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

£7.99 in a 6-bottle mix This was so nearly a £15 red, but someone at the winery felt inspired to add some grapes from outside the designated Toro region to give the wine a bit of extra freshness and someone decided to send it outside the region for bottling, neither of which is an option for DO (denominación de origen) wines. So it has ended up as a bargain Vino de la Tierra. It has the power of a Toro, the chocolaty spice and smoothness of maturation in oak barrels and a hea

WINE OF THE WEEK: Rod McDonald Wines One Off Malbec Hawkes Bay 2014, New Zealand

Jun 8, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Rod McDonald Wines One Off Malbec Hawkes Bay 2014, New Zealand

£15.75, Oddbins I feel a bit of traitor choosing this Malbec when I’m more or less within spitting distance of the grape variety’s home territory of Cahors in southwest France. It’s not even as if Malbec is a speciality of New Zealand, as it is of Argentina. In fact it’s pretty unusual to find it solo in New Zealand: it’s much more often added to Cabernet and Merlot to beef them up a bit. Anyway, this wine is too good not to recommend it. In a way, it’s a halfway house betwe

WINE OF THE WEEK: Emiliana Natura Viognier 2015, Valle Central, Chile

Apr 13, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Emiliana Natura Viognier 2015, Valle Central, Chile

£8.75, Oddbins I love the heady blossom and peach aromas of this organic white and its peaches-and-cream flavour and soft citrus-zest freshness, but Viognier isn’t always one of my favourite grapes. It can be a bit like the nursery rhyme: when it’s good, it’s very, very good, and when it’s bad it’s horrid. In the wrong place it turns from aromatic beauty to flabby plodder almost overnight. What Viognier likes, and gets in the cooler parts of Chile’s Central Valley, is a good

WINE OF THE WEEK: Caixas Godello 2015, Monterrei, Spain

Mar 9, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Caixas Godello 2015, Monterrei, Spain

£7.49 in any 6 bottles, £8.99 per single bottle, Majestic Godello may sound like a character in a Mozart opera but it’s a high quality white grape grown in Galicia in northwest Spain. It’s often compared to Galicia’s better known and more fashionable Albariño: there are similarities, but Godello is richer and more mineral. The good value Caixas (caixas are the crates the freshly picked grapes are put into) starts with a grapefruit zestiness, fills out with creamy peach-skin a

WINE OF THE WEEK: Moser XV 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Ningxia, China

Jan 26, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Moser XV 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Ningxia, China

£10.99, Wine Rack I’ve chosen a new-wave red wine from China to mark Chinese New Year on Saturday. The alternative would have been a zingy, off-dry Riesling from Europe, the southern hemisphere or North America to match a variety of seafood, vegetable, dim sum, rice and noodle dishes, but I wanted to highlight the quality and style emerging from this vast new world of wine where Cabernet Sauvignon is king. This one, from vineyards planted around a dozen years ago in the fast-

WINE OF THE WEEK: Henry Fessy Beaujolais-Villages 2015, France

Dec 15, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Henry Fessy Beaujolais-Villages 2015, France

£9.75, Oddbins The 2015 vintage was brilliant for Beaujolais, from straight Beaujolais to the ten appellations in their own right at the top, the so-called crus such as Fleurie and Morgon. Henry Fessy is the only producer to make wine in nine out of the ten, but the 2015 cru wines won’t be ready for shipping until next year. In the meantime, the generous, strawberry-perfumed Beaujolais-Villages (a step up from straight Beaujolais) is here and ready to drink, although even thi

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Cordier Bourgogne Blanc Jean de la Vigne, Burgundy, France

Oct 27, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Cordier Bourgogne Blanc Jean de la Vigne, Burgundy, France

£14.99, or £12.99 in a 6-bottle mix, Majestic Seems odd that this is the first white Burgundy I’ve recommended here. I’ve homed in on Chardonnays from other regions but neglected it in its homeland. Time to put that right with the zingy candied-citrus fruit, rich buttery texture, walnut and vanilla flavours of Domaine Cordier’s Jean de la Vigne. Christophe Cordier could label this Mâcon-Villages instead of Bourgogne if he wished, but chooses not to because his wine has so muc

WINE OF THE WEEK: Wakefield Estate Shiraz 2014, Clare Valley, Australia

Jul 28, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Wakefield Estate Shiraz 2014, Clare Valley, Australia

£11.99, or £8.99 in any 6-bottle mix, Majestic Most red wine is drunk too warm, but people are reluctant to put it in the fridge for the 30 minutes or so that would bring it down to a more flattering 15–18ºC, rather than around 22ºC (restaurants and bars are even worse – don’t let me start on that). The fear is that the wine will emerge unpleasantly cold or somehow damaged. In 30 minutes it won’t unless your fridge temperature is exceptionally low, but the label of this suppl

WINE OF THE WEEK: Maison Roche de Bellene Bourgogne Pinot Noir Vieilles Vignes 2014, France

Jul 14, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Maison Roche de Bellene Bourgogne Pinot Noir Vieilles Vignes 2014, France

£16, Oddbins There are lots of misconceptions about red burgundy, two of the most glaring being that it’s a full-bodied wine and always costs an arm and a leg. The best red burgundies are fascinating and complex in flavour but never heavyweights. They can’t be cheap, not least because of the tiny quantities they’re made in, but there are alternatives to the hallowed names. From the right grower, burgundies bearing the simple Bourgogne designation can be beautifully pure and g

WINE OF THE WEEK: Craggy Range Te Kahu 2013, Gimblett Gravels

Apr 28, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Craggy Range Te Kahu 2013, Gimblett Gravels

£14.95, The Wine Society; £17.99, or £15.99 when you buy any 6 bottles, Majestic If you want a red wine that goes down well with lovers of classic claret as much as with fans of new world reds, this Bordeaux-style blend from New Zealand is just the ticket. It’s mainly Merlot, but with some Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec, and it’s matured in expensive French oak barrels in the same way as a classy Bordeaux (aka claret). The result is dark, ripe fruit edged with

WINE OF THE WEEK: Mas Lavail Carignan Vieilles Vignes Terre d'Ardoise 2014, Côtes Catalanes

Apr 21, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Mas Lavail Carignan Vieilles Vignes Terre d'Ardoise 2014, Côtes Catalanes

£9.99, or £7.49–£7.99, when you buy any 6 bottles, Majestic Let’s show the Carignan Blanc grape a bit of love. Mas Lavail’s Carignan is a beautifully rounded, full, southern white with spicy citrus, herb and apricot flavours and a dry, refreshing finish – and it’s practically given away at the offer price (until midnight, Monday). I don’t know why white Carignan is such a neglected grape variety, except that it’s very susceptible to mildew, which can’t endear it to growers, b

WINE OF THE WEEK: Oeil de Perdrix Rosé Champagne

Feb 11, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Oeil de Perdrix Rosé Champagne

£19.99, or £17.99 in any 6 bottles, Majestic Initially I resisted choosing this Champagne on the grounds that a) pink Champagne is too clichéd in its obviousness for Valentine’s Day and b) bargain-hunting isn’t quite in the spirit of the occasion – but who, in the end, isn’t won over by a spot of pink fizz in a pretty bottle? This, with its fine bubbles and delicate pomegranate and cherry fruitiness, is better than many a well-known, more expensive brand backed by the full fo

WINE OF THE WEEK: Definition Viña Majestica Rioja Reserva 2009

Dec 31, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Definition Viña Majestica Rioja Reserva 2009

£12.99, or £9.74 in any 6-bottle mix, Majestic Everything a Rioja Reserva should be and an ideal red with which to greet the new year: full and velvety with sweet berry, coffee, spice and cedar flavours wrapped in oak, but not swamped by it. Background: it was made at La Rioja Alta's Torre de Oña winery in the Rioja Alavesa area where it spent 20 months in oak, 70% of it French, 40% of it new. More importantly, it's a match for almost any roast or grilled meat, duck or game b