#red

6 days ago

WINE OF THE WEEK: Les Argelières Pinot Noir Grande Cuvée 2021, Pays d'Oc, France

£9.49, House of Townend I thought that naming this Grande Cuvée might be a bit over the top, but it turns out to be an impressive French Pinot Noir showing textbook varietal character and charm at rather less than you would expect to pay for a wine of similar quality from the southern hemisphere. It's an appetising mid-ruby colour – not the paler side of Pinot – with immaculate floral aromas and succulent black cherry and rosehip fruit, all cushioned by polished, toasty oak a

7 days ago

Doing Things the Daou Way in Paso Robles

Soul of a Lion, the flagship wine, named in memory of the Daou brothers' father It was hard to get a word in edgeways but, when I did, I asked Daniel Daou how/when/where/with whom he learned to make wine. He’d been telling me over the air waves on zoom his remarkable life story (more in a moment) and about how good his wines were (I was about to taste and find out), but there didn't seem to have been a learning period. It was as if he'd somehow been born a fully fledged winem

Mar 20

2020, Another Extraordinary Vintage at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

The magnificent La Tâche 2020 is conspicuous by its absence in this line-up of empty bottles, but it was definitely in the tasting (see notes and collage below) It was hot, it was dry, it was early. That's no guarantee of a high quality vintage in Vosne-Romanée or anywhere else in Burgundy, but when it's also disease-free and yields are no more than average, then it begins to look as if it might be special. It was and it is. There's no questioning the opulence of the 2020 Dom

Mar 9

WINE OF THE WEEK: L'Arène des Anges Costières de Nîmes 2021, Rhône, France

£8.49, Waitrose This is just the kind of comfortingly generous, young Southern French red to put a spring in your step, especially when the weather is being decidedly un-spring like. It's a Grenache/Syrah blend (60/40) from Costières de Nîmes, the Rhône's most southerly wine region; a bright, warming mouthful of ripe red and black berries, peppery spice, sun-warmed garrigue herbs and gentle tannins. A good match for bean and chorizo or other sausage casseroles, slow-roast por

Mar 2

WINE OF THE WEEK: Dugladze Ranina Mukuzani Saperavi 2016, Mukuzani, Kakheti, Georgia

£14.50, Amathus Drinks Georgia's iconic, dark-skinned Saperavi grape has a reputation for giving strapping, inky red wine with muscular fruit, brawny tannin and matching acidity that needs years to come round. It's not unjustified, but it's not the grape variety's only guise. Given the right vineyards and modern winemaking, Saperavi is capable of producing much more approachable wines that none the less retain distinctive varietal character. The Dugladze family's Ranina Mukuz

Feb 14

Ornellaia 2020: Proof That There's No Recipe

Same lighter weight bottle as its predecessor, but the 2020 is embossed at shoulder level with the Ornellaia logo. An invitation to taste... ‘Dear Joanna Simon, we look forward to seeing you online… to taste together Ornellaia 2020… Giovanni Geddes and Axel Heinz.’ So said the invitation. All I can say is I'm sure they can't have been looking forward to it as much as I was. I wasn’t disappointed. One of many things I like about Ornellaia is that they don’t need to trot out th

Feb 9

WINE OF THE WEEK: Gertie Cabernet Franc 2021, Clare Valley, Australia

£24.99, Nicholson's Wines It's not pink, it not fizz and it's not Saint Amour – sighs of relief all round? Actually, I'm a sucker for pink Champagne and Saint Amour, but this, clearly, is neither. It just happens to have pink crysanthemums on the label which some Valentine's Day celebrants may feel look the part (FYI, the figure on the label is the winemaker's sister, a florist in Melbourne, and Gertie was his great aunt). Whichever way you look at it, the wine is certainly w

Jan 26

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine des Marrans Fleurie Lieu-dit 'Champagne', Fleurie, France

£19.50, Tanners; £21.11, Quality Wines Somerset Fleurie is supposed to be the most perfumed of the 10 Beaujolais Crus and this wine couldn't be a better illustration. Fragrant roses and violets gives way to wonderfully pure, fresh, transparent fruit on the palate – all wild strawberries, raspberries and darker berries – shaped and wrapped by tannins of gossamer finesse. The ethereal touch belies the intensity of flavour, which comes from 50-year-old vines, the terroir, sustai

Jan 19

WINE OF THE WEEK: Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz 2020/2021, Coonawarra, Australia

£11.99/£14.99, Majestic It's gratifying to be able to say that had I been tasting either of these vintages blind I'm sure I would have put a higher price tag on them. More often, it's the other way round. The two are different, but the regional identity of Coonawarra red wine is there in both, as is Wynns' trademark clarity and expressiveness (you see it again in the excellent 2019 Coonawarra Estate 'Black Label' Cabernet Sauvignon, £24.99, Majestic). The 2021 Shiraz is coole

Jan 12

Vérité and Cardinale: Towering California Wines from Mountains and Micro-Crus

Winemaker Pierre Seillan, who created Vérité for Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke in 1998, and his daughter Hélène who is now assistant winemaker The text of this article first appeared in The World of Fine Wine, issue 68 (2020) Barbara Banke tells this story, but even if it were apocryphal I would like it. She and her late husband, Jess Jackson (founder of Kendall Jackson Winery), met Pierre Seillan in Bordeaux in the 1990s, where he was working at several châteaux across diff

Jan 5

WINE OF THE WEEK: Porcupine Ridge Shiraz 2021, Swartland, South Africa

£5.99 (on offer) Waitrose, £6.50 (on offer) Sainsbury's This plush, generous Cape Shiraz is good value at its full price of £8.49 and a steal at the current offer price – and it's so well balanced and structured that, carefully stored, it'll keep for at least three or four years. It ripples with perfumed plum and black fruit and a savoury side that takes in dark chocolate, black olive, baking spices and fresh damp earth and it’s framed by velvet-soft tannins and discreet, toa

Nov 24, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Ventisquero Kalfu Kuda Pinot Noir 2018, Leyda Valley, Chile

£12.99–£16.50, Hedley Wright, Frontier Fine Wines, Fintry Wines, The Wine Reserve, Beaucatcher Wines, Drinkfinder, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Harvey Nichols There was a clutch of inviting Pinot Noirs in the running for this week's wine, but Chile's Kalfu Kuda won out for its combination of carolling cool-climate fruit and barrel-matured mellowness – spot on for the Christmas table, whether it's set for a traditional turkey fest, or vegetarian, salmon or red meat alternatives.

Nov 3, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Donnafugata La Bella Sedàra 2019, Sicilia, Italy

£14.99, Waitrose We've been hearing so much about the wines of Etna, not to mention Sicily's nimble, red-fruited Frappato, that it's easy to forget that the island's most widely planted red grape variety, and the one that dominates its only DOCG, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, is Nero d'Avola. Like Cerasuolo di Vittoria, La Bella Sedàra is a blend driven by Nero d'Avola, but instead of Frappato there are small amounts of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a few other varieties in

Oct 27, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Big Beltie Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, Pays d'Oc, France

£9–£10.95, House of Townend, Lush Wines, The Grape & The Good, The Whalley Wine Shop, South Downs Cellars, Richardsons of Whitehaven I'll come to the name and the label in a moment but, in case you're jumping to conclusions, this isn't a big belter of a wine. It's medium-full and pulsing with Cabernet Sauvignon energy and rich, sunny fruit. Think plum and cassis lightly brushed with aromatic, woody herbs, supple tannins discreetly wrapped in oak, and a flourish of bay-leaf sp

Oct 20, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Bodegas La Horra Corimbo I Reserva 2016, Ribera del Duero, Spain

£19–£23, London End Wines, Concept Fine Wines, The Drink Shop (UK), Noble Green Wines, Ellis Wharton Wines Even if you're not looking for a £20 bottle of wine at the moment, keep this in mind. It's an outstanding Ribera del Duero Reserva from a very good vintage – a year that produced wines with natural elegance and balance, compared to the hot, dry 2015 vintage that gave more power and concentration. I tasted the two together, then three days later the 2016 again and it's th

Sep 29, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Ken Forrester The Misfits Cinsault 2021, Western Cape, South Africa

£9, Tesco A light, limber red that's as full of character as it is of joie de vivre – silky and supple with perfumed, sweet red-berry fruit, gentle spice, sun-baked earth and breezy freshness and purity. For years, South Africa kept most of its Cinsault grapes in the back room for blending, but now they're going solo to produce wines like this that fit a zeitgeist valuing lighter, less tannic reds as much as power and concentration. The grapes for The Misfits were hand-picke

Sep 15, 2022

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

Sep 8, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Loved & Found Frappato 2021, Terre Siciliane, Italy

£7.99, Waitrose Everything about this nimble, light-bodied Sicilian red wine is cheery and crowd-pleasing, from the juicy fresh fruit – cherry vying with raspberry vying with strawberry – to the lick of pepper and herbs, the barely-there tannins, the refreshing freedom from oak and the soft, dry finish. Because it should be served lightly chilled, it’s the kind of red wine that seems perfect for uncomplicated summer drinking, but really it works at any time of the year. I can

Aug 25, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Malbado Malbec 2019, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina

£12/£14, Asda You might not expect it from the name Malbado, a take on ‘malvado’, the Spanish for ‘the evil one’, but this is a silky and elegant Malbec with a captivating perfume of violets, pure, precise fruit (especially blueberry and plum), a mineral inflection, a touch of spice and fine tannins. It comes from Ugarteche, a small sub-region lying on the southern fringes of the Lujan de Cuyo region at an altitude of around 900m, which is high by global standards but about a

Aug 18, 2022

WINE OF THE WEEK: Ramón Bilbao Límite Sur Garnacha 2017, Rioja, Spain

£19.95, The Great Wine Co This is a wonderful new take on red Rioja: all energy, intensity, airiness and silky texture carried in an arresting floral aroma of violets and in mouthwatering, fresh dark fruit (damson, cherries, a hint of blackcurrants) woven with Mediterranean herbs, black peppery spice, shimmering wet rocks and fine-sand tannins. Wonderful, but not Rioja as we usually know it. It's a wine that goes to the edge. Literally. And there’s a white companion called Lí