#red

Dec 29, 2015

Quiz Time! A wine quiz with answers

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with some material for Christmas quizzes, longueurs in the conversation, one-upmanship with the family wine bore, charades (not the sort of charades I play –ed) and so on and so forth, perhaps leaving some leftover material for a pub wine quiz or two in 2016. Let’s do it with grape varieties – always rich pickings (sorry, terrible pun – just thinking of the Christmas crackers) and let’s focus on crossings and synonyms. · Cabest

Dec 18, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Mud House Pinot Noir 2014

£9.75, Tesco, £11, Sainsbury's, £9.99/£14.99, Majestic The juicy, sweet fruit and almost tannin-free suppleness of a good New Zealand Pinot Noir make it an ideal red to have on standby throughout Christmas. Avowed white wine drinkers will often drop their guard with Pinot Noir and it’s a wine that can cope with the richly flavoured turkey stuffings and trimmings which often trip up more austere, classical reds. It can equally well be served with a rib of beef or gammon and Bo

Dec 16, 2015

Festive Red Wines

Ten red wines to serve with the Christmas feast Wines listed in ascending order of price. I've given a UK stockist (or two) for each, but you can find other stockists in the UK and other countries on wine-searcher.com Cimarosa Carmenère 2012, Colchagua, Chile Crowd-pleasing, fresh, velvet-soft Carmenère with a typical, smoky, green-pepper edge to the blackberryish fruit. A match for turkey, but not up to goose. £6.99, Lidl Domaine Mas Barrau Cabernet Franc 2014, Pays du Gard,

Dec 2, 2015

What does a winemaker do when he doesn't like his own wine?

Marcelo Papa, winemaker for Concha Y Toro, Chile What a difference a year makes. It’s a statement of the obvious where wine is concerned, but this is a tale of two consecutive vintages where variation is not down to sunshine levels, rainfall, hail, diurnal temperature range, or any of the other myriad weather variables that affect or dictate the quality and quantity of grapes in any season. The difference between the 2012 and the 2013 Marqués de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon

Nov 27, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Uvaggio Primitivo 2011, California

£14.95, Berry Bros & Rudd, bbr.com It’s a bit late to be thinking of this for Thanksgiving, but it’s not too late for the Christmas turkey – or for duck or pork in the meantime. Primitivo is the Italian name for the Zinfandel grape, but as this isn’t anything like a blockbuster traditional California Zin, Uvaggio has opted for the Italian name. It’s plush, but elegant, with a rosehip and raspberry scent, supple, spicy, summer-berry fruit and just a faint suggestion of oak. It

Nov 13, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Taste the Difference Priorat 2013

£10, Sainsbury's You can pay a small fortune for a wine from the remote, hilly region of Priorat in Catalonia – home to some of Spain’s most expensive and recherché reds – and yet Sainsbury’s manages to put this one on the shelves at £10. It’s typically powerful with nutty, spicy, plum-and-cherry fruit and a slightly wild, stony edge that seems entirely in keeping with the rugged terrain. Four grape varieties go into the mix, Garnacha (aka Grenache), Cariñena (Carignan), Syra

Oct 29, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Zensa Nero d’Avola 2013

£10.50, Oddbins, oddbins.com Love the retro label, love the wine - a full-on, spicy, cherry-scented red that will go down a treat (as they say) on Halloween or bonfire night and equally well on a more formal occasion. It's made from vines grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, hence both the name Zensa, the Italian pronunciation of sensa, the word for 'without', and the liberal sprinkling of organico, vino biologico and agricultura biologica across the label. Nero

Oct 23, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: The Lot Series Apalta Colchagua Carmenère 2012

£7.99, Aldi Maybe you already buy wine at Aldi. If you don't, maybe you'll want to reconsider… At a tenner, the red I've chosen is one of the most expensive, part of the limited-edition 'Lot Series', but I can recommend a red at £3.79 if all you need is a simple, soft, party wine (Toro Loco 2014 from Spain - and don't bother trading up to the more expensive Reserva version). The sophisticated Lot Series Carmenère is a true expression of the grape variety that Chile has adopte

Oct 8, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Berry Bros & Rudd Côtes du Rhône Rouge 2012

£10.75, Berry Bros & Rudd Côtes du Rhône can be simple and quaffable or a bit rough around the edges or it can come with smart credentials. This is one with all-singing all-dancing credentials: Berry Bros have it made for them by the Perrin family who own the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate Château de Beaucastel. It's full and generous but not remotely heavy, has a perfume of violets and raspberries and supple, spicy, peppery fruit. It would go down a treat with slow-roast

Oct 1, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Bolney Estate Pinot Noir 2013

£15.99, Waitrose There are going to be plenty of opportunities to hunker down with big, beefy reds in the months to come, so here, for the optimists hoping for some last rays of summer sun, is summer in a glass: a beautifully fragrant, light red - all English roses, cherries and a delicate veneer of polished oak. The only thing it hasn't got is a suntan, but that's because Pinot Noir, the thoroughbred better known for producing great red Burgundy, is a red grape variety that

Sep 17, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Masi Campofiorin Rosso del Veronese 2011

£9.99, Waitrose Think of this as an alternative to a goose-down duvet, a red to snuggle up with as the evenings get chillier: a soft, soothing, Valpolicella-type wine, but super-charged with deep, velvety, dried-cherry fruit, coffee-bean, nutmeg, vanilla and dark chocolate flavours. There are no chewy tannins, so although it'll take a beef casserole in its stride it won't overpower lighter food and is especially good with in-season game birds such as mallard, partridge and pi

Sep 10, 2015

WINES OF THE WEEK: Asda's Wine Atlas range

£4.97, Asda Wine Atlas Bobal A mouthful of juicy, dark cherries with a hint of bakewell tart and peppery, liquoricey chewiness make this a good wine for red meat - a casserole if the barbie has been put into winter storage. Bobal is the grape variety and it's big in acreage in Spain, but for some reason they keep the name largely under wraps. This wine has an impressive pedigree in that the award-winning, ex-Ritz sommelier Bruno Murciano had a big hand in creating it. Wine At

Aug 27, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Pasico Bush Vine Monastrell Shiraz 2014

£6.50, Sainsbury's A young Spanish red made without any ageing in oak so that the bright, bold flavours are all about fruit and spice - ripe berries, juicy plums, sweet red peppers and crushed black peppercorns. For the fact file: the winemaking is modern, but the vines (aka Mourvèdre and Syrah) are old and are left to grow as bushes. Cries out for meaty sausages, red meat - on the barbie if it's still fired up - or melt-in-the-mouth slow-roast pork. Pasico Bush Vine Monastre

Aug 13, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: La Bohème Act Four Syrah Gamay 2013

£14.75, Oddbins A wine for opera lovers, Puccini fans, incurable romantics and anyone who likes full, generously fruity, soft-textured reds: this has raspberry and blackberry compote flavours, a hint of liquorice and a freshness that comes from the Gamay grape (better known for Beaujolais). What's in the name? Dame Nellie Melba, an incomparable Mimi in La Bohème, was from the Yarra Valley. Versatile with food, so what about wild boar chops, Italian sausages, or lasagne? La Bo

Jul 30, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Primo di Conti Côtes de Bergerac 2012

£11, Marks & Spencer If this dark, handsome, cassis and cedar-scented red was from Bordeaux, it would be more expensive, but the wines of nearby Bergerac don't command the same prices. Lucky us. It's a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, matured in French oak barrels for extra depth and a vanilla-edged smokiness. As stocks may have run dry by December, I'm flagging up now that it would be a lovely wine to give or to receive, especially as you could lay it down for a coupl