#supermarket

May 30, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Paolo Leo Primitivo di Manduria 2016, Puglia, Italy

£8.24 on offer, Waitrose and Ocado I originally chose a new Argentine Malbec for this week, Tabu 2016 made by Luigi Bosca (fragrant, briary, lightly oaked, £11.99, Waitrose), but this Primitivo, a perennial favourite and a great barbecue wine, is temptingly on offer, down from £10.99 until 12 June when you buy any 6 bottles. Genetically, Primitivo, which originated in Croatia, is the same as California's Zinfandel, but at home in Puglia in southern Italy, way down in the heel

May 3, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Taste the Difference CVNE Rioja Gran Reserva 2011, Rioja, Spain

£12 (on offer), Sainsbury's Textbook Gran Reserva from CVNE, one of Rioja's most admired bodegas. Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (you can see why it's known as CVNE, pronounced 'coonay') has long since perfected a style that blends modernity with the best of classical approaches: in this case, combining ripe, dark fruit with two years' ageing in French and American oak barrels followed by three years in bottle. The result is a balance of sweet, velvety fruit with cream

Mar 29, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Arthur Metz Crémant d’Alsace Brut 2015, Alsace, France

£14.99, Ocado One taste of this and you understand why Crémant d’Alsace is the most popular sparkling wine in France (aside from Champagne) and why the French keep nine out of every ten bottles for themselves. It’s dreamily fresh, rounded and floral with delicate honeysuckle, peach, ginger and citrus flavours and a breezy grapefruit-zest finish. It’s made in the same way as Champagne, which means the bubbles are created in the bottle during a second fermentation and the wine

Mar 23, 2018

12 of the best from Aldi

Aldi's wines are cheap, as you would expect, but they're bought with care. These are a dozen that stood out at a recent press tasting. Overall, the whites were better than the reds, or at least I preferred them. There's a tendency for the reds to be a bit sweet and/or oaky. Generally, I reckon it's harder to buy whites of any interest at the bottom end than it is to get reds, so buyers Mike James and David Elliott are bucking the trend. The two sparkling wines are both very g

Mar 22, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Lot Series Te Haupapa Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017, New Zealand

£8.99, Aldi The Lot Series wines are smaller parcels of more expensive bottles – more expensive by Aldi's standards, but not by Central Otago or Pinot Noir standards. Cheap or not, it's smooth, light-bodied and lively and brimming with fragrant, cherry and plum fruit, sappy orange-peel freshness and a dash of spicy oak. You can drink it without food, but it goes with fish such as salmon or red mullet, simply roast quail or chicken, charcuterie, savoury tarts or other light me

Feb 15, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Telmo Rodríguez Mountain Blanco 2013, Sierras de Málaga, Spain

£17.95, Ocado Here’s as fine a demonstration as you’ll get that there’s more to Málaga than sweet wine. Sierras de Málaga is the DO (denomination/appellation) for dry white Moscatel wine and this glorious example, from old, mountain vineyards, comes via Telmo Rodríguez, the pioneering producer who has brought Málaga’s forgotten vineyards and wines back to life (and those of other parts of Spain). It’s a wine of wonderful purity, succulence and intensity, with spicy, herby, fl

Feb 8, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Le Grand Prébois Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Quatres Terrroirs 2016, Rhône, France

£17.99, Waitrose Knowing that a lot of wine drinkers raid their wine racks for Châteauneuf-du-Pape over Christmas, I’ve found a cockle-warming offer to replenish stocks. It comes from the cellars of one of the leading producers, the Perrin family, who are renowned for Château de Beaucastel, one of the most sought-after of Châteauneufs. Le Grand Prébois Les Quatres Terroirs is a typical Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah blend, but the grapes come from all four of the different Châtea

Jan 29, 2018

Sauvignon catch-up

My Festive White Wine Guide last month was light on Sauvignon Blanc, so I’m putting that right with 8 recommendations here, in a variety of styles and at a variety of prices, and with this week's Wine of the Week. Shaw & Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2017, Adelaide Hills, Australia Light and sprightly with lemon and pink-grapefruit flavours flecked with pear and white peach, delicate mid-palate texture and racy, refreshing acidity. Ideal for people who don’t like grassy green or pung

Jan 25, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: De Grendel Sauvignon Blanc 2017, Durbanville, South Africa

£8.99, on offer until 20 February, Waitrose and Ocado The weather in London is looking a bit more Sauvignon Blanc-friendly than it has been recently, but this isn't a bracingly sharp, cold-shower kind of Sauvignon anyway. It's certainly not short on zing and vibrancy, but ageing the newly fermented wine on its lees (yeasty residues) has added a delicate creaminess to the juicy white peach, apricot and grassy pea-shoot flavours. It's only then that the palate dives headlong in

Dec 21, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: *finest Greco Beneventano 2016, Campania, Italy

£8 until 1 January, Tesco Since I included this southern Italian in my Festive White Wine Guide last week, I've discovered that it's on offer, down from £9, until January 1, making it an even better buy. It's also in a large number of stores (864), so it's a useful wine to have on your list in the frantic run-up to Christmas and the quiet days before New Year (and the Tesco *finest label can be peeled off). The wine itself is crisp, dry and unoaked and should pass muster with

Dec 20, 2017

The Festive Sweet, Sticky and Fortified Guide

Sweet and fortified wines come into their own at this time of year – for entertaining, sipping quietly and contemplatively, or giving as presents. With the exception of pale dry sherries and tawny ports, most can be kept several years (in cellar conditions). Fortifieds, in particular, are also often bargains. So here are my picks for this year, going from dry to sweet and/or fresher, lighter to richer, heavier (rather than in ascending order of price, as with my other Festiv

Dec 19, 2017

The Festive White Wine Guide 2017

Sixteen dry whites to cover the festivities and all eventualities at prices from £7 to £48 and from the supermarket giants to small independents. New Zealand Sauvignon is conspicuous by its absence, not for any lack of enthusiasm on my part, but because it was clear from my tasting notes and scores that with NZ Sauvignon you pretty well get what you pay for. If you want something more expressive, expect to pay £13-£20 and head for the likes of Greywacke, Dog Point, Churton,

Dec 15, 2017

The Festive Red Wine Guide 2017

Twenty red wines to take you through all manner of festivities and in some cases festivities for years to come. As, always, they’re listed in ascending order of price, give or take differences in retailers’ prices and special offers. There are three wines I highly recommend but have not included below because they, or a previous vintage, were in last year’s Festive Wine Guide: Les Hauts de Saint-Martin Saint-Chinian 2015 (great value at £6.99, Co-op), the exemplary CVNE Rioja

Dec 13, 2017

The Festive Champagne Guide 2017

So here they are: my Champagne picks for Christmas, New Year and every other kind of festivity, whittled down with difficulty to what I hope is a reasonable number. There's a spread of styles, producers and prices, kicking off below £20 and finishing around £150. I've largely steered clear of Champagnes featured in the last two years' round-ups, which means missing out some with particular regret. This year there's only one pink but, as it happens, without planning it, there

Dec 11, 2017

Festive fizz 2017: anything except Champagne

The first of the season's round-ups is sparkling wines – anything alcoholic and fizzy except Champagne (the Champagne round-up follows shortly). They're selected for quality, interest and value for money and it's ended up as five rosés, three whites and two reds from five different countries across both hemispheres. There's no Prosecco this year – I'm prepared for the brickbats – but if you're looking for one, Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Prosecco Conegliano 2016 is bette

Nov 30, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: *finest Viña del Cura Rioja Gran Reserva 2011, Rioja, Spain

£11, Tesco (25% off when you buy 6: £49.50) Wire-wrapped bottles divide Spanish red wine drinkers into those who run a mile and those for whom they beckon invitingly. If you’re one of the runners, I'm with you. Much as I try not to have preconceptions, I can't help associating wire-nets with old-fashioned, oak-dominated reds. How wrong can I be? This is an oaky Rioja – it's a Gran Reserva, matured in oak for two years – but it’s also a dark, plummy, full-bodied Rioja made by

Nov 16, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Taste the Difference Barbaresco 2014, Piedmont, Italy

£11, Sainsbury's Barbaresco and bargain aren't words that usually go together, but £11 is a very good price for a Barbaresco of this quality. It's even got a track record for reliability: two previous vintages were equally good. It’s classic, medium-bodied Nebbiolo, quietly assured, savoury and food-friendly. The perfume and flavours criss-cross from rose potpourri, dark plums and cherries, to autumnal undergrowth and forest floor, to tobacco, nutmeg, espresso and liquorice.

Nov 2, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Seresin Rachel Pinot Noir 2012/2013, Marlborough, New Zealand

£22–£23, The Wine Society, Booths supermarkets I don’t normally do split vintages – i.e. recommend two at the same time – but 2012 and 2013 are both available and, although they're different in character, they're equally delicious. The 2012 is from a cooler year, but with an extra year’s age there’s a lovely suppleness and silkiness to the spicy, red cherry-perfumed purity and cherry cake and nutmeg elegance. The 2013 shows its youth with a more savoury, structured backbone,

Sep 28, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Villa Blanche Terret Blanc 2016, Pays d'Oc, France

£8.49, Waitrose Terret Blanc is an ancient grape variety that has languished, unloved, in Languedoc for decades. It gets lobbed into blends now and then, but rarely gets its own show. Winemakers Laurent Calmel and Jerome Joseph, the dynamic duo behind both the Villa Blanche and Calmel & Joseph labels, are changing that with a minerally, zesty, dry white that has elements to appeal to Chablis drinkers on one side and Sauvignon Blanc drinkers on the other. There’ll be defectors

Sep 7, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Running With Bulls South Australia Tempranillo 2014, Australia

£7.99, Co-op Running With Bulls is one of the new breed (excuse the pun) of Australian wines made from non-traditional grape varieties. Across Australia, winemakers have been trying to get out of the Shiraz-Cabernet-Chardonnay straightjacket for a decade and more – not least because of climate change – but planting new vineyards or replanting existing ones takes time wherever you are – and money. The added obstacle in Australia is that imported cuttings have to go through yea