#white

May 13, 2020

A Pit Stop with Pedro Parra in Chile

The genie in the pit: Pedro Parra in one of thousands of soil pits (calicatas) he has dug, but this one is special: it's amid vines in Itata that produce his own wines “Chile is a great terroir used in a very boring way.” You always know where you are with Pedro Parra, soil scientist extraordinaire. They weren’t quite his opening words when I met up with him in Chile for the first time in a while, but they weren’t far off. He had already summarily dismissed Carmenère and a fe

Apr 16, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Brokenwood Thompson's Road Hunter Valley Semillon 2018, Australia

£8.99/£9.99, Waitrose Hunter Valley Semillon isn't like Sémillon from anywhere else (and I'm not talking about the absence of the accent). The classic Hunter style is dry and light-bodied but intensely flavoured with an electric current of citrus zest and a smooth, lanolin-like texture. With age it develops toasted, honeyed complexity, as if aged in oak – and all delivered at naturally low alcohol levels: in this case 11%. Thompson's Road 2018 is still young, so doesn't have

Apr 2, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: The Doctors' Sauvignon Blanc 2019, Marlborough New Zealand

£8–£10, Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado, Booths The name of last week's wine of the week translated as "no fuss". This week it's The Doctors. It could be a metaphor for what's been happening in some parts of the world in recent weeks, but neither wine was chosen for its name. I've had this Sauvignon Blanc lined up for a while but was waiting for warmer weather (I've given up on that) and for the 2019 vintage to be well stocked (no need to spurn the 2018 if that's what you find). At a

Mar 19, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Boccantino Passerina Terre di Chieti 2018, Abruzzi, Italy

£11, The Daily Drinker The Passerina grape is an old variety grown in central Italy, especially in Terre di Chieti in the Abruzzi, but you don’t see it as much on labels as the better-known Pecorino because it’s often blended and also used for sparkling wines and Vin Santo. Perhaps its versatility, together with high yields (one of its synonyms, Pagadebit, means ‘pays the debts’), have stood in the way of a higher-flying solo career. This, anyway, is pure Passerina, organic a

Feb 13, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Weingut Müller-Grossmann Furth Kremstal Riesling 2018, Austria

£14.40, Tanners Wines If you're in the UK you may wonder at my recommending a Riesling in the currently comfortless weather – not only that but a dry Riesling without the comfort-zone sweetness of the older classic styles of Germany (Kabinett and so on). Summer is certainly prime time for most of the world's very light, crisply acidic white wines, but good dry Riesling doesn't fit that description. Whether it's from Austria, Germany, Alsace or Australia, there's more to its a

Jan 23, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Paul Ginglinger Alsace Gewurztraminer Wahlenbourg 2017, France

£14.50, The Wine Society This is another wine, like last week's, that would be a good choice for a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, but that's not why I've chosen it. I'm recommending it simply because it's too good to miss, whether you have Chinese food on the menu, other Southeast Asian cuisines, a rich paté, a caramelised onion tart or you just want an interesting aperitif. No need to take my word alone: I showed it at a tutored tasting just before Christmas and it swept the

Jan 9, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Guerila Pinela 2018, Vipavska Dolina, Slovenia

£15, The Daily Drinker The repository for so many intriguing wines, The Daily Drinker, has come up trumps again with its featured winter wines. I was looking for a white for this week and was torn between this and the Bulgarian Misket Cherven (no relation to any Muscat), but the Pinela is so unusual it's irresistible. It's an old Slovenian variety that may or may not be the same as neighbouring Friuli's Pinella (with a double 'l') and the wine is biodynamic, fermented spontan

Dec 13, 2019

The Festive Champagne Guide 2019

Writing my annual Festive Champagne Guide is, as you can imagine, no hardship, not least because I have tasted everything in it recently. As always it has been difficult to whittle down the numbers, but one way is to exclude most of the Champagnes recommended in last year's guide (however painful some exclusions are) and those featured in my blogs on Drappier and Bruno Paillard. Even whittled down, there's a spectrum of styles, ages, producers and retailers, presented in asce

Dec 12, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: The Best Marqués De Los Rios Rioja Blanco Reserva 2015, Spain

£13, Morrisons Made for Morrisons' The Best range by Baron de Ley, one of Rioja's commendable, big players, this combines the best of traditional white Rioja in its oak impact and the best of the modern style in its fruit and freshness. After 14 months' maturing in American oak, there's plenty of oaky, spicy, almost resiny richness, all neatly balanced by the intensity and zing of preserved-lemon fruit and a silky, rounded texture. If you don't like oaky wine, then it's not f

Dec 11, 2019

The Festive White Wine Guide 2019

My round-up of white wines from around the globe to cover Christmas and all the other festivities from simple supper to a big splash that demands something like a smart white Burgundy. It's always more difficult to find cheap white wines with something to say for themselves than it is to find inexpensive reds with some character, but the ones below should do the trick and I've also thrown in a keenly priced pale rosé from New Zealand. Wines are listed in ascending order of pr

Nov 27, 2019

Festive Fizz 2019: anything but Champagne

The first of the season's round-ups of recommendations is sparkling wines, from far and near but not Champagne – that gets its own show soon. Give or take special offers, they're in ascending order of price, except that this year I've given English sparkling wines their own zone (scroll down). Their quality warrants it. I'd like to have included more, but wanted to keep numbers manageable. One wine I intended recommending is out of stock, but it's worth noting for when it's b

Nov 21, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Réthoré Davy Parcelles Chardonnay 2018, Val de Loire, France

£10.35/£9.20, Haynes Hanson & Clark This is beautifully expressive, unoaked cool-climate Chardonnay – both vibrant and generous, with citrus, white blossom and fresh bay leaves on the nose and a textured palate suffused with quince, lemon and a briney, grapefruit-zest finish. It's from Christophe Réthoré's 42-hectare estate in the heart of the Pays des Mauges, an area between Muscadet to the west and Coteaux du Layon to the east, and it's a selection of his best parcels on sc

Oct 31, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Alheit Vineyards Limited Release Chenin Blanc 2018, Western Cape, South Africa

£14.99, Majestic Welcome back, Majestic. After we nearly lost the pioneering wine warehouse chain altogether earlier this year, it’s good to see it not just hanging on but bouncing back with a revitalised wine range that recalls its heyday. Stalwarts such as the gorgeous Inama Soaves have been joined by old favourites that had been dropped, among them Château Caronne Ste-Gemme, and boosted by a raft of captivating new wines, of which this Chenin is one and the light, lip-smac

Oct 17, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Joseph Perrier Cuvée Royale Brut Champagne, France

£34/£27, Tanners Wines I wasn't planning to do Champagne this week, but now is the time to stock up on this Joseph Perrier. The current tempting offer price of £27 when you buy two or more ends in 10 days' time on 28 October. I hadn't tasted Cuvée Royale for a while and was hugely impressed. It's vivacious and elegant yet generous, too, and beautifully balanced, with a floral note on the nose and lemon curd and toast on the palate. It's a more or less equal blend of the three

Oct 10, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Ramón Bilbao Edición Limitada Lías Verdejo 2017, Rueda, Spain

£15.50–£15.95, Great Western Wine, NY Wines I'm not a notably seasonal drinker – it's more of a case of whatever I feel like whenever – but I do think this white Rueda resonates especially well at this time of year, when it's certainly not summer, but by no means winter either (or perhaps I'm just finding excuses because I like the wine so much). The Verdejo grape's natural citrus, pear, bay leaf, delicate almond nuttiness and freshness have been cosseted by ageing the wine o

Sep 26, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Bodegas Martínez Paiva Solo I Cayetana 2018, Ribera del Guadiana, Spain

£14, The Daily Drinker A weighty, characterful dry white made from Cayetana Blanca, an old variety that goes under a variety of names in both Spain and Portugal (among them Pardina, Jaén Blanco and Mourisco Branco). Apparently, a lot of Cayetana is used for Brandy de Jerez. I can only hope it's not grapes of the quality that have produced this wine, which is made from 40-year-old vines in the DO of Ribera del Guadiana in Extremadura, southwest Spain. The aromas are quite low-

Aug 15, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine de la Cendrillon Nuance 2018, Vin de France

£12.80/£10.60, Tanners Wines This wonderfully original and delicious dry white is from a family-owned and run organic estate in Corbières that has been in the family since 1750 (I love that kind of continuity). Although it’s in the Corbières region, the wine bears the simple classification Vin de France because it’s made from an array of grape varieties, including several non-traditional: Petit Manseng from southwest France, one of my favourite white grapes, out in front at 3

Aug 8, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Haywire Secrest Mountain Chardonnay 2017, Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada

£19.99, Selfridges Visiting British Columbia’s breathtaking Okanagan Valley for the first time last year was one of the most eye-opening wine trips I’ve been on. There’s so much more to Canadian wine than Ice Wine. Read more about my trip here, but don’t stop at that: check out the wines Selfridges has this month in its special focus on Okanagan and Canadian wine. I could have chosen any number of varieties for this week’s wine (Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Noir…) but I’ve chosen

Jul 25, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Barry & Sons Riesling 2017, Clare Valley, Australia

£13.40, Tanners Wines I don't think I can come up with two more refreshing still wines for hot weather than dry Riesling and Assyrtiko. I’ve made the Clare Riesling my Wine of the Week, but I recommend the Barry’s family’s Assyrtiko, too. It’s the follow-on vintage to the 2016, the first Assyrtiko not just in Australia but anywhere outside Greece (there's more about it here and see picture below). The 2017 is juicy and fruity with softly smoky lime and lemon flavours and pith

Jul 4, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Le Domaine d'Henri Chablis Saint Pierre 2016, Chablis, France

£24.50, Berry Bros & Rudd Considering that Chablis is one of my desert-island wines (on my increasingly chocca island) I’m astonished to find that this is the first to occupy the Wine of the Week slot in nearly four years. I could, of course, have found a cheaper one to recommend, but Le Domaine d’Henri’s Saint Pierre is, to me, the quintessence of Chablis – an exhilarating oyster-shell freshness and flavour, a savoury nuttiness that owes almost everything to Chardonnay and l