#wine

Feb 5, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Joseph Burrier Saint-Amour Côte de Besset 2013

£14.50, The Wine Society I’m not sure whether I’m killing two birds with one stone or multi-tasking, but this week’s wine doubles up as one of the best to choose if you want a red wine for Chinese New Year and/or one for Valentine’s Day. Saint-Amour (Saint Love) is one of the ten Crus, the top villages, of Beaujolais, so it bears the village name rather than the Beaujolais moniker and is made to stricter rules – on the amount of wine that can be produced, for example. It has

Jan 28, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Trizanne Signature Shiraz Grenache 2013, Swartland

£9.99, Waitrose With changeable weather and diets swinging this way and that, you may easily want a crisp, reviving wine one minute and something much bigger and more solid the next. This oak-matured Cape red has a comforting roundness and smoothness, with dark-berry fruit, delicate toast and peppery spice, but it’s elegant and sleek, rather than a heavyweight that makes you slump in your chair and wonder whether you’ll ever feel like getting up again. If there’s a chill in t

Jan 28, 2016

What I admire about wine: integrity, authenticity, purity and character

Stop Press! 14 April, 2016: I'm delighted to report that these wines are now available at £19.95 per bottle from winesensations.co.uk These two wines are not available in the UK or the US (stockist information at the end). I’m telling you about them simply because they express so much of what I admire about wine: integrity, authenticity, purity, flavour, character. Above all, even though I haven’t been to the vineyards or met the producers (we have corresponded and have a fri

Jan 21, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Heavenly Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Côtes de Gascogne

£5.99, Wine Rack and Bargain Booze I wasn’t planning to wax lyrical about a Sauvignon Blanc this week. I’d been thinking along the lines of big, chunky reds to go with robust, warming casseroles, but this Sauvignon came along and it has such revitalising elderflower, passion fruit and pink grapefruit flavour that I can’t resist choosing it. Plus, it’s a bargain! It’s from the gentle, rolling Gascon hills in south west France, a haven of ultra-light, fresh whites, but because

Jan 14, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Mas Barrau Cabernet Franc 2014, Pays du Gard

£7.89, Booths supermarkets and independents This flowing, soft red from Languedoc ticks all sort of useful January boxes. It’s made from Cabernet Franc, a grape variety that should be on every trend-spotter’s radar this year, but it’s not one of those niche wines with achingly challenging flavours. Its suppleness gives it an instant, cold-weather comfort factor, but at the same time it has a refreshing red-berry juiciness. And it’s easy to match to food: it won’t overwhelm ch

Jan 10, 2016

Moderate Alcohol, Persuasive Flavour

If you know where to look, there are plenty of wines with modest alcohol but bags of character and flavour Prompted by the UK government's new alcohol guidelines, I've looked through my recent tasting notes for wines that have low to moderate levels of alcohol, but which certainly don't fall short in the flavour and character stakes. The dry whites I'm recommending are all 12% abv, or lower, and the reds are 12.5% abv or lower, but bear in mind that EU labelling laws allow a

Jan 7, 2016

WINE OF THE WEEK: Barossa Riesling 2015, Eden Valley

£8, Marks & Spencer If you’re going for the complete January detox and diet, you have my sympathy – and more usefully a recommendation below – but my wine this week is proper wine as usual, a dry white with a median 12% abv that goes brilliantly with seared or chargrilled seafood, Thai and Vietnamese salads and other healthy, light, spicy dishes. It’s a classic, Eden Valley dry Riesling packed with snappy, crisp, lime and apple flavours pulled along by a refreshing, stony, mi

Jan 2, 2016

Cool Grapes

New year, new grape varieties: ten grapes and wines for 2016 Remember Grü-V? Yes, the American moniker for Grüner Veltliner. The trouble was that by the time sommeliers and their customers were saying Grü-V it was anything but, er, groovy. Fashions come and go in wine as in all things and there’s always somebody out there trying to outdo everyone else by requesting the most recherché lesser-spotted grape variety, To help you keep ahead of the game, here are ten cool grapes an

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

Dec 30, 2015

Cheap, Cheery Party Wines

Still and sparkling wines that are easy to drink, don’t need food and are available on the high street – five of them at under £7.50. For more ideas, especially if you want to aim a bit higher, check out my festive Champagne, Red and White Wine guides and my Wines of the Week. Wine Atlas Côtes de Thau 2014, Languedoc, France Breezy, light (12% abv), southern French blend of Sauvignon, Grenache Blanc and Vermentino. Zesty grapefruit and nettle flavour with a suggestion of whit

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 17, 2015

Festive White Wines

Whites to keep the show on the road this Christmas and New Year Wines listed in ascending order of price. I've given a UK stockist for each, but you can find other stockists in the UK and other countries on wine-searcher.com Tesco *finest Saint Mont 2014, France Mouthwatering, tangy lime and quince flavours. A brilliant, snappy fresh alternative to Sauvignon Blanc made from local grape varieties – mainly Gros Manseng – in Saint Mont, south west France. £5.50, Tesco Cimarosa M

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 10, 2015

The Festive Champagne Guide

Ten Champagnes to put you in the mood for Christmas and all the rest Listed in ascending order of price, ignoring special offers and quantity discounts. I've given a UK stockist and price (sometimes two) for each, but you can find other stockists in the UK and other countries on wine-searcher.com. Les Pionniers Brut NV Champagne Biscuity, rounded and fresh. Consistently good; remarkable value. The Co-operative's own label. 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier, 10% Chardonnay. Th

Dec 4, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Tim Adams Clare Valley Semillon 2011

£9.75, selected Tesco and tesco.com/wine This dry Australian Semillon is an old favourite, not only for its citrus-zest freshness, lemon-curd smoothness and delicate smoky oak but because it’s a vinous flexible friend. It goes well with all sorts of fish and seafood, vegetable and salad dishes, goats’ and other cheeses. You can equally well drink it on its own – and if you have somewhere with a reasonably steady temperature below that of the average kitchen, you can lay it do

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 20, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Marisco The King’s Thorn Pinot Gris 2013

£9.99 when you buy any 6 bottles, Majestic There’s more to New Zealand white wine than Sauvignon Blanc, but the other grape varieties often struggle to make themselves heard above the Sauvignon din. One that’s starting to shout a bit louder is Pinot Gris. Sometimes it’s labeled Pinot Grigio, but as Italian Pinot Grigio is a much lighter, more neutral wine, New Zealanders mostly label theirs Gris. The King’s Thorn is typically fruity and juicy with a delicately honeyed nose, p

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

Nov 6, 2015

WINE OF THE WEEK: Fess Parker Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2014

£13.95, The Wine Society, thewinesociety.com This wine is a great match for cashew nuts. You might think that anybody worrying about which wine to drink with cashews has too much time on their hands, but think of all the delicious dishes, especially Indian, Chinese and Thai-style, that include cashews. I rest my case, and not least because it also goes very well with chicken, prawns, pork, pumpkin and aubergine (perhaps that should be eggplant as the wine is American). It’s v