£13.99/£12./59, Laithwaites A red Bordeaux in a Burgundy bottle without a capsule and label graphics showing a love-you hand squeezing a bunch of grapes was never going to be a conventional Bordeaux. Stand by, then, for generous, bright fruit (sweet plums, blackberries and blackcurrants), fleeting whiffs of parma violets and spicy tobacco and a gentle undertow of refreshing leafiness. Tannin? There's not an elbow or an angle in sight, just glossy curves and mouth-filling, ve

£12.50, The Daily Drinker When you taste a good dry white Verdejo like this, with its citrus-peel snap, streaks of herb and peach, textural, almond nuttiness and suggestion of orange blossom, it makes you wonder why more growers aren't trying it out around the world, especially as it's relatively drought-resistant (although admittedly very susceptible to powdery mildew). Perhaps the answer is simply that it's a white grape variety that is determinedly Spanish in its terroir a

£7.49 on offer, Waitrose This is Malbec with the succulent, ripe fruit typical of the grape variety in Argentina (all black cherry, plum and cassis), but freshened with cooler, savoury black pepper and black olive flavours that recall Malbec in its original French homeland of Cahors. It's a winning combination and a beautifully tailored wine, too, with a lot of finesse for a wine at this price level (talking of which, it's very good value at its full price and a bargain at th

£8.95, Tanners Gratifying as it is to recommend exciting little-known wines, it can be equally satisfying to find really good, well-priced examples of popular styles. Get ready to charge your glasses with Tanners' new own-label Chilean Chardonnay, which navigates perfectly the narrow divide between being a bit too tutti frutti and a bit too skeletal. It's made by the family-owned Viña Sutil from their own vineyards in Peralillo, Colchagua (they also have holdings in Limarí an

£12.95–£16, The Wine Society, Haynes Hanson & Clark This is the kind of wine that gets pigeon-holed as a summer wine, usually as an alternative to Beaujolais, but it's absolutely delicious and deserves to be drunk all year, cool in winter, cooler still in summer. Like Beaujolais, it's made from Gamay, but in the small Côtes du Forez appellation in the Auvergne to the south west, near to the source of the river Loire. Gilles Bonnefoy, who started La Madone in the late 1990s a

£6.49, Aldi After this year's biting spring frosts in Marlborough, there aren't going to be many New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs at this price for long – certainly not of this quality. It's dry, zingy and springy with textbook elderflower, gooseberry, passion-fruit, lime and currant-leaf flavours, none of them overpowering or out of kilter. Even if your thoughts were edging towards something more wintry, it's worth taking advantage of this while you can. It's part of Aldi's Spec

£7.99 (on offer), Waitrose It hasn't come soon enough but Cinsault (or Cinsaut) has finally shed the label 'workhorse' that stalked it for so long and is being valued as a red grape variety in its own right, especially when the vines are old, as here. It's surprising in some ways that it should have been so under-appreciated. It claims status in Châteauneuf-du-Pape as one of the permitted varieties, it's a key component of many Provence rosés and it's one parent of the import

£9.95, The Wine Society In the second of my two summer rosé roundups, I applauded the more interesting textures making rosés ever more versatile wines at the table. This Portuguese star is exactly the kind of wine I was talking about. It draws you in with lightly floral cherry and raspberry aromas, then delivers the same breezy fruit on the palate with almost chewable, textured roundness and dry, salty, mineral length. Really delicious. It's made from Tinta Roriz (aka Tempran

£17.99, Majestic I don't know where I would have thought this was from if I was tasting it blind, but you can be pretty certain I wouldn't have identified it as a vineyard in Essex vinified in Devon. And even if I'd hit upon England, I doubt I would have identified it as a product of the frost-devastated 2017 vintage. It goes to show how local and uneven frost can be: Martin's Lane Vineyard escaped most of the damage and the rest of the season was favourable enough for the ha

I hadn't planned to do a Pinot Noir post to coincide with International Pinot Noir Day today, but it's a good opportunity to spread the love, not least because I was bowled over by the two Akitu wines below, especially the A1 2018, and by the latest Craggy Range Aroha. There's also an amphora-fermented Pinot from Shropshire, which is a revelation and a triumph. Who knew England could do this? And there are two Burgundies I wanted to highlight, although the delightful, mature

£19.99, Cellar Door Wines, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Street Wines; £69 for 6 en primeur, Tanners Wines An inviting, approachable but cellar-worthy Portuguese red from the team at the Quinta do Noval port estate in an excellent vintage. Generous, perfumed and fruity with floral notes, dark cherry, damson and a touch of liquorice carried by soft, cedar and sandalwood spice, sleek tannins and the energising, mineral lick of wet rocks that is so characteristic of wines, both red

As in part one, there's a cross-section of styles, grape varieties, origins and prices here and I'm going from high to low again, so that the more expensive rosés don't get overlooked (scroll down for the £8.25 Spanish rosado). There are some food suggestions along the way, but there isn't a wine here that couldn't be taken to the table, thanks largely to the more interesting textures we're seeing in so many rosés. Finally, a reminder that if you want a comprehensive review o

£14.50–£19.50, Aitken Wines, D Byrne, Sarah's Cellar, Corks & Cases, Kwoff, Blas Ar Fwyd, Chester Beer & Wine, Connolly's Wine Key to this wonderfully expressive Pinot Grigio are steeply sloping, sunny south/southeast facing vineyards lying at a lofty 550–600m, deep glacial soils and low yields from vines aged 15 to 30 years old. And key to the selection of these particular, extreme sites and soils is the PICA proprietary software owned by the CAVIT co-operative group in the

£12.99–£13.95, Urban Grapes, Alteus Wine, Gourmet Hunters, Simply Wines Direct, All About Wine I tasted this Roussillon rosé for the second part of my Summer Rosé Round Up (coming up soon, click for Part 1 in the meantime), but was so taken with it that I'm putting the spotlight on it here first. The very pale colour gives it the look of a typical Provence rosé (as does the chic bottle), but it's more aromatic than many of its Provence counterparts, with Mediterranean herbs,

£17.99–£19.95, Fine Wines Direct, Vinvm, Amazon I hardly need say that I wouldn't have chosen this if drinking it was like purgatory, but why would anyone (hipsters aside) give the name to their wine? Simple: conditions on the remote L'Aranyó estate from which it comes are so extreme – high, hot, arid – that Benedictine monks were sent there to work the land as penance and the farmhouse built by the Abbey of Montserrat in 1770 became known as the 'farmhouse of the exiled'. Wh

£14.50, Vintage Cellars It's so good to see growers nurturing and valuing old Carignan vines, not just in Chile but in Lebanon and Languedoc-Roussillon. For decades, it was a grape variety so deeply out of step with consumer tastes and winemaking fashions that even old vines were pulled up, or simply neglected, and grapes from younger vineyards and sky-high yields were blended into oblivion. The fruit from old Carignan in Mediterranean climates with suitably poor soils is som

£19.68, Justerini & Brooks You can pour this and drink it straightaway with pleasure, but it repays time in the glass handsomely. Decanting is another option. It's also best not to chill it too heavily. At first, it's linear, taut and savoury with salty wet rock and crunchy green apple flavours. After 5–10 minutes, while losing none of its crackling energy and steel, sweeter apple and peach emerge alongside fresh lemon and preserved lemon, hints of honey and spice and a textu

Now that winemakers all around the world treat rosé with as much respect as red and white wines, there are so many good rosés in such a diversity of styles that I'm dividing this year's round-up into two posts, with a cross section of styles, grape varieties and origins in each. And in a break with the past, I'm going from high to low in price this year because I don't want the more expensive pink wines (the first five in particular) to be missed. Scroll to the bottom and go

£13.95, The Wine Society If you're about to move on because you think that Nebbiolo isn't a summer wine, please give me a moment. It's true that the grape famous for Barolo and Barbaresco has a savoury, autumnal side to its flavour and goes well with lots of autumn foods - game, mushrooms, truffles – but that's only part of the story. It also has a wonderful fragrance – ethereal and haunting, as so often described – and in the Langhe hills it has notable elegance, as it does

£14.50, The Daily Drinker Bright, breezy and light as a feather, this is a delightful example of the Alpine purity and flavour of the Savoie region's Jacquère grape. It's as pale as snow with just a hint of green, smells of spring blossoms, jasmine and summer orchards and glides across the palate in ripples of pear and citrus fruit and mountain-stream stones. It's quietly insistent in flavour, soft textured and effortlessly fresh. You could drink it alongside simple salads an