WINE OF THE WEEK: Vincent et Tania Carême Spring Vouvray 2022, Vouvray, Loire Valley, France

£12.50/£16.50, Waitrose

I know, I know, it’s not spring yet and it’s not feeling much like it most of the time, but the aptly named Spring Vouvray is a welcome reminder that it’s on its way.

More to the point, if it’s good value at its normal price, it's a bargain at the current offer price – until 16 February – of £12.50 (down £4).

All Vouvray has to be 100 per cent Chenin Blanc, but it can range in style from bone dry to very sweet and can be still or sparkling. Vincent et Tania Carême Spring Vouvray 2022 is a still wine and it’s sec, meaning dry but not bone dry.

The tiny touch of residual sugar gives a delicate undercurrent of honey to the citrus quince, apricot and straw flavours in a wine of mouthwateringly pure fruit and precision.

Vincent et Tania Carême (or Tania & Vincent Carême, as the back label has it) is the name of the eponymous couple’s négociant business making wine from grapes and juice they buy in. They run it alongside their 24-hectare organic estate, Domaine Vincent Carême, set up from scratch by Vincent in 1999 with just five hectares.

They also use the Tania & Vincent name for their Terres Brûlées wines in Tania’s home country of South Africa, where they make two wines, a Chenin Blanc and a red from Syrah and Cinsault, in the Swartland region.

Back to Spring Vouvray Sec 2022. It’s a perfect aperitif, but you could also serve it with gravadlax, delicate fish such as trout, griddled prawns or prawn salads, or salads with some element of fruit, such as apple, mango, peach or orange. 12.5%. Empty bottle weight: 420g

Vincent et Tania Carême Spring Vouvray 2022, Vouvray, Loire Valley, France

£12.50 until 16.2.26, then £16.50, Waitrose Cellar

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