Trivento, Reserve Malbec, 2019, Mendoza, Argentina
Argentina does Malbec pretty well and this one from Trivento is a good example.
Yes its a cheap red wine that’s reasonable bold, pretty smooth and dry yet theres more to it. With aromas and flavours of red and black fruit, raspberry, cherry, plum, blackberry with hints of vanilla and chocolate and there’s good decent length to round it off.
This is a red wine for the masses and that’s not a bad thing. Excellent stuff.
Incanta, Pinot Noir, 2019, Romania
Buy it, you can read the below if you want but this Incanta Pinot Noir from Romania is amazing value and pretty good to boot.
Its a fresh, light and easy drinking red with fruit driven flavours of raspberry, cherry, hints of strawberries and a slight eathiness that makes you think of French Pinot Noir but at £6.50 a bottle from Majestic on a mix 6 bottles its a bargain.
Camel Valley, Bacchus Dry, 2015, Cornwall, UK
Bacchus is the english grape as Sauvignon Blanc is to New Zealand and its generally good. There are exceptions and this 6 year old Bacchus from Camel Valley in Cornwall is flippin great. 6 Years old and its still fresh, crisp, light in texture but with loads of flavours of citrus, gooseberry, and a hint of elderflower.
This is wine making at it finest and quite frankly at about £15 a bottle its not cheap but there is value here for the quality.
Indomita, Gran Reserva, Pinot Noir, 2020, Chile
I love Chile Pinot Noir and this one from Indomita is very good. I’m not sure its in the same league as Morande Pinot Noir but its half the price on a mix 6 at Majestic.
Dry, smooth and reasonable light with aromas of red fruit and notes of oak and coffee. There are flavours of redcurrant, strawberry, herbs and vanilla with hints of eathiness. Its the price where this really scores, at £8 a bottle its well worth buying.
Toppesfield, Classic Brut, Sparkling wine, 2018, Essex
I really like the Toppesfield wines, they are no that far away from me and they are really passionate about what they do which I love, along with the wines and this Sparkling Brut.
Its crisp and dry, made in the traditional sparkling wine way this is a elegant but more fruit driven on the flavour than a traditional Champagne way. You get citrus and apples and a little gooseberry undernote in there.
At £24 a bottle its priced as cheaper Champagne but so much more drinkable than french champagne and a step up from french Cremant.
Wynns, Coonawarra Estate, Shiraz 2019, Australia
Wynns is a well known Australian brand which generally delivers and this is no exception, especially at the £15 price mark. It’s a bold wine but reasonably smooth and fairly dry but at the end of day is that softness that you can’t help but like.
There are aromas of chocolate and pepper, plum and blackberry and flavours dark black fruit and vanilla undertone. Spice and a little jamminess makes this really good. It’s more a food wine. Steak and BBQ foods a good starter.
Chet & Waveney, Solaris, 2017, Norfolk, UK
Chet & Waveney is in Norfolk in the UK and has been making wine for a while and for a while its been good stuff. In the last year they have built a new winery and expanded. This white is made with the Solaris grape and while from 2017, its still excellent.
Its light on the nose but has favours of goosebery, lemon, lime and grapefruit with decent length and freshness that you can’t help but want another glass. its not complicated or fussy.
This is what I like about english wine, its just enjoyable.
Loimer Manhart, 2018, Langenlois, Austria
Austrian wine its generally very good but suffers still from historic issues in peoples minds.
Made from Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc this is a fairly complex wine with aromas of citrus, honey and flavours of tropical fruits, pineapple, mango with green apple poking through.
Its a rich white wine that you want to savour, not guzzle. At £15 its not cheap and that will put people off but I would recommend you try it.
Bodegas Muro, Maturana, Rioja, Spain
This Rioja from Bodegas Muro is made from the Maturana Tinto grape and it is a lot better than the vast amount of Rioja wine out there.
It does the basics really well, medium but grippy tannins coupled with good lengths on the flavours of plum, cherry with a little spice and hints of chocolate. It went down very well with Lamb and steak at a BBQ.
This red from Languedoc is a pretty bold, tannic wine. Very dry with peppery notes and spice on the nose. You do get red fruit on the flavour front with reasonable fruit levels coming through but I would definitely recommend having this with food juicy steak or tomato pasta would be ideal.
At about £10 a bottle is decent value.