From Chile’s Central Valley this is a typical mass production Sav Blanc from the New World. It has high acidity, dry andathere are tropical fruit flavours and a hint of gooseberry. It doesn’t last long on the palette but it’s easy drinking and around £5 or £6 a bottle cheap. A decent party wine.
A Languedoc Roussillon wine mix of Marsanne, Rousanne and a little Viognier. It’s a dry white with flavours of pear drops, peachpand hints of vanilla from a little oak aging. This is a thicker wine in texture giving it an almost creamy feel. Great with summer meals or in the garden watching the sun set. At about £8 to £10 a bottle a very good every day wine.
Sicily produces a light of wine, some good, so not. The secret is to pay a bit more for it and leave the rest on the shelf. Wine over £10 a bottle tends to be better from most regions and this wine at £15 a bottle shows that great wine can come from Sicily, and not at a silly price. There is a lot going on here, black fruits – black cherry, black currant. There are spice flavours with firm tannins from the grape blend of Nero D’Avola, Nerello Mascalese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. This in an intense, smooth and wonderful wine. Much better to buy 1 bottle of this than 2 cheap bottles.
Ammasso 2016 Sicilian red wine
This wine comes from Valais and more particularly of Corin, Miège, Sierre and Salquenen, in Switzerland and from a vineyard set up just over 10 years ago. Swiss wine is not the easiest to get hold of, that said when you do get it its really rather good. This 2014 Pinot Noir from Histoire D’Enfer fits that category perfectly. There are aromas and flavours of red currant and cherry. Its dry, light in body and tannin and very easy to drink on its own or with fish or chicken, We had it with oven cooked Salmon fillet and its was perfect, the fish nor the wine took over, a great balance. Its not cheap at over £35 a bottle but that said it does show swiss wine can compete internationally.
Histoire D’Enfer Pinot Noir
Ooooohhhh, Bacchus. I’m a fan of Bacchus – England’s Sav Blanc. What i like about a good Bacchus is that is dry, light and lowish in alcohol, about 10 ABV with delicate flavours and aromas of gooseberry, elderflower and honeysuckle. Toppesfield is spot on the mark. This is about as good as it gets. Toppesfield normanly tops the local vineyard association award and they complete against Winbirri, who won a trophy at the 2017 Decanter World Wine Awards for their Bacchus. Toppesfield got a Silver medal at the 2018 Decanter World Wine Awards, personally I thought it was better than a silver.At £13 a bottle its not cheap, just drink less and go for a a step up in quality.
Toppesfield Bacchus 2017
This wine comes from a vineyard 700 metres above sea level, clean air and soils really help with making the grapes 1st class. This is light, dry wine with hints of citrus, orange blossom and a fairly big hit of flora, mainly rose. This is an excellent example of a Torrontes with Decanter and IWC giving this a gold medal.
Don David Torrontes
Well, rose is the in thing for wine at the moment. On the one hand I love the stuff, if its a pale, blush rose. On the other hand, a rose which is deeper in colour is a real turn off for me. This is a pale rose from the south of France and is drinkable, probably for the wrong reasons. Its a dry, high acidic wine which has subtle taste of red fruit, I mean subtle.
At about £9 a bottle its a reason purchase for summer.
Domaine Saint Martin de la Garrigue, Bronzinelle
English sparkling wine can be exceptional. Fortunately this is one of them. This is from Marlow, Buckinghamshire and the vineyard is connected to the Laithwaites family. This connection really shines through, they know what good wine is. There are aromas and flavours of bread and yeast, such as with many Champagnes but it doesn’t have the toasty notes. For me this is a big plus, sorry I’m not a fan of the toast. There is excellent balance of acidity and flavour. I’m not sure if you really want to put food with this as its so good on its own. If you must, then seafood such as oysters would be ideal.
Sure this is not cheap plonk at about £30 a bottle, but neither is decent Champagne. For me this is the better of the two.
Harrow and Hope English Sparkling Wine
Standard Sauvignon Blanc is dry, has high acidity and flavours of gooseberry, tropical fruits and a fresh mineral taste. This is a classic affordable Sav Blanc, it does what its meant to do and is perfect with seafood, pasta, salty or acidic foods. With summer coming up this is a good white wine for the garden while catching a few rays of sunshine and at less than £10 decent value.
Olivier Dubois Sav Blanc white wine
Red wine from Portugal has generally been very good. This is a decent red. Its made from Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional, Arahonez. There is the aroma of red fruit and spice. When you taste it there are the red fruits, more jammy and cooked though. The length is not that long, acidity is high but this is easy to drink and won’t offend anyone. At over £20 a bottle its not cheap. At this price its difficult to say that I would recommend it. Good but to expensive.
Pera Grave Portuguese Red