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
This is from Buttafuoco, Lombardia in Italy, 50% Croatina, 40% Barbera and 10% Uva Rara and Vespolina grapes, not quite your standard supermarket wine but one you will find online or independent wine merchants. This is why you go to such retailers. So I must like this? Yes its good.
It has black fruit tastes of blackcurrant and red fruits of redcurrant and strawberry. This is a light red with high acidity and light tannins that don’t get too in the way of enjoying this with or without food. I had with home made pizza and it went down well, other wise meat and pasta would compliment it well. At £14 a bottle its decent value.
Fajro Montespinto Buttafuoco ca Del Ge Italian Red Wine
Torrontes from Argentia is a reasonably new wine for the mass market. Over the last decade or so more and more producers are shipping this wine to the general public in wine merchants and supermarkets. This bottle comes from Aldi and is a reasonable example. A typical Torrontes is dry, light to medium bodied, very aromatic with flora aromas and flavours of stone fruit such as peach. You get some flora aromas and peach smell, not overly so. The flavour is more floral and peach but at this price you have to be realistic on the quality.
At £4.99 a bottle its not not the best example but neither is it terrible. Try it with asian, chinese or indian foods. Spend £10 and get a good example and just drink less.
Torrontes 2017 from Aldi
There are some great rieslings for under £10, Clare Valley in South Australia is coming up with some crackers, this one is not one of them.
So what is the issue with this wine. Well the label says “aromatic with citrus aromas of lime and hints of orange blossom. The perfect balance between complex fruit aromatics with refreshing minerality and zesty acidity”. There’s acidity for sure but the overwhelming flavour is green apple. I had the bottle over 2 days, I left the half finished bottle open for an hour, then pumped the air out and put the bottle in the fridge. The next day the green apple was still in there, maybe not quite as powerful, but still in bucket loads.
Is this worth £6.99? well to some, yes. For me spend a few quid more and get a better wine.
Clare Valley 2017 Riesling from Aldi
A fine Wolf Blass?
A few years ago I was drinking the yellow label Wolf Blass and it was ok, drink it and forget it. Then I had a white label bottle which I realised, after opening and tasting it, that I shouldn’t have. It was very good and if I had waited it would have been even better. At £40 a bottle it should have been saved for a special occasion according to the wife.
Now I have tried the Wolf Blass Langhorne Cab Shiraz 2013. Its not quite up to the quality of the white label but its good, very good. Its pretty smooth with decent structure, firm tannins and red fruit. Its a medium bodied wine which should be drunk with food, meat or tomato, something that will balance the tannins. Leave it for a 5-10 years or even a little longer to soften those tannins.
Wolf Blass Langhorne CabShiraz 2013