Pass the port to the left, and give me a thrilling glass of a savagely beautiful, dusky, tannic, perfumed red wine from the valley of the River Douro instead. The high, wild, mountainous vineyards of the remote Douro river in northern Portugal were renowned for their table wine long before port was invented. Indeed, it was only the tricky business of transporting the early, unstable Douro reds successfully that led to them being bolstered by brandy for the journey, a wheeze perfected by the first English port shippers in the early 18th century.

The Douro’s unfortified red table wines never disappeared entirely though, with Ferreira’s deservedly famous Barca Velha leading the way. Made in tiny quantities in the upper Douro from the Fifties onwards, it was a revelation and proved that the three main traditional port grapes – touriga nacional, touriga franca, and tinta roriz (the same as Spain’s tempranillo) – could make great red wine besides port.

I still remember the early Barca Velha vintages, all smouldering, chestnutty spice, that I bought for a song in Portugal in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Back then, most port producers served the goaty reds from Dão at their tables in preference to the region’s rough, astringent, sunburnt reds.

The French notion of terroir continues to be pooh-poohed by some. But nowhere emphasises the role that the soil, slope and micro-climate of a patch of dirt plays in defining the taste of the wines made there more than the Douro, with its steep, ancient step terraces, hewn out of schist and hemmed in by granite on either side of the river. The Douro is the largest mountain vineyard in the world, and at times it is hard to see how the hotchpotch of venerable, low-yielding vines, more than 100 different varieties, grow at all in this savage terrain.

Despite the terroir and ancient vines, the Douro’s table wine potential was not really recognised until the mid-Nineties, when port shippers and others started taking red wine production seriously. New equipment helped hugely, as did planting new single-variety vineyards on riverside slopes yielding intense, concentrated grapes that worked well blended with the softer, more aromatic yet more sharply acidic grapes grown on the higher vineyards. See for yourself how good the new Douro has become with the leafy, herby spice of the 2005 Altano Red (Waitrose, £5.49). Or better still, trade up to the superb 2005 Quinta do Vale Dona Maria, with its intense, ripe, spicy, feral red fruit (Tanners, 01743 234455, £18.90; Corney & Barrow, 020-7265 2430, £21.49). Half the price, but not half the flavour, is the perfumed, plummy 2006 Douro Reserva from Quinta de la Rosa, £9.99 at Waitrose. Or try the 2006 Prazo de Roriz with its wild, fruity, almost prune-scented style, £8.99 from Novum Wines (020-7820 6720).

STAR BUYS

2007 Sicilian Red, Cantine Settesoli, Italy, Asda, £2.98. Proof positive that Good, ordinary red swiggers can still be had sub-£3, so snap up this light, leafy, Sicilian red – a predominantly nerello mascalese grape-based wine topped up with nero d’avola – and keep the credit crunch at bay.

2007 Chilean Chardonnay, Central Valley, Viña San Pedro, Asda, £3.17. Don’t expect fancy white burgundy elegance from this cheap and cheerful Chilean chardonnay. Instead, you can wallow in ripe, fat, toasty, buttery fruit coupled with a crisp, crunchy, Granny Smith apple finish.

2007 Seven Canoes Sauvignon Blanc, Wairau Valley, New Zealand, Wine Rack, £11.99 or buy three for £7.99 each. Wine Rack’s buyer has a knack of scooping up the best new Kiwi bottles. This mouthwatering, leafy, herby, zesty sauvignon with plenty of Marlborough’s intense flowering currant and tropical fruit flavours gets my vote.

2005 Chorey les Beaune, Les Beaumonts, Martin-Dufour, Burgundy, France, Wine Rack, £15.99 or buy three for £10.66 each. 2005 was the best red burgundy vintage of the past decade and this elegant, gamey, truffley example with lots of fine strawberry fruit will be just the ticket with milder game.

2007 Viña Leyda Lot 5 Chardonnay, Leyda, Chile, Tanners (01743 234455), £11.30. Leyda is one of the most exciting of the new Chilean wine regions, with Viña Leyda its pioneer, and this gorgeous lime and apple-charged, wild-yeast fermented chardonnay is its best bottle.

2007 Viña Leyda Las Brisas Pinot Noir, Leyda, Chile, Tanners, £9.80. Leyda is almost as well regarded for its pinot noir as its chardonnay, and this rich, juicy, fleshy ’07 delivers all sorts of glorious, meaty, strawberry flavours that are alarmingly close to the real Côte d’Or thing.

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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