WHITE UNDER £6
STAR BUY
2008 Domaine Maurel Chenin- Colombard, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France
Booths £5.99; Wine Rack £8.99 or buy three for £5.99 each
Domaine M is run by Alain Maurel. His unusual southern France duo of chenin
blanc and colombard vines grown at Cabardès in the Aude has produced this
summer’s most pungent, racy and downright delicious white for under £6. If
you like a vibrant, honeysuckle, rhubarb and gooseberry-layered white, dive
in.
2008 Domaine de la Tourmaline, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, Gadais Père
et Fils, France
Majestic Wine Warehouses £6.49 or buy two for £5.99 each
Bouquets to Charles and Philippa Sydney, who sniffed out this cracking ’08 in
a difficult muscadet vintage spurned by many. Tourmaline’s bone dry, crisp,
zesty style, complete with a delicious prickle of pétillance on the tongue,
makes it the perfect sparky, summer white to enjoy with rich seafood and
oily fish.
2008 Sauvignon Blanc, Vin de Pays du Val de Loire, Vinival, France
Marks & Spencer £4.99
LaCheteau, makers of this mouthwatering, unoaked Haut Poitou-sourced
sauvignon, has a string of Top 100 wins under its belt. Anyone tasting this
punchy, peapod, greengage and green tomato-spiked white, best enjoyed with
powerful verdant starters such as watercress soup, or a rocket salad with
Parmesan shavings, will never want to shell out three times the price for
sancerre again.
2007 Petit Chablis, Bertrand Capdevigne, France
Morrisons down £2 to £5.99 until tomorrow
Can’t afford chablis at almost a tenner? Go for the next best bottle, a petit
chablis made from younger vines grown in the same region by the same
producers with much of the flavour of the real thing. Hats off to the
Morrisons wine buyer for scooping up this fine, nutty, northern white
burgundy with almost all the rich, cabbagey fruit and dry, tangy lemony bite
that you would expect of a fine chablis.
2008 Marsanne, Domaine de Corneille, Vin de Pays d’Oc, Foncalieu, France
Asda £3.28
One of the top three white rhône grapes (viognier and roussanne are the
others), marsanne makes a modish summer swig with white meat and fish
dishes. More than two decades ago Foncalieu was a Languedoc new-wave wine
pioneer. This verdant, spicy, grapey and apricot-layered white, harvested at
night to capture every ounce of fruit, shows that it has not lost its touch.
2008 Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, Cavit, Italy
Co-op £4.99 There is pinot grigio and pinot grigio. This is the latter:
sourced from a Veneto co-operative, it is a lively warm weather apéritif and
mixed summer party food white whose easy-going, gentle, appley, leafy fruit
finishes on a crisp lemon nip. If you thought pinot grigio was about as
satisfying as a glass of water, think again.
2008 Malvasia Carletti, Colli Teatini, Teatini, Italy
Oddbins £5.99 or £4.79 mixed case
Every summer selection needs one: a dryish, musky, muscat-redolent white whose
juicy, hothouse grape-scented charge will have wide summer appeal.
Carletti’s mouth- wateringly grapey fruit is tailormade for antipasti and
those lazy summer alfresco, pot-luck lunches of charcuterie, cheese, good
bread and good company that stretch seamlessly into suppers.
2008 Quinta de Azevedo, Vinho Verde, Portugal
Majestic £5.99 or buy two for £4.99 each; Waitrose £6.49; Wine Society
01438740222 £6.25,
The finest vinhos verdes from the attractive Minho in northern Portugal are
made predominantly from the freesia-scented loureiro grape, and sparkle with
all sorts of fancy, floral, flavours. Thankfully, this spritzy, dry ’08 is a
very different beast from this region’s best-known bottle, Mateus Rosé.
2008 Cuatro Rayas Rueda Verdejo, Agricola Castellana, Spain
Marks & Spencer £5.99
Discerning M&S customers might be tempted to stroll past this boringly
labelled, green-stripe bottle, but that would be a big mistake. Inside is my
idea of the perfect, drink-now summer apéritif and fish-course white: all
gorgeous, green, tongue-tingling zesty lime juice and lime peel fruit made
from the verdejo grape in the cool Rueda region northwest of Madrid.
2008 Las Moras Viognier, San Juan, Argentina
Sainsbury’s £5.99; Majestic £5.99 or buy two for £4.99 each
Soft, seductive, spiced peach and hawthorn blossom-scented Argentine viognier
has a place on the summer table too. Best enjoyed with mildly spicy summer
food including coronation chicken and Asian stir-fries, this punchy 13.5 per
cent alcohol viognier from the Tulum Valley closes on a zesty lemony note
that saves it from being too cloying, always a viognier grape concern.
2008 Neblina Sauvignon Blanc, Central Valley, Viña Cono Sur, Chile
Majestic £4.99 or buy two for £3.99 each
Only keen-eyed readers will spot the dinky letters on the back that show that
Neblina is part of Cono Sur’s stable. Neblina’s offerings are cheaper and
less distinguished than its big brother, but there is nothing wrong with
that. As any of you after a less strident, inexpensive sauvignon with lots
of gluggable, light, leafy, faintly tropical fruit-spiked finesse will find
out.
ROSE UNDER £6
2008 Wildcard Rosé, Peter Lehmann, South Australia
Asda £4.98
If you take a shine to this delicious, rich, cherry-pink rosé made from the
merlot grape, you will have to be quick, because come the autumn, Asda
intends to delist it. I have no idea why this ripe, juicy pink is the best
I’ve tasted this summer for less than a fiver, delivering a strong, ripe,
dry, plummy bubblegum- scented fruit that works with garlicky or heavily
spiced summer dishes.
RED UNDER £6
STAR BUY
2003 Château Puy Garance, Côtes de Castillon, Bordeaux, M. Burriel, France
Booths £5.99
Make that trip to Booths for this gorgeous summer claret, with big, fat,
truffley, earthy merlot-dominant fruit, plus a dollop of cabernet sauvignon
that hails from my favourite satellite region, Côtes de Castillon, west of
Saint-Emilion, and is drinking deliciously now. What a pity that from 2007,
wines from this inside track, prestigious Bordeaux backwater can be sold
under a catch-all Côtes de Bordeaux umbrella.
2005 Red Burgundy, Les Grands Trinquiers, Vincent Baron & Fils, France
Majestic £5.99 or buy two for £5.49 each
Terrific light, juicy, silky plum and strawberry-laden summer red that is a
declassified single village, or cru, beaujolais and made entirely from the
region’s 35-year-old gamay vines. Making use of the legal loophole that
allows beaujolais growers to dub their wine red burgundy, this jolly,
easy-glugging red makes a good lunchtime and midweek supper wine.
2008 Gascogne Cuvée Spéciale, Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne, France
Marks & Spencer £4.99
Another jolly, beaujolais- inspired, stainless steel tank-fermented and aged,
easy-swigging summer red. Made from the dark, spicy tannat, plummy merlot
and blackcurranty cabernet grapes, this Gascon has more oomph and attitude
than the red burgundy and its dusky, young, crunchy fruit will go down well
with the likes of garlicky charcuterie, cold meats, and chicken liver pâté.
2008 Extra Special Merlot Vin de Pays d’Oc, Domaine Paul Mas, France
Asda £5.98 until August 14
Arresting label and similarly styled new-wave, part American oak-aged merlot
within that hails from the Languedoc maestro Jean-Claude Mas, the fourth
generation of his family to live and work in southwest France. Oodles of
spicy, inky, fruit, complete with that ripe, almost raisiny, finish that
merlot develops in warm years; cold pink roast beef and lamb will swoon for
this.
2007 Les Beauchamps Cabernet Sauvignon, Vin de Pays d’Oc, Fontcaude, France
Oddbins £5.99 £4.79 for mixed case
Every selection needs a good, ordinary, red- meat-friendly cabernet sauvignon
and this ’07 gets my vote. Made by a husband and wife team who left the
Loire a decade ago to settle in the Languedoc. Rounded off with only three
months in oak, this ripe, juicy, slightly jammy, blackcurranty red really works.
2007 Domaine Sainte Rose La Garrigue, Vin de Pays des Côtes de Thongue,
France
Majestic £6.99 or buy two for £5.99 each
Charles and Ruth Simpson left Blighty to make wine at their Languedoc estate
and almost every one has been a winner. This Garrigue, named after the pine
and herb-scented scrub of southern France, is made from the estate’s mostly
50-year-old syrah and grenache grapes. Enjoy this gorgeous, hefty, peppery,
garrigue-scented wine with barbecued red meats.
2007 Marco de Pegões, Vinho Regional Terras do Sado, Cooperativa Pegões,
Portugal
Majestic £5.99 or buy two for £4.99 each
South of Lisbon and north of the Algarve is the Terras do Sado. A trickle of
great, cheap reds made from traditional Portuguese varieties in modern
wineries have come our way from here in recent years. Let’s hope more will
follow this delicious smoky, gamey, perfumed, raspberry-laden offering, made
mostly from the castelão grape, plus a dollop of syrah.
2008 Gran Tesoro Garnacha, Campo de Borja, Bodegas de Borsao, Spain
Tesco £3.54 Booths £3.89
A string of wonderful sub-£4 reds has popped out of this bodega in northern
Spain’s Borja region, situated just south of Rioja and Navarra. So if you’ve
yet to taste one of its bold, sweet, juicy, inky, peppery, red fruits-laden
wines, now’s your chance. At this deliciously low price, buy long to see you
and yours through the summer round of barbecues on the beach, picnics and
parties.
2007 Pléyades Shiraz, Cariñena, Spain
Asda £4.98
Big, bold 14 per cent alcohol reds are what’s wanted with burnt barbecued
sausages, lamb chops and the like, so tuck in to this tasty, ripe, spicy,
herby chocolatey Spanish shiraz from Cariñena, another up-and-and coming
region that lies southeast of Campo de Borja.
Filled to the brim with burly, tannic, savoury, tangy, Bournvillesque
flavours, this is no shrinking violet and demands respect.
2008 Valpolicella, Italy
Asda £3.47
Kitsch label, but wrap it in a jolly napkin and concentrate on the wine within
instead: a joyous, soft, light, pale red quaffer that is ridiculously good
value for money. Strongly flavoured summer charcuterie and other
delicatessen fare are hard to match to wine, but this juicy red’s lively,
easy-drinking, vibrant, bitter cherry-styled fruit takes it all in its
stride.
2007 Primitivo del Salento, Taste the Difference, Cantine due Palme, Italy
Sainsbury’s £5.99
I loathe Sainsbury’s name for its superior “Taste the Difference” foods and
wines; it is almost as bad as Tesco’s Finest and Asda’s Extra Special, but
there is no denying that this primitivo’s big, fat, sweet, squishy
loganberry fruit is a winner. From way down south in Italy’s hot, arid heel,
Puglia, there is so much sunny fruit here that it would be a crime not to
serve it at every barbecue.
2007 Stamford Brook Shiraz Viognier, Angove’s, Australia
Sainsbury’s £5.99
Selected for Sainsbury’s, whose HQ is in Stamford Street, hence, I suspect,
the wince-making name for this terrific 14 per cent alcohol barbecue and
big-food red from the Nanya vineyards. The bold, peppery red shiraz grape,
topped up with perfumed viognier, a traditional rhône mix, is catching on in
the New World and this silky, sweet, creosote and blackberry-charged red
gets my vote.
FIZZ UNDER £6
Extra Cuvée Seleccionada Codorniu Brut, Método Tradicional, Spain
Majestic £9.99 or buy two for £4.99 each until July 23
Morrisons £10.99 Every summer celebration needs one:an ordinary, sub-£5,
crowd-pleasing sparkler. Made by the método tradicional, or méthode
champenoise, this surprisingly classy Spaniard, produced from the standard
trio of cava grapes, delivers lots of light, zippy, lemony, floral fruit
that everyone will enjoy. It can be jazzed up with juice, watered down with
soda and ice, and sploshed out without ceremony.
