Wines of the week #34: The Jubilee 8-carat Diamond case

Hi all,




Ok, so maybe the Queen will have to get her royal umbrella out for the Jubilee celebration this weekend but that will not prevent us from trying some jolly good and royally affordable wines!


Here is my 8 Diamond wines for the Jubilee:


- The traditional sparkling wine
I still haven't found anything better value than this Crémant du Jura at £6.99 from Aldi.
It's crisp with persistent but pleasant bubbles that carry excellent baked apple aromas. And no, the bottle doesn't shout 'I am not royal!'

Full review of this wine here

For the English Sparkling, you need to get the South Ridge Cuvée Merret from Laithwaites at £15.99.

- The Family's Italian's best friend: Signore Grigio
My only advice when it comes to welcoming Signore Grigio in your home is not to invite if it comes from half-pricio-di-venezie-di-supermarketo. My pick of Pinot Grigio at decent price is the Alessandro Gallici Pinot Grigio at £7.49 from Laithwaites. It's crisp, it's got citrus and a lot more elegance and charm than his colleagues mentioned above. Have it with your starters or with some prawn cocktail or white fish on the grill.

- The aromatic White garden sipper
Now the sun has got to make an appearance this weekend. It just has. So, when that's finally the case, grab a  bottle of Marques de Riscal Verdejo at £6.99 from Majestic. It's got white flowers, white stone fruits and citrus and a bit too easy to drink. Also, very nice with a creamy chicken salad.

Full review of this wine here

- The Sweet summer fruit salad wine
Fancy a tipple of a low-alcohol wine with a little bit of spritz and deliciously sweet Muscat grape flavours to go with your fruit salad? Ponder no more: get the Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato d'Asti for £8.99 at Invinitywines.com. It's 5.5% alcohol, full of body and flavours and just delicious!

- The Sunset Rosé
Imagine yourself on a warm terrace looking at the sun setting over the Posh & unaffordable yachts in a small typical Provence port like St Tropez. Now, drift back to reality and have a sip of this simple but elegant Grenache-based rosé with delicate aromas of summer red fruits. You're there, it's the Coeur de St Tropez Provence Rosé at £7.49 from Laithwaites.

Other Rosé wine suggestions here

- The Banquet red
Nothing better than a quaffable red to start with a nice bacon roll, sausage roll, ham sandwich or some good ol' French charcuterie. And for that, there is nothing better than a Beaujolais Villages. Full of red cherry & berry fruit, it's got enough acidity to keep all of you coming back to it and create a jolly good sense of camaraderie. Louis Jadot £7.39 in Waitrose (on offer).

Full review of this wine here

- The elegant Antipasti red
The Allegrini family might not be royal stricto sensu but their wines definitely are. The winter warming red Amarone is a divine beauty and could appeal to the Queen's wallet at £55/bottle. At the other of the spectrum, Allegrini also does a delicious Valpolicella from the Classico area (demoted due to screwtop) that is full of elegance, delicate and soft black cherry flavours and has got a lot of complexity for a wine at £9/bottle from Thedrinkshop.com. Get your prosciutto, grissini sticks and antipasti out, it's Valpolicella time!

ps: the picture is definitely NOT doing justice to the wine...

- The BBQ wine
On to the serious boys stuff now, a real BBQ requires a sturdy fruity Shiraz to go with these grilled steak, lamb chops and burgers. My pick: the Redbridge Creek Shiraz from Sainsbury's at £5.49. It's just got enough body to got with both Aberdeen Angus beef & English pork sausages and it's juicy with some delicious redcurrant flavours.

Full review of this wine here

Whatever wine you try during this long weekend, enjoy it, keep calm and carry on!


:@lex

Wine of the week #25 - Pinot Grigio Rosé (Rosé/Italy)

Hi all,

It's spring time! Sunny weekends, BBQs with friends, ice creams for the little ones and fruity, fresh wines all around!

I've been looking for a Cotes de Provence Rosé ever since I came back from there and was finally taken aback by a very commercial looking Italian Pinot Grigio Rosé!

It is

A dry rosé wine made from Pinot Grigio grape in the Venezie region, north-est of Italy.

You can expect

Appearance: light salmon-pink colour

Nose: subtle hints of strawberry & ripe pear.

Palate: Delicate red fruit flavours (strawberries/raspberries, cherries) nicely balanced by a gentle and relatively medium acidity. The alcohol is very discrete and the wine is, what a surprise, light bodied. The finish is relatively short but soft.

Not complex but an elegant&easy-to-drink-grab&go-to-your-picnic type of wine. Not sure what the Italians would call it but the French call this a Vin de soif ('thirst wine') and this is a perfect example.

LIGHT, UNEXPECTEDLY ELEGANT, EASY-GOING & EASY-DRINKING ROSÉ FOR YOUR NEXT MEAL IN THE SUN.

Score: 8/10 based on elegant balance fruit vs. acidity.

You'll like it if you like: light wines, Cotes de Provence, an easy tipple in the sun, staying away from Zinfandel rosé.

Have it:

Chilled on its own.

At a picnic (no corkscrew required!) with light food: carrots & houmous, fresh tomatoes, light creamy Bries, pear & grapes. Get the picture?

With most things light: salad, white fish

Find it:

1) Laithwaites - Il Pino £7.99. As above.

2) Tesco - Cotes de Provence £6 (on offer). Light and easy to drink but sadly more of a watered down version of Cotes de Provence then the real thing. Will not survive more than a night out of the fridge.

Special - My Provence Rosés
(unfortunately unavailable in the UK)

If you get the chance to go to Provence this Summer, try these beautiful Rosés and bring me some back!!

1) Le Galantin Bandol - Cinsault-Mourvedr-Syrah partially made from Saignée. More around €12-15

2) Les Caves du Commandeur - superb 7€ coopérative Grenache-Cinsault rosé (Cuvée Dédicace). Recommended by Hachette Guide.

3) Chateau Fontcreuse - Ever-rising star from Cassis. Superb light summer drink. Unfortunately too much in demand and price went up to €12-15. Gorgeous whites & big smooth reds too.

4) Domaine Jean-Pierre Gaussen. Historical figure of the Bandol area. Beautiful acclaimed rosé and great, personable  daughters running the show. Again, slightly higher prices but you're in for a real treat.

Did you know?

> Rosé can be made in three different ways:

1. Saignée. Literally 'a bleeding' in French; dark skinned grapes are macerated for a short time before fermentation with the skins to extract some colour and then fermented as a white wine.

2. Direct pressing of red/black grapes with limited skin contact for pale wines.

3. Blending red and white wines. This is strictly forbidden in the EU but might be done for cheap New World Rosés. Only EU exception: Champagne rosé as main flavours in Champagne coming from the 2nd fermentation not the first.

> For more info, click for the Pinot Grigio Did you know

Whatever you have, enjoy your tipple!

:@lex