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 #26: Shiraz (Australia/Red)

Hi all,

If you don't have snow this weekend, you need to get your BBQ season kicked off. To accompany this, what better than a good ol' Aussie Shiraz? I tried 4 wines between £4.29 and £9.99 this week. And the close winner on value is:

It is

A dry red wine made from Shiraz (aka Syrah) from Australia.

You can expect

Appearance: deep ruby colour

Nose: oaky aromas (vanilla), red berries (redcurrants) and hints of dark chocolate

Palate: rich but with a very soft texture, this wine has youthful flavours of fresh red fruits (redcurrants) and spices (hints of black pepper), and is not as heavyweight as Shiraz can often be. Pleasantly low but firm tannins.

Score: 14/20 (taking price into account)

RICH, ROUND & REASONABLY ELEGANT SHIRAZ FULL OF RED BERRIES AND HINTS OF SPICES.

You'll like it with you like: Rioja, redcurrants, spicy wines, powerful reds, Cotes du Rhone wines.

Have it with:

On its own (this one only).

Any red meat or sausages on a BBQ or roast lamb

Find it:

1) Sainsbury's - Redbridge Creek £5.49 - Excellent value for money. Surprisingly good for an own label.

2) Laithwaites - Patronus - £8.99 - Less oak but more body and concentration. Heady, juicy cassis fruit and fine-grained tannins. Serious stuff from the Barossa valley. 12/20

3) Aldi - Kooliburra Reserve - £4.29 - Unpretentious juicy quaff full of eucalyptus & red berries (redcurrant). Excellent value. 11/20

4) Sainsbury's - McGuigan Estate - £4.99 (half price) - Elegant nose but a bit thin texture and a poor finish with very green tannins. A true disappointment. Just about worth the half price!

This week's line up: best to poorest value
(from right to left)

Did you know?

> Shiraz is not from Australia. The grape originates from France and more precisely the Cotes du Rhone where it's called Syrah.

> The Syrah grape is the result of the crossing of Mondeuse Blanche and Dureza.

> Some believe that Syrah was actually imported from the town of Shiraz in Iran, where they produced fine wines in the 9th Century already (although mainly whites). This could explain why the grape was rebaptised Shiraz in Australia.

> Australian Shiraz tend to be slightly sweeter, riper and more chocolatey than the Rhone wines but it's worth giving a try to Cotes du Rhone. Click here for a very elegant example from St Joseph.

> Shiraz is, with no surprise, the most planted grape in Australia with more than 440,000 tonnes produced (a quarter of all grapes produced).

> In 2010, Australian wines were leading the UK sales board with every 5th bottle of wine sold in the UK being from Australian. 

> 4 of the top 10 wine brand in the UK are from Australia: Banrock Station, Hardy's, Jacob's Creek & Lindeman's. Ironically enough, none of these brands is actually managed by Australian companies but French or American.

> Due to the looser appellation system, a wine from 'South Australia' could be made from anywhere in the biggest winemaking area in the world i.e. more than a 1/3 of the Australian wine-making area. Unfortunately, the UK is not usually blessed with the better ones so most wines stating South Australia can be hit or miss. The best areas for Shiraz are the traditional Barossa or Hunter valley.

ENJOY THE BBQs!


:@lex