Wines for an Easter feast

If lamb is on the menu, rejoice, red wine fans, as there is nary a red wine that doesn’t go with this meat. If your joint is proper spring lamb, then stick to the lighter end of the scale with a Beaujolais or a juicy New World Pinot Noir.

Marius Michaud Moulin-à-Vent 2014, Beaujolais - £8.99 mix six price at Majestic

From one of the best Beaujolais crus, or villages, this is a lovely Spring-like wine with perfumed, juicy red fruit with a meat-friendly savoury finish.

Errazuriz Wild Ferment Pinot Noir 2013 - £13 from Morrison’s

Wild ferment means letting the naturally occurring yeasts on grape skins and in the air to ferment the grape juice into wine – the norm in Europe, but not so in the New World. This gives the wine more layers of flavour and complexity and, here, adds a layer of interest to the red fruit and clove spice.

Last year’s lamb, known as hogget, offers a fuller flavour and matches happily with all manner of full bodied reds. The French are brought up knowing that a gigot d’agneau should be served with a claret, preferably from the commune of Pauillac – and I am not about to contradict them. But you could also happily serve it with any full-bodied, savoury red from Bordeaux, Rioja, the Rhône and beyond.

Penfolds Bin 8 - £19.99 from Waitrose

I’m not a fan of naming wines by numbers, but I doubt my opinion counts for much, and it doesn’t seem to have done any harm to the fortunes of Penfolds – and in any case the wine itself is quite delicious. This is that quintessential Aussie blend of Shiraz and Cabernet that delivers plenty of rich, ripe blackcurrant fruit with a lovely herbal edge and proper tannic structure. It’s made for meat.

If you’re a white wine drinker only, look for something full flavoured and rich – so a white Burgundy or other oaked Chardonnay would work, as would a richer Chenin Blanc from either the Loire or South Africa.

Marques de Casa Concha Chardonnay 2013 - £8.50 at Asda, down from £12 to £9 until 12 April at Tesco

Don’t let the dull label put you off, this is a great buy at these prices. This Chardonnay, from the Concha y Toro stable, is from Chilean Chardonnay hot spot Limari and offers plenty of peachy, nutty flavour; the richness balanced with great acidity.

Cornelia Swartland White 2015 - £10 from Marks and Spencer

A Chenin Blanc dominant blend from South Africa’s arguably most exciting wine region, made by one of its most exciting winemakers. There’s lots going on here – it’s juicy, fruity, savoury and herbal.

Then comes the thorny question of wine and chocolate. If you’re tucking into a dark chocolate, high cocoa egg, you could try an LBV Port, or other fortified wine made in a similar way, such as Maury from Southwest France.

Taylor’s LBV 2010 - £15 from Asda, Sainsbury, Morrison’s, Waitrose and The Co-op

LBVs are a step up in quality and flavour from regular ruby Ports. They still have plenty of rich fruity flavour and some lip-smacking tannins, making them a good partner for dark chocolate, or for rich dark chocolate desserts, especially if there’s some red fruit in there too – Black Forest Gateau anyone?

If your tastes are for something made of milk chocolate, be it Dairy Milk or a Lindt bunny, I do hope it’s yours and not one that you’ve nicked from the children. And the best thing to drink with it? A cup of tea.

Summer wine survival kit - part 2

The Ray Mears of wine is back. Last time I gave some recommendations for rather posh rosés; now I turn my attention to white and red wines.

Refreshing whites

Even those of you who are resolutely red wine people must find yourselves drawn to something cold and crisp at this time of year. Here are some ideas to help you explore beyond Kiwi Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio.

Hofman Weisser Burgunder Trocken 2014 - £13.95 from slurp.co.uk

Sort of familiar, soft of not. It’s not quite Pinot Grigio, but its sister (brother?) grape Pinot Blanc and it’s from Germany not Italy. Not a showy wine, but with refreshing stone fruit it has the substance to stand up to food.

Tyrrell’s Lost Block Semillon, Hunter Valley 2013 – around £12.49 from winedirect.co.uk and independents

This is in the same mould – a light (just 11%) wine that is all lemon/lime flavours and suited to drinking on its own, but with a surprising ability to stand up to vinaigrette-drenched salads.

Château Bel Air Perponcher Réserve, Bordeaux 2014 - £8.50 from The Wine Society

Sauvignon blanc fans, it’s time to get the white Bordeaux habit. This fruity, fresh and easy-drinking example is a blend of Sauvignon blanc, with some Semillon and a little Muscadelle that says “drink me”.

Lip-smacking reds

A summer wine’s first duty is to refresh – something that is easier for a chilled white or rosé to achieve. But reds can still find a place in the summer months.

Tesco Beaujolais 2014 - £4.49

Lightly-chilled (in fact I wouldn’t recommend letting this get up to room temperature) on a sunny day, you can’t ask for more for under a fiver. Plenty of juicy, crunchy fruit and a brush of tannin make this a great Gamay for a picnic. For a taste of more “serious” Beaujolais, seek out Domaine Lagneau Régnié, “Cuvée Gérard Vieilles Vignes” 2013 - £11.25 from Stone Vine & Sun.

Bradshaw Pinot Noir 2012 - £4 from Asda

This has to be one of the best wine bargains around, in fact I think it’s almost criminally underpriced. Behind the beautiful peacock Art Nouveau-style label is a Pinot Noir from Romania with, at this price, astoundingly good, fragrant, cherry fruit. Chill lightly and drink up! 

Wine-ing in the great outdoors

Summer’s long and, currently, balmy evenings are here and it feels like you haven’t really made the most of them until you’ve enjoyed something cold and (in my book) alcoholic in the garden. We have even had the weather to eat comfortably outside of an evening, so I feel duty bound to offer some helpful hints for which wines to choose to fit the occasion.

Everyone loves a top 10 (or Top 100 if you’re Channel 4), so here they are:

Top 10 Tips for Outdoor Summer Drinking

1.       Complexity and subtlety are the first casualties of outdoor drinking (along with any sense of moderation some might say), so now is not the time to uncork the treasured bottle of white Burgundy or fine claret that you’ve been squirreling away for a special occasion.

2.       Go for simple, bold aromas and flavours that can stand up to being drunk outside.

3.       At lunchtime, keep it light – both in terms of the wine style and alcohol level.  Prosecco fits the bill on both counts, as does Vinho Verde and dry Semillon from Australia. 

4.        Will you be dressing for dinner? If a vinaigrette dressing features on the menu, you’ll find rosé will stand up well to the combination of sharpness and oiliness. White wines can often end up sharp tasting and short of fruit when paired with a dressed salad; the tannins in red wine can react badly with it and make for a horrible combination. Rosé drinkers are spoilt for choice nowadays, but a classic match for a classic salade niçoise would be an elegantly pale, dry and savoury Provence rosé. If the dressing is lemon and/or lime dominant, I would go for a dry Riesling (try Austrian or Australian), or again a dry Semillon from Australia.  

5.       Barbecues, our default setting when eating outdoors, are the enemy of anything understated – you need to think big and bold.  Aussie Shiraz springs to mind, but think also of the savoury spice of a good Côtes du Rhône, or the pronounced smokiness of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or a Chilean Carmenère.

6.       White wine drinkers have plenty to choose from too. I might sometimes deplore Kiwi Sauvignon, and its ilk, for its lack of finesse and downright “slap you round the chops” pungency – but it’s a blessing here. For a change you could also look for wines made from Viognier (weighty, peachy fruit) or Grenache Blanc (weighty, herbal/spicy flavours).

7.       If fridge space is tight, or you’re just in a hurry to cool things down, an ice bucket (or just a bucket) with ice AND water is the quickest way to chill drinks. Please don’t plonk an ice cube straight into a glass of wine – or not into mine anyway.

8.       Think about chilling red wine – on a hot day, red wine at room temperature can seem a bit soupy and unrefreshing. Chilling won’t suit all red wines – but what’s the worst that can happen? You can always just let it warm back up again. Reds that work well chilled need to have plenty of fruit and not much tannin – think Beaujolais or New World Pinot Noir.

9.       If guests arrive hot and thirsty, it would be both kind and sensible to offer something low in alcohol – or even non-alcoholic as an initial thirst quencher, rather than have them plunge straight into a glass of 14% alchohol red wine on arrival. I’m planning on unleashing my Aperol Spritz on guests this weekend, (3 parts Prosecco, 2 parts Aperol, 1 part soda water) which I reckon should be under 10% alcohol. I have it on good authority that non-drinkers (and designated drivers) now find elderflower cordial a bit meh, so try and find something new to tempt them. Try a lemonade punch – strong tea, lemon juice and sugar, topped up at the last minute with ginger ale and mint sprigs. You can of course also add rum.

10.   Finally, a word of warning: beware Pimm’s. It’s so inoccuous-tasting that you forget you’re drinking something alcoholic and it can slip down all too easily in the sun. All that fruit floating around in it does not, I’m afraid, cancel out the alcohol.

Beaujolais - back to the Eighties?

Margaret Thatcher in the news, David Bowie in the charts, Beaujolais in my glass – is this really 2013, or have I travelled back in time to 1983? 

Back then it was Beaujolais Nouveau that had us all aflutter:  a wine bottled and released almost as soon as it had finished fermenting.  Its charms are all about immediate drinking, with its cherryade fruit, mere suggestion of tannin and sometimes more than a hint of Hubba Bubba.  

At least part of its success was due to the publicity raised by the race that developed around this wine that was released annually on the third Thursday of November.  Trains, planes (or helicopters) and automobiles were involved in bringing Beaujolais to British drinkers post haste from the vineyards, brightening up an otherwise dull time of year and providing a perfect excuse for a liquid lunch.

Beaujolais Nouveau is still made, although in much smaller quantities than its 1980s heyday, when it accounted for around 60% of all Beaujolais produced.  The Nouveau is designed to be drunk over weeks, rather than months or years – though the distinction between it and regular wines is really not that great.

Wine geeks (me included) will want to know that the Nouveau style is achieved by the use of carbonic maceration (or in many cases, actually semi-carbonic maceration – I did say this bit was for geeks).  In classic red wine making, the grapes will first be crushed (though not pressed) to release their juice and to allow the skins to contribute colour and tannin during the subsequent fermentation.

Carbonic maceration, in essence, involves leaving the berries whole in the fermentation vats.  Yeasts on the grape skins will start to feed on the sweet juice within the berries, leading to a gentle fermentation which results in a wine with plenty of colour, low tannins and “so bright you gotta wear shades” fruit.  However, alongside the fruit can be some less welcome aromas of banana liqueur, even bubblegum.

The Beaujolais quality ladder

If you want to leave the ephemeral charms of Beaujolais Nouveau behind, it pays to understand a bit about how the region’s wines are classified.

In some ways Beaujolais is refreshingly straightforward – the reds are all made from the Gamay grape (or Gamay Noir à jus blanc to give it its full name) which seems to have a natural affinity with the region’s granitic soils.  Large-ish grapes with thin skins make for fruity, fleshy wines which are relatively light in colour.  The tiny proportion of white Beaujolais (yes, I’m not teasing, it does exist) is made from Chardonnay.

Knowing how to interpret Beaujolais wine labels should give you a good idea of what you’ll find in the bottle.  At the most basic level is straight Beaujolais, made anywhere within the region and accounting for around half of all production.  A step up from there is Beaujolais-Villages, made from generally hillier sites which have been judged to produce better quality wines.

At the top of the tree are the ten Beaujolais “crus” – essentially villages whose wines have been judged of sufficient quality that they can simply put their names on the label.  If you’re planning a wine-themed pub quiz any time soon, naming all ten is an exquisite torture akin to recalling the names of the Seven Dwarfs.  For the record they are:  Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Chiroubles, Chénas, Moulin à Vent, Saint Amour, Fleurie, Regnié, Juliénas and Morgon.  In the interest of journalistic integrity, I hereby confess that I could only get to eight without recourse to a reference book.

Some of my current favourite Beaujolais – none with a hint of bubblegum (and shoulder pads are strictly optional)

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Beaujolais-Villages 2010 - £6.99

If you ever set foot in a wine bar in Paris or Lyons, it’s likely that the wine you’ll be offered to accompany your plate of charcuterie is from Beaujolais.  The region’s wines are the perfect foil to salami, ham, saucisson, pâté and the like, its lively fruit and juicy acidity cutting through the fattiness of the meat.  This one is a great example of decently-priced, good quality Beaujolais with attractive strawberry fruit.

Georges Duboeuf Chiroubles 2011 - £9.99 from Waitrose

If there is one name synonymous with the region it is that of Georges Duboeuf, the man behind the flower Beaujolais labels and indefatigable promoter of the region.  This wine is a delight for Spring drinking:  vibrant, deeply coloured, with floral and loganberry-scented fruit, soft tannins and wonderful light freshness.  Chiroubles is renowned for producing the lightest wines of all the Beaujolais crus and this one is a charmer. 

Henry Fessy Brouilly 2011 - £11.99 from Waitrose

Classic Beaujolais is definitively light bodied, and this lightness can lead to it being denigrated as lacking seriousness – an unfair charge that is never levelled at its northern neighbour, Burgundy, and its decidedly light Pinot Noir.  If you’d like to see what a serious lightweight wine tastes like, then grab a bottle of this Brouilly, from the most southerly of the ten crus.  The low temperature fermentation has retained the freshness of the lively red fruit but also managed to provide enough depth of flavour to make a perfect match with spring lamb.

Grouse-ing about wine

Last Sunday was the Glorious Twelfth, when the grouse shooting season opens.

I don’t know about you, but the closest I’ve come to a live grouse is when picking up a bottle of a certain brand of Scotch whisky.

The red grouse, the bird in question, is native to the British Isles and can legally be shot from now until 10^th December.  As young heather forms an essential part of the grouse’s diet, the hunting takes place predominantly on the heather-rich moors found in the north of England and in Scotland.  Unlike pheasant, which are commercially reared in huge numbers, grouse are truly wild birds, whose population will vary from year to year, hence they are harder to come by.  Additionally they are apparently fast and unpredictable flyers, making them the ultimate challenge for a game bird shooter.

A day’s grouse shooting is not a pleasure that everyman (or woman) can indulge, with the cost involved making it primarily a rich man’s game.  If you wanted to go shooting a few brace this week, you could be looking at in excess of £20,000 per person for a day. 

Having your own grouse moor is, of course, one way to ensure access to a few days’ shooting.  A brief perusal of Country Life a few years ago enlightened me on the importance of such things in upper class mating rituals:  apparently a key question when assessing a potential bride was, “How many acres of grouse moor does she come with?” 

And what wine to serve with your bird?

If you are heading north to bag a few dozen brace of grouse yourself, then clearly money is no object and you will doubtless be plucking a fine mature Burgundy or 1982 claret laid down by your father in your capacious wine cellar.  Or you’d get the butler to get it for you, obviously.

If, on the other hand, you have more modest means, there are plenty of restaurants who will be serving up special grouse and other game menus from now on.  Grouse is the first game to come into season, but will be joined by partridge in September and woodcock and pheasant from October.  A game dealer advised me that the best way to enjoy grouse is when someone else has cooked it for you - sound advice that will resonate with many a cook.

Buying from a game dealer will cost you around £10-12 per bird for grouse around now, with prices dropping as the season progresses.  Remember they are small creatures and you need to allow one per person.

And to drink:

The traditional match for anything labelled game is red Burgundy.  Pinot Noir, the red grape of Burgundy, develops what are politely called gamey (sometimes even farmyardy) aromas as it ages.  It is also relatively low in tannin and light in colour, making it a good match for game, which falls somewhere between the traditional white and red meat divisions.

All game is not identical of course and even the same species will taste different as the season progresses.  A young grouse shot in August with little or no hanging time is going to be a very different beast to one you eat later in the Autumn.  The older bird will have more flavour, but also be more chewy.  Similarly, young pheasants are tender enough to make suitable roasting birds early on, but by the time you’ve got to Christmas, a slow-cooked stew is the best option.

If you have access to mature Burgundy or claret, then I would heartily recommend uncorking it with your game.  If not, then try one of these:

Beaujolais

Beaujolais-Villages, Château de Souzy 2010/11 - £10.70 from slurp.co.uk

If the sun is still shining when you tuck in to your game, then a lightly chilled Beaujolais, made from the Gamay grape, could be just the ticket.  Get hold of the 2011 if you can:  a hint of savoury animality along with juicy, cranberry fruit and a hint of bitterness give a palate-cleansing feel to the finish.

Côtes du Rhône

Les Dauphins Côtes du Rhône-Villages 2011 - £7.99 from Waitrose

Southern Rhône reds have the right combination of peppery, weighty dark fruit and a herbal dimension to get along nicely with game – roast pheasant would be fine with this.  This one also has a definite mineral grip to give the palate a wash and brush up between mouthfuls.

Claret

Diane de Belgrave Haut-Médoc 2008 - £15 from Oddbins

Not a 1982 classed growth, but a charming and refined claret that is just beginning to show some maturity.  Enticing aromas of blackcurrant, plum and pencil shavings (enticing to me anyway) lead onto a smooth palate of dense black fruit with a hint of twiggy bramble.  The tannins in this are a definite step up from the previous two, making it a match for later season game birds or the darker meat of wood pigeon, which is always in season, as it’s regarded as a pest. 

New balls please

With our exit from the Euro a couple of weeks back – what, you didn’t know? Yes, we lost to Italy on penalties in the quarter final. Oh THAT Euro, you say. This column has a proud history of hanging out in the shallow end of the pool of intellectual and political import, and it’s not about to change now and start providing incisive and telling insights into the economic woes of the Eurozone.

No, I merely remark that, once booted out of the Euros, we turn our sporting attention and wine goggles from footballs to tennis balls and Wimbledon, SW19.

Some sports lend themselves to stereotypes and the football versus tennis clash provides a rich source of inspiration. Tennis seems so much more refined, well-mannered, dare I say it, so much more Surrey darling, than football. Tennis players are undoubtedly athletes making great physical effort on the court – yet you don’t find them spitting on the grass between points, or doing that nasty footballer hold-one-nostril-while-blowing-out-of-the-other noseblow as they trot back to their chairs at a change of ends. And in general tennis players don’t question the personal habits or parentage of the umpire if a call goes against them.

The drinks that we associate with the two sports reflect these differences too. Years of hooliganism and drunken bad behaviour mean football fans at the ground itself are denied the pleasure of knocking back a bevy as they watch. But if they could, it would be hard to imagine them passing round pitchers of Pimm’s, being sure to get plenty of cucumber, strawberry and mint in their glasses. OK, maybe at Chelsea.

To my knowledge there has never been any crowd trouble when Wimbledon kicks out at the end of play, despite many spectators having consumed gallons of Pimm’s, on top of a few shared bottles of Champers over lunch. Mild irritation that public transport really could be better co-ordinated, outrage at the cost of strawberries and cream (“For what you get it must work out at over a pound per strawberry.”), wishing those women players wouldn’t shriek and grunt like pigs in labour, and so on seems to be as far as tennis goes in terms of aggro.

Assuming you are in the comfort of your own home and not stuck at Wimbledon itself, forced to shell out a fiver for a pint of sickly sweet Pimm’s, what is a suitable tipple to have by your side as you sit comfortably while the athletes in white disport themselves on a tennis court for our enjoyment?

Beaujolais 
If there were ever a wine whose style fits this on-off, so-so summer weather, it’s Beaujolais. These mostly red wines (but see below) are full of vibrant, juicy fruit, yet are light of body and tannin. Always give them a bit of a chilling to heighten the refreshment value.

Beaujolais-Villages, Combe aux Jacques, Louis Jadot 2011 – from around £9.99 at Waitrose, Tesco, Budgens, Spar and Booths
This is the Beaujolais equivalent of Gordon’s Gin – the reliable standard that all others are measured against. Good balance of refreshing, juicy raspberry and cranberry fruit, with the tannins giving the palate texture. Textbook stuff.

Chiroubles, Georges Dubeouf 2011 - £9.99 at Waitrose (currently the 2010 vintage)
As you climb the Beaujolais quality ladder, the word Beaujolais itself is left behind and instead you find one of the ten “crus” or sub-regions on the label – in this case, Chiroubles. Remembering all ten is a wine-lover’s alternative to the pub quiz stalwart of naming the Seven Dwarves. The various crus reflect differing soils, aspects, altitudes – all those things which can be neatly summed up in the word terroir. Georges Dubeouf is one of the biggest names in Beaujolais, whose face, memorably likened to a “haunted parking meter” by Anthony Rose, each year launches millions of bottles of Beaujolais onto the market. This Chiroubles has perfumed fruit with generous black cherry and raspberry fruit flavours that scream summer drinking.

White Beaujolais 
A few years back, a (non wine trade) friend asked me if I’d ever tried white Beaujolais. I looked for a sign in her eyes that she was winding me up. Was this some kind of test? Was this the wine equivalent of being sent to find some sky hooks?

A quick scramble to check reference books taught me that such a thing does exist and now, finally, I’ve tried some for myself. Made from Chardonnay, it represents only 1% of production from the region, so it’s not the kind of thing you’ll stumble across regularly. Beaujolais the region lies immediately south of Burgundy, the spiritual home of Chardonnay. Neighbouring regions fashioning white wines from the same grape they may be, but a casual drive from one to the other will tell you that they feel quite different. Where Burgundy is built on limestone, Beaujolais’ bedrock is granite, which informs the flavours of its wines. Here the Chardonnays feel softer and rounder, often with subtle herbal flavours alongside the ripe honeydew melon. If Scotland had the climate for wine-making, this is how I imagine its wines would taste.

They are not the easiest wines to track down, but if you put the effort in, you too can try the “What do you think of white Beaujolais?” question on someone - and watch them squirm.

Beaujolais-Villages Blanc, Vieilles Vignes, Domaine Arnaud Aucoeur 2011 - £10.95, current vintage is 2010, from Yapp Brothers (www.yapp.co.uk)
Fresh and youthful aromas redolent of sea breezes lead onto a gently rounded palate with aniseed-tinged fruit.

Beaujolais Blanc, En Fût, Jean-Paul Brun 2010 - £12.95 from Ox House Wines (www.oxhousewines.com) for the 2008 vintage
Ambitious and Burgundian in style, this barrel fermented and aged wine has flint and angelica aromas, fine acidity and great length.

God rest you merry, Gentlemen...and ladies - it's Christmas Part 2

Last time I gave some recommended wines for all those occasions that involve wine over the festive period – and if you missed it, you can catch up here:  http://yourliquidassets.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-2011-part-1-in-which-our.html. Now, however, the focus is on the big day itself.

Breakfast

I wouldn't normally recommend wines to go with your cornflakes, but at Christmas the normal order is turned on its head. And I'm assuming that breakfast is more of a brunch; later, more leisurely and certainly more luxurious than normal. Straight fizz might seem too much of a shock to the system for most, but brave souls could ease themselves into the day with a glass of Prosecco – its clean, fresh fruit and touch of sweetness is ideal.

For many of us, though, Buck's Fizz has become a tradition. Please, DO NOT buy the pre-mixed bottles. Buy the best orange juice you can (or even squeeze your own) and combine (in whatever proportions you enjoy) with either Prosecco or Cava. The predominant taste will be the orange juice, so go for budget bubbles.

Pre-lunch

We all love Christmas dinner, but we wouldn't want to eat it every day. Let's face it, it's a bit of an endurance test for the body, so pre-lunch you need a wine to get the juices and the appetite going in order to fortify for the feast ahead.

Champagne is the pre-prandial aperitif par excellence and now is a good time to produce a really fancy bottle if you have one. Blanc de blancs (ie made from 100% Chardonnay) are a good choice, as they have plenty of crisp fruit and nervy, mouthwatering acidity.

Jacquart Blanc de Blancs 2005 - Special introductory offer £26.99 at Sainsbury's, £38 from Great Western Wines

Lovely light style, with fine acidity and long-lasting flavours of apple, flowers and white pepper.

If you serve smoked salmon at some point, then Champagne is of course a perfect companion. You could go for something with a bit more body here.

Berry Brothers Own Label Champagne - £25.95 per bottle, down to £23.35 a bottle if you buy 6, from bbr.com

Christmas might not be the day to plonk a bottle emblazoned Tesco or Waitrose on the table (though personally I wouldn't mind). Berry Brothers' own label, though, is far more the thing. Produced entirely from top Grand Cru vineyards in the village of Mailly, this is a blend of 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay, giving it more power and structure than a Blanc de Blancs. Aromas of pear give way to a palate of spice and crisp apple, with the length and structure to stand up to food. A great match for smoked salmon too.

Alternatives to fizz as aperitifs would be really top class Sauvignon Blanc, from its heartland in the Loire Valley.

Château de Tracy Pouilly Fumé 2006 - £17.50 from The Wine Society

No oak, just the unadorned grapes treated gently to give delicately perfumed fruit with persistent flavour.

Sancerre Le MD de Bourgeois 2010 - £22.49 from Les Caves de Pyrène

Much more full-on and assertively fruity, but with great mineral intensity, this will certainly give the tastebuds a good wash and brush up.

Lunch

Turkey, or whatever your chosen bird, is really not in the equation when it comes to choosing a wine. Think of all the different flavours that we pile onto a single plate – stuffing, gravy, sprouts, roast potatoes, sausage and bacon...I could go on. It really isn't possible to match them all, so you need to choose a wine that will not be overwhelmed, but will not try to fight with all those flavours either.

Think, also, about who is round the table. If you have a group of fine wine lovers, then by all means dig out your treasured bottles of fine, aged claret or white Burgundy. But for most of us, we are in multi-generational groups, some of whom might not touch wine for most of the year. So choose something that will please a crowd and won't frighten the horses.

Le Faîte 2007 - £14.99 from Adnams Cellar and Kitchen (branch in Richmond)

Arrufiac, Petit Courbu, Petit and Gros Manseng – you don't need to have heard of the grape varieties to enjoy this unique white wine: big bold fruit, big-boned but with refreshing acidity.

Domaine Roche Audran Cuvée César 2009 - £12.58 from winenot.co.uk

The southern Rhône is a great source of wines that are generous of fruit and body, with a food friendly whiff of herbs. This 100% Grenache wowed a group at a recent wine dinner and is certified (in a good way) biodynamic.

Brouilly Domaine Durand “Pisse Vieille” 2010 - £8.95 from The Wine Society

It may be shy about trumpeting it on the label, but this is a Beaujolais. Deliciously, juicily, red fruited stuff that will suit a multitude of food and palates. By the way, “vieille” means old and “pisse” means...well, what it sounds like. Don't let this put you off.

Rioja Reserva – such as Cune Reserva 2006/7 - £11.95 from Waitrose

The barrel and bottle ageing that Rioja Reservas undergo lead to mellow wines which are versatile with food, so they are always good to have to hand for Christmas.

Pudding

Yes, the marathon is not finished yet. If you opt for pudding, then you need something to go with – or indeed instead of.

Stanton & Killeen Rutherglen Muscat - £12.40 for a half bottle from slurp.co.uk

Australian liqueur muscat is just about the closest you can get to Christmas pudding in liquid form. Lusciously viscous with flavours of dates, raisins, caramel and spice, it can stand up to the richest, sweetest pudding.

Tawny ports also rub along nicely with the sweet spice of Christmas pudding, mince pies and the like. These are widely available, but try and get hold of a 10 year old (or even better, 20 year old), as these will have more mellow nuttiness. And you can keep going with it if anyone is still up for some stilton.

Good luck! See you on the other side.

Christmas 2011, Part 1, in which our heroine imparts pearls of wisdom

The word Christmas can start to provoke a twitchy, sweaty palm reaction at this time of year.

If you are feeling slightly anxious about anything, the correct response is to make a list. There's nothing like ticking things off to make you feel like progress is being made, even if it contains items that you would normally do anyway. Get up – tick. Brush teeth – tick. That's two things done before you've got downstairs.

Herewith is a wine-themed list of my Top Tips to ensure a glittering Christmas:

1. Get organised. Having some wine ordered and delivered early is a huge weight off the mind. And if you're going away for Christmas or New Year, you could even have the wine delivered to your destination, to avoid having to schlepp it there yourself. Don't forget to equip yourself with a glass of something delicious to have by your side as you browse online.

2. Make a list of the different occasions that need wine (don't they all?) and think about which wines to have on hand. Consider parties, big set piece meals, casual lunches, breakfast Buck's Fizz...

3. Always have a few bottles spare for guests who drop round. At that time of year you might want to offer a glass of wine, fizz or sherry to visitors at any time of day from elevenses onwards.

4. Think fizz – nothing says celebration like the pop of a cork, so you should never be without a chilled bottle in the fridge. Have a range of different sparklers to choose from – vintage Champagne is great to serve before (or with) a really special meal. But unless you're a Premiership footballer, you can't go buying it willy-nilly.

5. Remember to have fun - and don't be afraid to ask for help. If you are enjoying yourself, then your guests will too. But if they see you fretting over every tiny detail to ensure it's all just right, it won't help them to relax and get into the swing of things. Christmas is not about turning your house into a restaurant with immaculate dishes emerging from the kitchen while your guests soak up the vintage claret. Who amongst us doesn't enjoy joining in in the kitchen, chopping some veg or mixing stuffing, especially if we're offered a lovely glass of something to sip while we're at it?

My next column will focus on drinks for the big day itself, but here I'm looking at wines for all those other occasions.

Fizz

Don't overlook Prosecco, Crémant, Cava and other budget options which are great for parties or more casual and relaxed affairs. And don't even consider putting Champagne in your Buck's Fizz – no-one will know! The half price Champagnes that sprout like mushrooms in the nation's supermarkets are generally not much to write home about – a lot has been squeezed out of those grapes (literally) to produce a fizzy wine with Champagne on the label at that price. Try a bottle to see if you're happy with it before you go buying more. More often than not supermarket own label Champagnes give better value. Or if your budget is tight, it will always be better to buy a better class of Crémant or Cava, than the cheapest Champers.

Mont Marcal Cava Brut Reserva - £9.99 at The Wine Reserve, Cobham

This looks and tastes the part – light, fresh and elegant.

White

Les Hauts de Bergelle Blanc 2009, Saint Mont, France - £7.99, or £5.99 when you buy two at Majestic

Southwest France makes some fantastically characterful wines from its unique selection of grape varieties, here the memorable trio of Gros Manseng (yes, there is a Petit Manseng), Arrufiac and Petit Courbu (though no Grand Courbu that I know of exists). It has piercingly crisp acidity, allied to pear and honey-tinged fruit and a hearty twist of white pepper. Not an identikit wine which has plenty of interest for the money.

Bourgogne Chardonnay Vieilles Vignes 2010, Nicolas Potel, Burgundy, France - £11.99, down to £7.99 when you buy two at Majestic

It's a truism that producer is more important than appellation in Burgundy – and here is proof. It's at the bottom of the quality pyramid as a humble Bourgogne, but it has lovely fruit with hints of peach; the texture has a slight mealiness and great freshness. Burgundy lovers will lap it up.

Rosé

Gone are the days when rosé went out with the first bonfire of Autumn. Now it's an all-year-round drink and at Christmas, go for something classic.

Rimauresq Cru Classé 2010, Côtes de Provence, France - £11.99 from Taurus Wines, near Bramley

No rosé is more elegant, refined and food-friendly than a classic Provençal one – this has weight and presence despite its palest salmon colour. The fruit is subtle, but there is a pronounced herbal and pepper character that makes it a surprisingly good match for a wide range of foods.

Red

You need wines that make good “house” wines – fun, easy-going with food, but also happy to be sipped on their own.

Lascar Carmenère 2010, Central Valley, Chile - £4.95 from The Wine Society

This ticks all the boxes. A huge juicy mouthful of vibrant black fruit with a strong whiff of smoke, redolent of bonfires. Great value for money.

Majestic Peaks Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand - £10.99, down to £8.79 when you buy two bottles at Majestic

Regular readers will know of my passion for Pinot. This may not be top of the quality tree, but it has plenty of perfumed, more-ish red fruit with a lick of spice that will happily go with cold meats and pickles and a classic episode of Only Fools and Horses.

Domaine Crêt des Garanches 2010, AC Brouilly, Beaujolais - £11.70 from Les Caves de Pyrène, Guildford

Juicy, raspberry and cranberry fruit, soft tannins – Beaujolais fits the bill for Christmas perfectly. No weird bubblegum flavours here – it's smooth, bright fruit all the way. A classy option for ham, cold meats or a sociable glass with neighbours.

Sherry

Manzanilla La Gitana, Spain – around £8 from Waitrose and Majestic

There's nothing like a crisp, bone dry sherry for perking one up and sharpening the appetite for yet another feast. Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, said that while “penicillin can cure the sick..sherry can bring the dead back to life.” For more on the charms of sherry and matching it with food, can I respectfully direct you to my recentish blog post, “If it swims, serve a fino”, here: http://heatherdougherty.blogspot.com/2011/07/if-it-swims-serve-fino.html

You'll also find more festive wine recommendations on the Heather Dougherty blog, which I haven't been able to fit in here.

Wine highs and lows

It's rare for wine to make it into mainstream news, but it has made a couple of daring incursions from its home in the food and drink pages in recent weeks.

One was to highlight the incredible prices being touted for Bordeaux's latest in a growing list of “vintage of the century” - 2010 in this case. Forget belt-tightening and talk of recession, the Bordelais can sell all they want of these super-premium liquid status symbols to cash-rich investors and just plain rich Far East wine lovers – even at £1,000 a bottle. That's a bottle.

No wine can ever truly be “worth” £1,000. And the sad thing is, these precious commodities may never actually be drunk, merely traded and sold on over the years in order to realise a profit. What a fate to befall a drink that is made to give pleasure – although financial gain can bring pleasure in its own way.

The second wine ripple in the news pond was caused by the results of an “experiment” at the Edinburgh Science festival, where wine drinkers were asked whether they thought the wine they were tasting cost under £5, or between £10 and £30 a bottle. Overall, most people were right only half the time – which suggests that they were either guessing at random, or that most people truly can't tell the difference between the posh and the plonk.

We have our own perspective on this story. A popular format for the wine tastings we run is a blind tasting, where our guests can't see the identity of the wines they are drinking. And a popular question is to ask if people can spot a more expensive wine. We do this, not simply to identify the cheap dates in the group (though that is useful to know), but to see which wines people really prefer, when they can't see the label.

Very generally speaking, there's a 50/50 split between those preferring the posh stuff to the everyday. Heather D's highly unscientific conclusion is that it is mostly guided by familiarity. If someone is used to drinking classed growth claret, they are going to be attuned to its characters and be able to spot them in a blind tasting. If they are more used to full-on, straightforwardly fruity wines that you can pick up for around a fiver, again they will recognize those same characters blind. And probably react with horror and face-pulling at the level of tannin and lack of overt fruit in a “posher” wine that costs many times more.

So what are we to make of all this? Is it pointless for us to spend more than £10 on any bottle of wine? We can't really tell the difference and the most expensive stuff has more in common with a piece of fine art than it does with anything that you might actually drink.

Looking to the positive, there are plenty of wines to be had for under £10 that are actually undervalued. Look for the out of fashion, the unfamiliar and, mostly, the Old World for value for money refreshment over the summer months.

Sherry

Sherry has got to take the biscuit in the value for money stakes. These fortified wines take years to produce and have a unique combination of flavours that can't be found elsewhere. Banish thoughts of dusty bottles of sweet brown gloop and grab a bottle of Fino or Manzanilla – the lightest bodied, palest coloured and driest sherries of all. Some salted almonds, a few tapas and an ice cold glass of this and you could be in sunny Andalusia instead of Surrey.

Sainsbury's Manzanilla Superior is practically given away at £5.49 a bottle.

Waitrose have the iconic Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla on special offer at just £6.99 a bottle until 24^th May.

Muscadet

In the same, whiff of bracing sea air vein as dry sherry, Muscadet can make a perfect aperitif wine, or is wonderful with white fish or mussels.

Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine sur lie 2009/10, Domaine de la Tourmaline - £6.99, down to £6.49 when you buy two bottles at Majestic is a good example of the combination of tangy acidity and ripe, slightly tropical fruit style of modern Muscadet. A must for a plate of moules marinières.

Beaujolais

Like Muscadet, you might reach for a bottle of this only if you're pulling on your Top Gun jumpsuit and aviator glasses, en route to an Eighties party. But overcome your aversion and you'll find Beaujolais has much to offer and makes perfect summer drinking, especially chilled on a summer evening. Its soft, cherry-raspberry fruit is super with some rustic charcuterie, beret and string of onions optional.

Hospices de Beaujeu Beaujolais Villages 2009/10 is also on special offer at Waitrose for £5.99 until 24^th May. Its gentle tannins and exuberant fruit make it a great match for cold meats and duck with Asian flavours.

Southern Rhône

We've all heard of Chateauneuf du Pape – but be prepared to part with at least £15 a bottle and, all too often, prepare to be disappointed. The value in this region is to be found in outlying areas that don't trip off the tongue in quite the same way, such as the Costières de Nîmes. The grape varieties are familiar, even if the region isn't – Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre, sometimes a little Carignan. The whiff of the wild herbs of the garrigue, a twist of black olive, ripe, spicy black fruit – and voilà, southern France in a glass.

Château Mourgues du Grès, Les Galets Rouges 2009, £8.84 from Les Caves de Pyrène of Artington, Guildford has all the herby, black fruit you could wish for – great for serving alongside a classy barbecue banger.

Beaujolais and bubbles

Beaujolais nouveaux – is it vieux chapeau?!!!

It's dark November, bonfire night is over, Christmas not yet begun – so here are two distinctly different excuses to party....from petillance to full on fizz.

The year was 1972, Terry Wogan first hosted his Radio 2 breakfast show, the Watergate Scandal hit the news headlines, and most importantly in this year 1972 Alan Hall, wine critic of The Sunday Times, challenged his readers and fellow journalists to be the first to bring back a few bottles of the new Beaujolais harvest to his desk.

Before this time there had always been a race in France to get the new vintage to the Parisian restaurants, but this was something new internationally and instigated a significant marketing opportunity – not to be missed in the fun, “go for it”, non PC 70’s! Referred to as The Wacky Races it was taken to heart by all and sundry who welcomed any excuse for a party and so just seconds after the official release time of the new wine (the third Thursday of November), it was transported back to U.K. by every imaginable form of transport, from rickshaw, balloon, helicopter and even the RAF in a Harrier jump jet....everyone got involved! Sadly those heady days have passed but the tradition lives on albeit in rather a more staid and elitist fashion featuring vintage cars and 5 star hotels ......I wouldn’t say no!

Beaujolais Nouveau is a lightweight red best served chilled – yes – and made 100% from Gamay grapes harvested entirely by hand. The grapes are fermented very briefly before bottling and the resulting fruity fresh taste is unmistakable, quaffable and in my view still very worthy of celebration. Nowadays it is extremely popular in America as it arrives on the market just a week before the Thanksgiving festival – and just happens to be a perfect accompaniment to the American way of serving turkey and all the trimmings. Karen Page and Andrew Donenburg, authors of “The Flavour Bible” and contributors to The Washington Post, say that Beaujolais Nouveau and Thanksgiving “have become as inextricably linked as Champagne and New Year's Eve”.

Allan Hall (he of wacky races fame), was one of the old school infamous Fleet Street hacks. For many of the journalists lunch began at around 11 or earlier and would stretch on till the last one passed out (often in the wee small hours). They had incredible stamina and I’m still not sure when they found the time to write. They were a charismatic bunch. In 1980 Allan Hall wrote for James Goldsmith’s NOW magazine and hosted a particular lunch where fine wines were consumed and for which he claimed expenses (and was paid) £11, 000, that’s the equivalent of about £50, 000 today!........The following year the magazine closed down - (surprise). He and his cronies probably inspired the expression “A legend in his own lunchtime”!

This year’s Beaujolais Nouveau arrives Thursday 19th November and is reported to be exceptional, the best since 1949 according to some. Whatever your opinion is of this young wine it is an excuse to celebrate and a real vinous Harvest Festival.
Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!


Bubbles for nothing and fizz for free

Readers of the Surrey Advertiser have the chance to win a case of La Marca Prosecco - just pick up a copy of this week's edition.
You might not think winemakers are the type to stage a military style coup. But Italy's makers of Prosecco, the light frothy fizz, have done just that.

Prosecco is the name of the grape from which the sparkling wine is made yet, from next April, no-one outside the wine's homeland in north eastern Italy will be able to use the name Prosecco, even if their wine is made from that grape. From now on the rest of Italy, or indeed anywhere in the world, can only use the rather unattractive and unknown grape name Glera instead.
At a stroke, Italy's winemakers have ripped the carpet out from under anyone who fancied grabbing a piece of the growing Prosecco market.

The bottom may have fallen out of the Champagne market in the UK in the past year, with consumption dropping like a stone. But it's an ill wind that blows no-one any good and Champagne's loss has been Prosecco's gain.

You can see their point, to a degree. You might remember Paris Hilton advertising “Prosecco in a can” earlier this year. This sort of thing, as well as the noxious pink Prosecco will effectively be outlawed, which is undoubtedly a Good Thing. But the sheer chutzpah of the Prosecco growers takes the breath away.

Prosecco, Italy's favourite sparkling wine, is in no way simply a cheaper version of Champagne. It has a long and illustrious history in its native area of Conegliano-Valdobbiadene (that's never going to roll off the tongue is it?) in north eastern Italy, midway between Venice and the Dolomites, with its own distinct identity.

Champagne undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle to produce the fizz, followed by a period of maturation during which it develops its characteristic aromas and flavours.

Prosecco, meanwhile, acquires its bubbles through a second fermentation in a tank, with no long maturation. Indeed many growers carry out the second fermentation on demand during the year to ensure their wines retain their fresh, fruity and floral characters. Where Champagne is dry, often savoury, Prosecco is off-dry and intensely fruity – great for aperitifs.

Favourite Proseccos

Ombra Prosecco Frizzante NV - £9.99, £7.99 as part of a mixed case, Oddbins
Frizzante is a lightly sparkling version of the more usual spumante style. Pear skin fruit and a relatively dry style.

Bellenda Prosecco Spumante Brut San Fermo NV - £10.34, Les Caves de Pyrène (www.lescaves.co.uk)
Unusually dry, making for a more food-friendly and grown up style.

Perlage Prosecco Spumante Extra Dry Col di Manza - £10.99 Vinceremos (www.vinceremos.co.uk)
Biodynamic and organic, a touch sweeter than many, but with more complexity too – flint, nuts and fruit skins.