Winter wines on a budget

January is a tough time for the average wine lover. There are few excuses to celebrate and, post-Christmas, there is an underlying feeling that perhaps one should lay off the booze for a while, for the good of the liver - and wallet.

On the liver front, without going into too much laborious detail, 2 or 3 alcohol free days a week year-round are what’s required. A month-long moratorium on drinking is perhaps admirable, but will not benefit your liver in the longer term if you simply then return to a daily glass or two thereafter.

And for the wallet…here are some wines that can help to banish the winter blues, and which won’t give your bank balance a bruising.

Mesquiriz Navarra Rosado 2015, Spain - £3.99, Lidl

At this price, this winter-weight Spanish rosé will bring a smile to the lips of any skint wine drinker. The generous strawberry fruit with a little kick of white pepper makes is a perfect midweek wine for bangers and mash.

Trebuchet Chardonnay 2015, South Africa - £5.99 (mix six price until 30 Jan), Majestic

This South African Chardonnay tastes much more expensive than it is, especially at the reduced price. It has creamy fruit with a zesty lemon finish.

Tesco finest* St Mont 2014, France - £6, Tesco

The direction that Tesco’s wine range is heading doesn’t give much to cheer about, but this long-lived member of their own label finest* range is a welcome survivor of recent culls to the list. This blend of Southwest France’s native white varieties Gros Manseng, Petit Courbu, Petit Manseng and Arrufiac deliver a wine of character, combining grapefruit zing and apricot-tinged fruit.

Casal de Ventozela 2015, Vinho Verde, Portugal - £6.99 (mix six price), Majestic

This medal-winning Vinho Verde is fresh and spritzy with lemon and herbal flavours – a tonic for the jaded.

Setze Gallets Garnacha Monastrell, Spain 2014 - £7.25, The Wine Society

Full-flavoured, fruity and with a level of class that belies its price, this is perfect winter comfort wine. From the sunny climes of Valencia in Spain and aged in amphorae, this red combines the dense dark fruit of Monastrell with the rich liveliness of old vine Garnacha.

Falanghina Sassi del Mare 2015, Italy - £7.99, Lidl

This is part of Lidl’s Christmas wine collection, which you should be able to find until the next collection hits their shelves from 26^th January onwards. Try this gem of an Italian white, from Campania, for a taste of springtime honeysuckle in winter.

Tesco finest* Tingleup Riesling 2015, Australia - £8, Tesco

Another long-standing Tesco listing, the wine’s flavour somehow matches the its name – though Tingleup is simply the name of the region of origin in Western Australia. Fresh, juicy lime fruit and waxiness combine in a wine which is dry but never austere.

Mesta Organic Old Vine Tempranillo 2015, Spain - £8, M&S

The same red grape, Tempranillo, as Rioja, but in a richer, riper style that is full of fruit with an edge of tomato leaf -  and without oak.

Zalze Shiraz/Mourvèdre/Viognier 2015, South Africa - £8.29, Waitrose

For people who like their winter reds to pack a punch of both flavour and alcohol, this delivers the necessary with full-flavoured, juicy fruit.

Blason du Rhône 2015, Côtes du Rhône Villages, France - £8.99, Waitrose

The word “Villages” in the name is an important one, signifying a step up in quality from straight Côtes du Rhône. This soothing wine is soft and smooth with strawberry fruit and a hint of herbs on the finish.

Aperitivo time

Time was, an aperitif meant a hugely expensive gin and tonic served in a fancy restaurant while you perused the menu. I’m not one to turn down a G&T, but a broader range of pre-dinner snifters is very welcome.

Of course many of these aperitif drinks have a long and distinguished history and what we are experiencing is actually a re-discovery. But the expansion of bar and cocktail culture is also driving new uses for them to whet the appetites of a new generation of drinkers.

Vermouth is probably the most famous style of specialist aperitif and it is great for drinking alone, over ice, but also adds depth and interest to cocktails.  

The process to make it sounds straightforward enough: various botanicals are steeped in grape spirit for a period of time and then mixed with wine and caramel to give the required level of sweetness to balance the dryness of the wine and the bitterness of the herbs. In order to qualify as vermouth, one of the botanicals must be wormwood, or Artemisia absinthium. The Latin name gives you a clue that this is the same herb used to flavour Absinthe, rocket fuel of the Parisian demi monde, the wormwood giving it its hallmark green tinge.  

The German for wormwood, Wermut, gives us vermouth in English. Vermouths tend to be around 14-20% alcohol, roughly the same as sherry and port.   

The birthplace of vermouth is Italy and its second home is France. The big names, Cinzano and Martini, are both based in Turin, northern Italy and their various incarnations are widely available. Noilly Prat, the classic French vermouth hails from Marseillan, not far from Béziers in southern France. Noilly Prat Original Dry, with its full flavoured, very dry style and hint of herbal bitterness would be my choice for a classic vodka martini. 

If you’ve dipped your toe into the aperitif pool in recent years, it may well have been Aperol that tempted you in. Aperol shares some characteristics with vermouth, but the dominant flavouring is quinine, a bitter tasting substance derived from the bark of the quinquina tree, rather than wormwood. Such drinks are collectively known as quinquinas.  

Aperol originated in Padua in Italy and became popular between the wars. It’s a slightly disconcertingly bright orange colour and has a bitter-sweet flavour profile – think of a less brightly coloured and less intensely  flavoured Campari.  The in vogue way to drink it is as a spritz: 3 parts Prosecco, 2 parts Aperol and 1 part soda water, over ice with a  slice of orange. As Aperol is only around 11% alcohol to start with, this ends up being a lightish option as an aperitif and has the added virtue of being fizzy, which is what we Brits seem to require in our drinks currently. 

There are no hard and fast rules about the different categories of aperitif and in addition to vermouth and quinquina you might also come across Americano, which is usually grouped with the quinquinas as this ingredient is generally part of the recipe. Another issue which muddies the waters is that these drinks usually involve proprietary blends of herbs and spices and the exact recipes will be jealously guarded.   

Other quinquinas you might encounter include Dubonnet (£9 from Tesco), which was originally developed as a way of making quinine palatable to French foreign legionnaires fighting in malaria-infested parts of Africa.  

The French have a fondness for a range of herbal-infused drinks, including  Suze, which is flavoured with gentian, making for a really bitter drink, and St Raphael, which is red, fruity sweet and only slightly bitter. It’s hard to know if these should be classed as vermouths or quinquinas. You might also come across Dolin from Chambéry on the edge of the French alps, which is possibly a “true” vermouth (£10.49 in Waitrose). 

I wasn’t aware that Spain had also had a part to play in the vermouth story, but have recently been put right. Peruse the aperitif section of a Spanish restaurant – Iberica, for example (branches in London, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow) lists six vermouths, all from Spain – and you’ll see what I mean. 

Finally, neither a vermouth, nor a quinquina (or Americano come to that) Pedrino Alcoholic Tonic (£1.90 for a 200ml bottle from Waitrose) is, nevertheless, most definitely an aperitif. It’s a blend of Pedro Ximenez sherry, quinine, citrus and sparkling water that is initially sweet, then tangy, nicely grippy with a  slightly bitter finish.  On its own, it’s a light alcohol 5.5% - combined with gin, it’s a bit more hardcore.  

Salud! Santé! Cin Cin!

Wines to put a spring in your step

Even if sunny spring weather goes AWOL, you can still put a spring in your step with a glass of something light, fresh and fruity.

White

   

Cuvée Pêcheur 2015 - £4.99 from Waitrose

If you’re looking for something to have on standby for when the sun comes out, or are planning a spring party, look no further. This is a blend of Ugni Blanc and Colombard (both varieties usually backing singers rather than the headliner) from Southwest France that has plenty of zing and a bit of floweriness. Buy and enjoy this now – all its charms stem from its youth and freshness.

Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Caves de la Nantaise 2014 - £5.95 from The Wine Society

Remember Muscadet? Remind yourself why you loved it with this delightfully fresh, light-bodied (and light alcohol, just 11.5%) wine with a hint of the sea and oyster shells about it.

Tesco Finest Côtes de Gascogne 2014 - £6, Tesco

A rather boring name for a great little wine. Here Sauvignon Blanc is complemented by the high quality but relatively unknown local variety, Gros Manseng, which contributes weight and a grapefruit tang.

Rosé

 

Bel Air Perponcher Rosé 2015 - £8.50 from The Wine Society

With rosé, more than any other wine style, eye appeal is vital; it epitomizes the idea that we taste with our eyes, so the wine’s colour (and to some extent packaging) is almost as important as the flavour. This charmer is a beautiful pale shell pink with a mixture of lemon zest and pith, and hints of redcurrant fruit. A perfect glass on a sunny afternoon in the garden.

Château Tour de Mirambeau Rosé Réserve 2014 - £10.60 from Tanners

If the weather warms up sufficiently that you throw caution to the wind and get out the barbecue from its winter quarters, this could be the wine to match. Hailing from Bordeaux, it is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape renowned for making wines big on fruit and structure – so it shouldn’t surprise you that, even as a pink wine, there is plenty of black fruit flavour with a hint of woodiness, warmth and spice. This is a powerful, food friendly wine that would go well with marinated lamb chump steaks.

Rosa dei Frati 2014, Cà dei Frati - £14.75 from slurp.co.uk , £16.49 from The Wine Reserve (Cobham), £16.90 from Hedonism Wines (Mayfair)

This is a beautiful pale, negligée pink colour and comes in an equally pretty bottle. Fresh strawberry fruit combined with lemony acidity makes this a great "glass in the garden in spring" wine, which also stands up to vinaigrette dressing or a tomato tart.

Red

Rainbows End Cabernet Franc 2013 - £11.99, Hard to Find Wines (htfwines.co.uk)

Cabernet Franc is just right for spring and summer and this one is a textbook example from South Africa. Ripe red fruit and pencil shaving aromas give way to a palate that is densely flavoured, but with all important fresh acidity. A joy and – at this price – a bargain.