Wines for a game bird

The 12^th of August, “the Glorious Twelfth”, marks the official start of the game season in the UK. From now, for a few short weeks, our native red grouse can legally be shot over the grouse moors of the landed gentry of northern England and Scotland.

Birds and Burgundy

Pinot Noir is the natural choice to accompany your feathered game, so there’s no better place to head for than Burgundy. A good rule of thumb is that early season birds will be more tender and delicately flavoured and will match well with younger, fruitier wines.

As the season goes on, the birds develop more flavour as well as becoming more sinewy – and birds will have been hung before sale to help tenderise the meat, resulting in a “gamey” flavour. For these birds it makes sense to choose a more mature wine which will have developed a similar gaminess.

Domaine Maillard Père et Fils 2013 Chorèy-lès-Beaune - £16.99 from Waitrose

Reds from the Côte de Beaune are generally lighter than those from the more northerly Côte de Nuits and this has soft, supple ripe red fruit with a smooth, silky feel.

La Grille Pinot Noir 2013 - £8.99 (or £6.74 as part of their mix and match offer) from selected Majestic stores

OK, not from Burgundy, but game lovers on a budget can get some idea of the fruity, fragrant style of Pinot Noir without breaking the bank.

Game for a white?

Red wine is undoubtedly the natural wine choice for game, but not everyone likes red, so I have been giving the matter some thought.

Pheasant’s Tears Rkatsiteli 2011 - £15.95 from Slurp.co.uk, Hawkshead Wines and other independents

If you can bear the emotion, this would make a great match – and not just because of the name. From Georgia (the country, not the US state), it’s a white wine that is made somewhat like a red wine, the crushed grapes left to macerate with the juice before pressing and fermentation, resulting in a deeply coloured white wine with some of the grip and body of a red. It is richly flavoured but dry, with walnuts, blossom and a hint of honey wafting around.

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! 

Austria, land of red wine

Have you tried red wine from Austria before? If I say that I’m not counting anything that was served hot as part of the après-ski, then I’m guessing there are few of you with your metaphorical hands up.

Austria is predominantly a white wine country, with white varieties accounting for around two thirds of total production; but the tide is turning towards red. In 1999 just over a quarter of production was red; ten years later it was over a third – and there’s no reason to think that this trend will not have continued.

Austria’s wine lands are crowded into the relatively flat (or at least not mountainous) eastern end of the country, around the capital, Vienna. While there’s no denying that winters in Austria are cold, the continental climate here also means that summers can be surprisingly warm – hence the ability to ripen red grapes.

The most popular red varieties are Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch, but UK consumers might feel more comfortable opting for Pinot Noir, which, while still a niche wine in Austria, is also gaining ground – and international recognition.

These are not the easiest wines to find here – yet – but here are some to look out for:

Stift Göttweig Pinot Noir “Göttweiger Berg” 2013 - £15.50 from The Good Wine Shop

Aromas of fresh strawberry mingle with herbal freshness.

Johanneshof Reinisch Holzspur Pinot Noir 2012 - £15.90 from Eclectic Tastes

Classic Pinot profile of red fruit and spice; light, dry and refined.

Wieninger “Grand Select” Pinot Noir 2011 – Noel Young Wines have the 2006 for £21.89

Beguiling combination of oak and delicately perfumed fruit that has enough grip for food.

And if you’d like to explore Austrian wines in more depth, head to speicalists Alpine Wines (alpinewines.co.uk).

Christmas top wine tips and picks

If you’re still casting around for ideas to inspire your wine choices for Christmas, read on. Also read on if you’re one of those people, like me, who has already laid in the necessary, but can’t resist a quick scan of others’ recommendations, to see if they have the good sense to choose the same wines as you would. In which case, we should both probably get out more, but hey, don’t let me stop you reading.

Aperitif

La Noë Muscadet Côtes de Grand Lieu sur lie 2012 - £11.75 from Lea and Sandeman; Château du Cléray Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine sur lie (Sauvion) - £9.99, or £8.99 if you buy two at Majestic

If you spend a bit more than the minimum on Muscadet, you’ll be reminded why it was such a popular style in the first place. The Sauvion has more classic citrus freshness, whereas La Noë’s structure comes not from acidity but with a certain mineral weight, possibly influenced by the granitic soils of the vineyard. Either would make a classy aperitif or fine accompaniment to seafood. 

Christmas Day

Domaine Champalou, Le Portail 2010 - £22.90 from Caves de Pyrène, near Guildford

Feel free to drink white wine if that’s what you fancy with Christmas dinner – and I don’t think it matters a great deal what the meat is (if any). All the flavours we pile up onto one plate mean a couple of things: avoid anything too subtle, which will be overwhelmed (eg Chablis); or too flamboyantly flavoured, which might clash (eg Gewurztraminer). Christmas dinner is often a multi-generational affair too and you don’t want to intimidate those who maybe don’t enjoy wine that much or even drink it for most of the year.

But if you do want to splash out a bit, this is the kind of thing I’d plump for. It is a 100% Chenin Blanc from Vouvray in the Loire which has been given the white Burgundy treatment, with fermentation and ageing in oak barrel for 18 months before bottling. This is not a typical Vouvray, but the Champalou family like this style of wine, so they make it. It fulfills much the same function as would a white Burgundy, or any high quality white with barrel fermentation and ageing characters, but the Chenin grape imparts its own personality, giving hints of fresh ginger and honey in harmony with the spice of the oak.

Craggy Range Te Muna Road Pinot Noir 2011 - £22.50 down to £17.99 if you buy two at Majestic

I am a big fan of Pinot Noir for Christmas dinner: the vibrant red fruit rubs along with rather than fights with the multiple flavours on the plate and there is just a hint of tannin, but good acidity to refresh the palate and cut through the richness. 

This one is from Martinborough, New Zealand, which produces the kind of exuberant fruit we associate with the New World, but with a powerful underlying structure and food-friendly savouriness.

Château Musar 2005 - £19.99 at Majestic, (and £20 at The Wine Society, though their Christmas ordering deadline has now passed)

This is for those who like to live by the mantra: claret for Christmas – but with a twist. Young red Bordeaux is I feel too tannic and structured to meld with the wide variety of flavours (including sweet) that are involved in Christmas dinner. However, mature ones are more mellow and harmonious and this is an example of that mature style, but not from Bordeaux. A really good Rioja Reserva or Gran Reserva with some maturity would also do a grand job.

The Musar is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Carignan grown in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. Unusually it is not released until a full seven years after harvest, having been fermented and matured in cement tank and then French oak barrels, before spending more time back in tank before a final rest of four years in bottle. It has a combination of high-toned pungency and mellow spiced fruit with hints of leaves and leather that will appeal to fans of mature wine.

Stanton & Killeen Classic 12 year old Muscat - £15.60 (for a half bottle) from Caves de Pyrène

What, I hear you cry, are we to drink with Christmas pudding (or Christmas cake, or mince pies)? I have tried many different accompaniments over the years and there are in fact a good many vinous matches for these dried fruit and spice-heavy concoctions. A rich, sweet, old Oloroso would be wonderful; ditto a 20-year old tawny Port, Malmsey (or Malvasia) Madeira, a solera-aged Maury or Banyuls. A less obvious, but successful, choice is Moscatel de Valencia, whose distinct orange peel flavour marries with the dried fruit and candied peel of the pudding or cake.

However, Rutherglen muscat from Australia is the closest you can get to Christmas pudding in liquid form, with its intensely sweet yet tangy flavours of dates, treacle, caramel, nuts – it’s one of those wines in which you find something new with every sip.

Boxing Day

Les Hauts de Bergelle 2011, Saint Mont - £7.99 at Majestic, down to £6.99 if you buy two

You may never have heard of the region of Saint Mont, which is an area between Bordeaux and the Pyrenees, tucked in next to Gascony. You are unlikely to have heard of the grape varieties involved here either (Gros Manseng, Petit Courbu and Arrufiac), let alone tasted them before. These disadvantages are more than made up for by the fact that this is made by one of France’s very best co-operatives and that the grape varieties, while rare, make wonderfully characterful wines. An intense grapefruity tang, allied to hints of apple and quince and a subtle whisp of honey make for a punchy wine that would pep up Boxing Day cold meat and pickles.

Bellingham The Bernard Series Roussanne 2013 - £10.99, down to £7.99 at Sainsbury’s

Roussanne hails originally from the Rhône valley, but it has been on its travels and appears here in a South African incarnation. This is another weighty, characterful wine with a rich mixture of stone fruit, pear, citrus and herbs and a hint of damp wool. Quite a full-on style, but refreshing. 

Next time – the party’s over: hangover advice for the compulsively convivial.

Smells like Halloween spirit

My inner grumpy old woman would like to deplore the unstoppable tsunami of trick or treating that has journeyed across the Atlantic from the US to engulf this country in the last ten years.  When I were a lass, Hallowe’en (yeah, we even had an old-fashioned apostrophe in it to show how uncool it was) was the most underwhelming event of the year.

Having watched how it should be done on a classic Charlie Brown cartoon episode – Charlie and friends dress up, go trick or treating and score massive bags of sweets – my sister and I would try and dress up spookily, which involved draping ourselves in as many scarves as we could lay our hands on, there being no such thing as actual Halloween costumes available to buy.  I remember us bursting into the living room one Halloween, looking like bag ladies and trying out our best witchy noises, yet struggling to get our parents to drag their attention away from It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.  If we were lucky there might be apple bobbing – a couple of apples in a washing-up bowl of water – unless there weren’t any apples, in which case our Halloween fun was limited to watching the telly in our spooky rags.  Wooh hooh!  Crazy days.

Now my children expect a pumpkin to carve, proper dressing up and a host of willing victims of trick or treating as a minimum, as if it’s always been that way.  How little they know.

So what do I do on Halloween now?  Sit in front of the telly ignoring any unexpected knocks at the door of course.  Oh not really, I’m not that bitter.  I lay in some funsize Mars bars and sit in front of the telly. 

Some people, I understand, even go so far as to have Halloween parties nowadays.  If you are hosting, or just attending one, it might be fun to have a bottle of wine that gives a subtle nod to the spooky season.  Here, for what they’re worth, are my thoughts.

Jackson Estate Grey Ghost Sauvignon Blanc 2010/11 - £17.23 from TheDrinkShop.com, £18 from Ocado, £93 for a case of six from Tesco Wine by the case

Red wine more easily chimes with ideas of blood and vampires, but white wine drinkers can join in too with this very classy glass from New Zealand.  “It’s Marlborough Sauvignon, Jim, but not as we know it.” as James T Kirk might have said if he tasted it.  Wild yeast fermentation (less fun than it sounds) in French oak barrels and seven months of lees stirring have resulted in a multi-layered, textured wine that is big on gunflint and even gunpowder aromas, followed by intense passionfruit and starfruit flavours on the palate.

The Grey Ghost in question is the gum tree which has long grown near the family house on Jackson Estate, whose loose strips of bark make spooky noises when the wind blows, leading impressionable children to believe it was home to a ghost.

If you are a real Sauvignon Blanc aficionado (or just a complete show off) then you will want to have a taste of Didier Dagueneau’s Pouilly Fumé “Pur Sang” (pure blood), which will set you back something over £60 a bottle from Hedonism wines and other high end wine suppliers.  Despite bearing his name, Didier Dagueneau himself died five years ago in a microlight flying accident.  He was a one-man revolution, choosing to make Sauvignon Blanc wines in a unique style, unconcerned for the good opinion of others and apparently certain of the rightness of his cause – and the of the high price of his wines.  If you have the cash to splash then you can judge for yourself.   

Domaine du Cros “Lo Sang del Pais” Marcillac 2012 - £7.95 from The Wine Society, £11.49 from Les Caves de Pyrène

“Lo Sang del Pais” means the blood of the country in the local Occitan dialect.  Marcillac is a small, generally unheard of region in Southwest France, not far from Cahors.  The grape here is little known outside the southwest and its low profile is not helped by being known by a variety of pseudonyms even within it – in Marcillac they call it Mansois, in nearby Gaillac it is Braucol, elsewhere it is known as Fer Servadou (or just Fer) or sometimes Pinenc.  Whatever the name, this grape makes lightish bodied, forest fruity wines with a hint of pencil lead to them.  I think of them as great wine bar wines which offer great refreshment, so just the thing for savoury nibbles.

In the same, ahem, vein, you could look out for Gemtree Vineyards “Bloodstone” Shiraz, McLaren Vale - £11 from Hailsham Cellars or £13.50 from winedirect.co.uk.  Or Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux Vacqueyras Cuvée Fleureto 2010 - £19.95 from Berry Bros & Rudd.

Waitrose Romanian Pinot Noir 2012 - £6.99

If you are on the prowl for a Halloween-tinged party bottle, then look no further than this Pinot Noir, from the land of Count Dracula himself.  Pinot purists might baulk at the suggestion of off-dryness and soft, ripe fruit – but those who have more important things to worry about will happily glug this all night.

Do the stars make wines taste better?

Ha!  I bet you thought I was going to return to one of my favourite wine hobbyhorses:  biodynamic wines, where the movements of the moon and planets are used to guide vine growing and wine-making. Mais non, this time it’s the other sort of star, the sort that appears on red carpets.

Does a wine taste better because a big name from the world of sport or entertainment is linked to it?  Well of course not, famous people are just like us (though generally better looking) and do not sprinkle a bit of magical stardust over the contents of a bottle of wine, rendering it more delicious.

And yet many actors, singers and sportspeople seem keen to get into this wine making thing, or at least putting their name to a bottle.  And we drinkers get a little vicarious taste of the celebrity lifestyle by shelling out a few more (or sometimes many more) pennies for a bottle that bears their name.  Or do we?

Here’s a rundown of some of the famous names who have decided to add wine to the list of their credentials. 

Retired Formula 1 racing drivers

Mario Andretti, an Italian American who won many Grand Prix in the 1960s, 70s and 80s is also a “very rich man”, according to his website, which undoubtedly helps him fit right in with the other vineyard owners in California’s Napa Valley (who include film director Francis Ford Coppola, now in control of California legend, Inglenook).

Amorino Pecorino 2009 - £13.50 from Eton Vintners

Jarno Trulli, also of Italian parentage, despite his Finnish name, retired from F1 last year.  He co-owns a vineyard in Abruzzo in Italy.  This is clearly more than a vanity project as Abruzzo is not a region known for grand wines – Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, that stalwart of pizza and pasta chain wine lists, is its most well-known wine in this country.  Pecorino is a native Italian white variety and, while this has undoubtedly had plenty of wine-making lavished on it, it remains a well-made, modest quality wine.

Actors

Brad and Angelina (surnames not required) have just launched the first wine from their property, Château Miraval, in Provence.  No fools they, they took the precaution of buying a château that already had a reputation for well-made wines and enlisted the help of the Perrin family, who own Château de Beaucastel, one of Châteauneuf du Pape’s most famous names.  Apparently the whole lot sold out in hours last week, though none of the people who ordered it can reaslistically have tasted it yet.

Two Paddocks Pinot Noir 2010 - £17.43 from Haynes Hanson and Clark

Sam Neill is often assumed to be Australian, but is, however, a New Zealander and he turned to his native country to undertake his wine project.  Reilly Ace of Spies (now do you know who I mean?) bought a vineyard, named Two Paddocks, in the highly-regarded Central Otago region in the far south of New Zealand’s South Island, where his winemaking team produce a range of wines, including the region’s hallmark variety, Pinot Noir.

Elegant, bordering on austere, it seems Mr Neill is keen to pay homage to the red wines of Burgundy rather than express the piercingly bright fruit that Otago is more usually known for.

Gerard Depardieu, actor, bon viveur, “Russian” tax exile and scourge of flight attendants  everywhere, looms large in many ways.  He lists his profession as vigneron  (winemaker) on his passport nowadays and has wine interests in various regions of France, as well as in Morocco. 

Singers

Vida Nova Tinto - £9.29 from Waitrose

Sir Cliff Richard needs no introduction.  Obviously fond of the sun, he has had an estate in the Algarve region in the far south of Portugal for many years, and now also a winery known as Adega do Cantor.  Algarve wines have no real reputation for quality, but Sir Cliff is determined to change that, hiring renowned Australian (but Portuguese-based) winemaking consultant David Baverstock and constructing a custom-built winery.   The red is a blend of Syrah and Tempranillo, locally known as Aragonez and has plenty of southern warmth and ripeness.

Mick Hucknell, the red-haired Mancunian crooner, is using some of his millions making wines from his vineyard in Sicily.  Released under the name Il Cantante (I sense a theme here), the vines are in the Etna region, whose wines are becoming highly valued.   They are not available in the UK.

Olivia Newton-John, country-lite triller turned Eighties lycra and headband-wearing pop princess, produces a sparkling wine in her native Australia called “Let’s Get Fizzical”.  Nah, not really, the truth is much more prosaic.  In reality she puts her name to a South Australian Chardonnay and Shiraz under the Blue Koala label.  I think my idea is better.

Sportsmen

Botham Merrill Willis Shiraz 2006 - £15.82 Christopher Piper Wines

This two for the price of one wine label combines Beefy himself with his old pal, fast bowler Bob Willis.  They leave the wine-making duties to the extravagantly moustachioed Geoff Merrill, a long-established winemaker in McLaren Vale, but they do get involved in blending I am told.  Tempting as it is to describe this wine as beefy, it actually has more in the way of bright fruit and crunchy acidity.

Ernie Els Proprietor’s Blend 2010 - £22.99 from SA Wines online

Ernie Els, nicknamed The Big Easy, hasn’t waited for his career to wane before getting stuck into the winemaking business in his native South Africa.  He has a range of wines made at his eponymous winery, which are predominantly red.  Big Easy Red is his entry level wine (available from SA Wines Online for £14.99 a bottle), but you can spend plenty more, up to £40 for his Signature Blend.  The wines are big, certainly, though I wouldn’t describe the Proprietor’s Blend as easy.  It’s dense, structured and needs a hefty slab of steak from the braai to stand up to its fearsome tannins. 

USA: beyond the Golden State

California is the leviathan of US wine, accounting for 90% of production and, despite exporting seemingly limitless quantities of Blossom Hill and Gallo here, making 3 out of every 4 bottles sold within the US.  The state basks in the reflected glory of its nickname, The Golden State, a name that betokens glamour, riches, sunshine and the good life.   However, there are plenty of other wine-making parts of the US, including California’s more northern West coast neighbours :  Washington and Oregon. 

Washington State is perhaps a surprise runner up in the wine production states, though it’s a distant second and hardly clipping at California’s heels, with only 5% of the total.  Its nickname is the rather more homely The Evergreen State – fair do’s, the name evokes the expansive wilderness of conifer forests nurtured by the plentiful rain that falls here (we’ve all seen Frasier, right?).  The state’s highest peak is even called Mount Rainier.

The Columbia River, Washington State

However, if you’ve visited the area around Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula and experienced the mile upon mile of forest, including one of the world’s rare areas of temperate rain forest, you might be surprised to find that the state produces any wine at all – it’s too cool and damp, surely?

Vines in arid Washington State

The answer to the conundrum is the Cascade Mountains:  these stand between Seattle and the interior and act as a barrier to the cool, wet conditions that prevail on the coast, sheltering the Columbia Valley, where most wine is made.  They do such a good job that the Columbia Valley has rainfall levels that class it as desert (only 150-250mm annually, compared with just under 800mm in southern England).  The plentiful sunshine means that warm climate varieties thrive here, including Syrah, and Bordeaux stalwarts Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Sandwiched in between California and Washington, Oregon is known as The Beaver State.  I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by saying any more on that topic.

On the subject of wine, Oregon is, counter-intuitively, the coolest and wettest of the three west coast wine producing states.  While the Cascades continue south into Oregon from Washington, most winegrowing areas sit between them and the lower Coastal Range, which provides only slight protection from the prevailing weather.  The vineyards are correspondingly cooler, cloudier and wetter than their more northerly neighbours.

Mist in cool climate Oregon

Oregon is largely synonymous with a single variety – Pinot Noir, which represents a staggering 66% of plantings, ahead of Pinot Gris in second place at 14%.  Pinot Noir is renowned as a cool climate variety, so it makes sense that it should find a home here, but it is also a tricky grape to nurture and in these marginal areas vintage variation is marked.

Autumn colour at Sokol Blosser estate, Oregon

Neither of these regions provides the kind of cheap wine thrills that California can, whose size bestows the ability to mass produce branded wine.  Both Oregon and Washington are more boutique-y in feel and the prices of their wines (especially once they’ve been exported here) are more like high end California.  The small scale of producers, especially those from Oregon, means that they generally won’t pitch up on the supermarket shelves and a visit to a specialist independent merchant will be in order if you want to taste them.

Wines from Washingon

Eroica Riesling 2011 – Slurp and Winedirect both have the 2010 for £17.95, Fareham Wine Cellar stocks the 2008 for £19.10

Eroica is a joint venture between Chateau Ste Michelle, Washington’s largest wine producer, and German Ernie Loosen, master of the Mosel and Riesling guru.  Riesling has a bit of a problem, apart from the main one of its unfair image as a low quality variety.  Off-dry Rieslings tend to have bags of fruit, balanced by crisp acidity, but are terribly unfashionable.  Dry Rieslings can sometimes sacrifice the exuberant fruit, leaving searing acidity that sets the teeth on edge.  This wine happily manages to combine the incisive and linear acidity of a dry Riesling, without sacrificing charm and peachy fruit.

   

L’Ecole 41 Columbia Valley Syrah 2009 – older vintages available from Noel Young Wines (based in Cambridge or online), Winedirect has the 2008 for £23

Columbia Valley is the powerhouse of Washington wine growing, with surprisingly warm and dry conditions that favour heat-loving varieties such as Syrah.  L’Ecole 41 have a well-deserved reputation for quality reds.  This Syrah has beautifully pure blackcurranty fruit with a peppery kick and enough acidity to balance the richness of the fruit.  Beware:  its elegance belies its 15.5% alcohol.

Wines from Oregon

Bergström Old Stones Chardonnay 2010 - £25.95 from Roberson Wine (shop in Kensington or order online)

A classy Chardonnay whose inviting nose promises ripe fruit with its wisp of honey and aroma of yellow Mirabelle plums.  The palate delivers this and more, with savoury, flinty lees character and wonderful freshness.

Bergström also have a delicious range of Pinot Noirs, available from Roberson and Noel Young Wines.

Firesteed Oregon Pinot Gris 2011 - £15.79 from Christopher Piper Wines; Slurp has the 2010 for £14.30

Chardonnay undoubtedly has more cachet than Pinot Gris, but well-made examples like this give plenty of food friendly enjoyment.  And if buying Oregon wines is starting to look like a rich person’s past-time, then this is a relative bargain.  Crisp, juicy tropical fruit with a hint of peach, melon and the variety’s trademark gentle spice.

Sokol Blosser Estate Pinot Noir 2009 – Guildford’s own Caves de Pyrène has the 2008 for £30.36; Noel Young Wines has the 2008 for £25.64 or the 2007 for £35.10; Winedirect stocks the 2009 for £32.50

Oregon’s Willamette Valley (one of my favourite regions in the world to say: it’s WillAMette, to rhyme with dammit) does have variable weather from year to year, so the other vintages may not display the same seductive fruit as I found in the beguiling 2009.  There’s plenty of oak drapery too, but the quality of the fruit shines through.

A passion for Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir can turn you mad.  Like the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey, whose irresistible song lured sailors to their death, it sings to you with its alluring perfume and beguiling fruit.  But if you do succumb, if you allow yourself to be seduced by this most seductive of wine grapes, then you are surely lost, and will be crushed upon the rocks of your obsession.  Condemned to a life dominated by the pursuit of the perfect Pinot, you will be haunted by memories of Pinots past, frittering away your money on fine Burgundy, only to be, mostly, sorely disappointed – and considerably poorer.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  If you have not yet given in to the temptations of Pinot Noir flesh, then the safest option is to follow the example of Odysseus and to strap yourself, metaphorically, to the mast of your ship, allowing you to pass by and to continue your life’s voyage untouched.

It’s too late for me now, but you may be able to save yourselves.  If you haven’t yet been bewitched by the siren song of Pinot Noir, stop reading now.  If, however, you are one of the fallen, then wallow in what follows; sustenance to your obsession.

My personal quest for the perfect Pinot has led me on a vinous pilgrimage around the world.  Of course the very finest examples can be found rather closer to home, in Burgundy.  But, frankly, I’m too poor to be able to buy the best – and what on earth would be the point in not buying what you know to be the best?

Chile is starting to come up with some pretty good versions, especially from the Leyda Valley.  Argentina’s far south is capable of producing some fine, juicy Pinot.  California’s versions are opulent, sweet and alcoholic, often overplaying their hand and the best can rival Burgundy for price.  Oregon is renowned as the home of seriously fine, nuanced and delicate Pinot Noir, but there’s little of it about here and what there is, is mighty pricey.  Australia is beginning to win out in its struggle to produce sufficiently elegant Pinot in its generally warm, if not hot, climate.

New Zealand, however, will get many a Pinot-phile’s pulse racing.  The region making most noise for its Pinots has been Otago, way down in the South Island.  Most definitely cool (frosts are a regular feature) the grapes are able to ripen fully, while preserving wonderfully fresh, bright fruit.  We also see plenty of Pinot from Marlborough, at the northern tip of the South Island and a region more often associated with Sauvignon Blanc.  Their Pinots are mostly just fine and are getting better with each passing year, but for class and complexity, you need to make the short hop across the Cook Straits to Martinborough, in the very south of the North Island.

Crraggy Range's Te Muna Road vineyard

And what makes this region so special?  As always, it’s impossible to point to a single factor, but the combination of cool, positively windy sites, low-ish annual rainfall (very similar to Southeast England) and relatively older vines all play their part.  Soil-wise the key element is the Martinborough Terrace, whose 30,000 year old soils are made up of decomposed volcanic ash.  Most of the best vineyards snake along this terrace, which is now pretty much completely planted.  Old vines are often pointed to as a key to really fine wine and New Zealand is a land of young vines – but the leaps in quality with each vintage show the growing contribution of vine age, combined with the skill of the winemakers.

Martinborough Terrace

In terms of total New Zealand wine production, Martinborough is small, representing just 1.6% of the total.  Pinot Noir is the 60-odd producers’ speciality, representing 55% of plantings.  The ubiquitous Sauvignon Blanc is the next biggest, then come Chardonnay and a range of other white varieties.

Wines to feed your Pinot passion

Ata Rangi Pinot Noir - £34-40 from The Vineyard Dorking, The Guildford Wine Company, The Wine Reserve Cobham and slurp.co.uk

Ata Rangi is where it all began in Martinborough:  vines were planted here in 1980, at the dawn of the modern era of wine-making in New Zealand.  Their estate wine is the definition of Martinborough Pinot Noir.

One look at the price of this will tell you that a serious Pinot habit is an expensive one – don’t say you weren’t warned. 

If you can get hold of an older vintage, it’s definitely worth it.  The 2008 is smooth and harmonious and still full of lively, youthful cranberry and raspberry fruit, with hints of pencil shavings.  The 2006, at six years old is just beginning to show some of the maturing aromas that are like catnip for fans of Pinot Noir:  deep rose, clove and cinnamon spice in a fine, lively wine.

If the best part of 40 quid is too much (and it is for me), then Ata Rangi’s Crimson Pinot Noir, available for £16-20, gives you some of the class and excitement of its big brother, without the same staying power and ageing ability.

Escarpment Pinot Noir 2009 - £17.95 from slurp.co.uk

Look for the interplay of juicy fruit and spice, with tannins providing a sandy feel.  Over time this will develop a lovely silky-smooth texture.  Escarpment’s Kupe single vineyard Pinot Noir 2008, £19.99 from The Vineyard, Dorking, gives you a sense of the evolution of a wine that still has plenty of life in it.

Craggy Range Te Muna Road Pinot Noir 2010 - £20-22.50 from Taurus Wines Bramley and slurp.co.uk

Steve Smith MW of Craggy Range makes wines from the entire length of New Zealand’s wine growing areas, from Hawke’s Bay in the North Island, down to Central Otago, deep in the South Island.  All are top quality, but there’s something special about this Martinborough Pinot.  The fruit has a lovely ripeness and there is great density of flavour, but also fine tannins, elegance and, ultimately, refreshment.  Again, older vintages will show more – the 2008 is still a baby.

Some people don't wear clothes

Do you wear clothes? Some people don't, you know.

No, they get up in the morning and pull on (never simply put on) pieces (not mere clothes) from their day-to-evening capsule wardrobes. A tee in this season's brights might be paired with a must-have nude midi (the mind boggles). These ladies (for it is they) may slick their lips with some high shine gloss and re-coat their nails in Chanel's mimosa nail polish (yellow vomit-coloured in case you don't know it) before running out the door to their high-powered jobs. And where do they work? The fashion industry – specifically the world of fashion journalism.

It all sounds exhausting. And all those vaguely fetishistic words to do with clothes make me shudder. Why can't they just say skirt and t-shirt like the rest of us?

But are we in the wine trade just as guilty of fetishizing our subject matter too? Do we risk putting off averagely-interested wine drinkers with our talk of silky tannins which dance across the palate, clothed in filigree acidity, clasped to the chest of a dance partner of brooding power?

And before you say anything, I know I know, mea culpa. I too find it hard to avoid some of those rather fanciful metaphorical descriptions for wine. Life would be dull indeed if we had to stick to just the technical details of a wine to describe it.

Here's an example, based on the wine I'm sipping as I write this: this red wine is a medium intensity ruby in colour, with medium body, balanced acidity and tannin. The black fruit character is pronounced and alcohol is 14.5%. Are you driven to go out and buy some to try on the strength of that description? I'm guessing not. And yet this could accurately describe many of the perfectly delicious bottles of red wine available in your local supermarket or wine merchant.

The trouble is, it doesn't tell you anything that might help you to decide to try one bottle rather than any other. Ultimately the language we use to describe wine is an attempt to convey a sense of what it actually feels like to drink it, rather than just a nuts and bolts description of its constituent parts. Wine is not (at least in most cases) merely alcoholic Ribena.

So, in the end, I should exhibit some fellow feeling and cut those fashion writers some slack. Forgive them their habits of wearing pieces instead of clothes, as you forgive me my talk of precious liquids instead of just wine. In the end they're just trying to relieve the boredom of having to describe yet another pair of trousers.

But (whisper it) I can't help feeling that clothes are just clothes.

It may have escaped your notice that the Glorious Twelfth and with it the official start of the grouse shooting season is upon us. So, having bagged your game bird after a day's shooting on the grouse moor (or a quick trip to the butcher's), which wines will make a suitable accompaniment?

Cuvée Chasseur 2010, £4.29 from Waitrose

At the budget end of the scale is this appropriately-named French wine, which translates roughly as “hunter's lot”. This is the kind of wine that has been Australia's bread and butter for the last 15 years: a simple, very easy drinking blend that has bags of sweet sour cherry and black fruit with barely a hint of tannin. Unlike most bargain Aussie reds, however, this has just 12% alcohol, making for a much more food-friendly and versatile drink.

Pinot noir is perhaps THE grape to seek out for game – its soft tannins and juicy red fruit will meld harmoniously with game fowl without leaving a mouthpuckering dryness.

The Society Exhibition Martinborough Pinot Noir 2009, £12.95 at The Wine Society

This is made for The Wine Society by Craggy Range, whose name is a byword for quality wines in New Zealand. Martinborough, right at the southern tip of the North Island, is a pinot noir enclave which faces the sauvignon blanc stronghold of Marlborough across the narrow Cook Strait which separates the two islands.

This is fairly light-coloured, as is most pinot noir, but has no shortage of chunky, spice-tinged fruit allied to earthy flavours which mirror the savouriness of game. The mouthfeel (wine fetishism alert) is silky and the finish, like Celine Dion's love, will go on....and on.

If you like this style, also look out for Craggy Range's more opulent Te Muna Road Martinborough Pinot Noir 2008, £19.99 from Taurus Wines in Bramley.

Do you come from a land downunder?

No, not that one, the other one. New Zealand, whose Maori name, Aotearoa, translates to “land of the long white cloud” is famous for a few things: having more sheep than people, having one of the most feared rubgy union sides in the world and being home to more flightless birds than any other country. OK, we may have made one of those up, but they do have quite a few flightless birds, including their national symbol, the kiwi, and the endangered kakapo, the world's largest parrot.

The All Blacks have long made a big impression on the rugby pitch with their haka, the ritual Maori dance that involves rhythmical chanting along with thigh slapping, eye-rolling and tongue-poking – and we only have God Save the Queen. No wonder they run our guys ragged.

Nowadays New Zealand is spreading its wings (excuse the pun) beyond the world of flightless birds and rugby and adding wine to its list of famous exports. Sauvignon blanc has been the Kiwi calling card of the past decade and it has truly struck a chord with the UK's wine gluggers.

However, no-one wants to be a one-trick pony and New Zealand's wine producers know that today's Top of the Pops white can rapidly go the way of Liebfraumilch and Lutomer Laski Riesling, which today you would only encounter in a strictly ironic way at a Seventies party, along with the prawn cocktail and steak Diane, washed down with a Demis Roussos LP. The Kiwis do not intend to be consigned to merely providing the alcoholic accompaniment to Noughties parties, along with a Jamie Oliver pukka pasta dish and Lady Gaga or JLS on the ipod.

So while we've been busy slugging back the sauvignon, they have been beavering away, planting new varieties, experimenting with growing techniques and exploring which of their variations of climate and soils best suits each one.

Pinot noir has triumphantly emerged as THE red grape best suited to this cool climate land – which is great news for any wine producing country, as pinot noir is notoriously picky about where it will grow. Too hot and it turns fat and blowsy, with nothing to recommend it. Too cool, though, and it will fail to ripen, succumb to rot and generally be economically non-viable. New Zealand, though, is clearly the Goldilocks country – it's just right.

And why all the fuss about a grape variety? Well, once you've been bitten by the pinot bug, you appreciate that no other grape is the same. It's light in colour, with soft tannins and fresh, crisp acidity. The fragrant cherry, raspberry and strawberry fruit, often combined with a subtle lick of spicy oak is charming, beguiling and the opposite to a blow-your-socks-off blockbuster red. It combines elegance with understated power – a ballerina rather than a prop forward.

Decades ago, there was no choice but to head to Burgundy to indulge your pinot habit – and at Burgundy prices it can be an expensive one. Now, you can look to places like Leyda Valley in Chile, Walker Bay in the Indian Ocean-cooled far south of South Africa, isolated cool pockets like the Mornington Peninsula in Australia – and to New Zealand.

Because New Zealand is two long islands, with climates ranging from warm enough to ripen syrah in the north of the North Island, to cold enough for penguins and icebergs in the far south of the South Island, there are many places in between that provide happy sites for the pinot grape, producing different styles of wine.

Some notable New Zealand pinots from north to south:

The Society's Exhibition Martinborough Pinot Noir 2008, £12.95, The Wine Society

Martinborough lies at the bottom end of the North Island, just across the narrow straits that separate it from the cooler South Island. Pinots here are typically more masculine, deeper in colour, with more tannin and spice than Marlborough – but it's all relative and you could never mistake this for a shiraz, with its red fruit and silky feeling in the mouth.

Ata Rangi Crimson Pinot Noir 2008, £15.99 The Vineyard, Dorking

Ata Rangi were pioneers of pinot and their years of experience show in this fragrant delight, which somehow has depth without weight.

Craggy Range Te Muna Road Pinot Noir 2008, £19.99, Taurus Wines, Bramley

Another Martinborough pinot! This wine is so silkily and spicily seductive that it was one of our favourites at last year's Taurus wine festival.

The Crossings Marlborough Pinot Noir 2009, £9.75, The Wine Society

Finally we cross to the South Island. This is so light in colour, you could mistake it for a deep rosé, but it has bags of bright cherry fruit and soft tannins which are typical of Marlborough pinots. It would be a treat chilled down once the weather warms up.

Wild Earth Central Otago Pinot Noir 2008, £22.99, down to £20 as part of a case, The Vineking (Church Street Reigate branch), £119.94 for a case of 6 from M&S, £234 for a case of 12 from Tesco Wine by the Case

Central Otago is the world's most southerly wine region – any further south and you swap vines for glaciers and fjords – and makes some of the most delicate, perfumed pinot around. There is plenty of charming cherry and raspberry fruit in Wild Earth, with a pleasing, meaty note on the finish.

Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2008, £24.99 from The Vineyard, Dorking, £32.49 from Les Caves de Pyrene, Guildford

Biodynamic winery Felton Road has something of a cult following – let its haunting, ethereal charms win you over.

Next time we'll unveil the white wines that New Zealand is counting on to score a hit with UK wine drinkers – until then pop-pickers, we suggest you seek out one of those pinot noirs to keep your spirits up.