Wines that look good at fifty

How many wines will happily last for over 50 years? You might think of the best Bordeaux classed growths, possibly the very top of Sauternes and really top class dessert wines.

If I add a qualifier – how many wines that you can buy for under £30 will happily last for over 50 years – and out go Bordeaux and Sauternes for sure. Now you need to turn to those great stalwarts of longevity: Sherry, Madeira – and Port.

Before you get too excited, that bottle of Cockburn's Special Reserve or Warre's Warrior that you snapped up for under a tenner last Christmas but never got round to drinking, is not going to last that long. Those ruby ports are designed for early drinking and are not going to improve in the bottle. It is the great vintage Ports from the major shippers like Taylor's, Dow's or Graham's which are renowned for their ageing ability, measured in decades rather than years.

It was the English aristocracy's habit to lay down a “pipe” (a port barrel, containing 55 dozen bottles) of vintage port from the birth year of their sons, so that their offspring would have sufficient to pass round after dinner from their 21^st birthday on for most, if not all, of their adult life. With drinking habits like that, it comes as a surprise that the English aristocracy haven't pickled themselves into extinction.

If you fancy taking up where they left off, albeit on a more modest scale, a bottle of top quality vintage port will set you back upwards of around £60. So what happened to the £30 I drew you in with at the beginning? I'm getting to that.

The port houses decide whether a particular year will be “declared” a vintage, based on the quality of the wines made. In theory each producer makes their decision individually, but in practice there are certain years which most agree that the quality is high and there will be a “general declaration”.

Weather conditions in the Douro Valley, where Port is made, are notoriously harsh, with cold winters and blistering hot summers. The risk of drought is ever present and rain at harvest can be disastrous for quality. It is certainly not a foregone conclusion that great wine can be made each year.

Additionally, from a commercial perspective it would devalue the vintage Port brand if a house were to declare a vintage every single year. In the past decade the years 2000, 2003 and 2007 have all been declared. This means that there is no Taylor's 2004 vintage Port, for example, it does not exist.

Which is where bargain-hunting vintage Port lovers come in. In those non declared years, port houses will still make a style of vintage Port known as single quinta. A quinta is simply the Portuguese word for farm and refers to a particular vineyard. To those in the know, names such as Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas, Graham's Quinta dos Malvedos and Warre's Quinta do Bomfim are bywords for high quality vintage Port, without, perhaps the huge staying power of the very top vintages.

In a declared year, these quintas will be responsible for providing key components of a house's vintage Port. In non declared years, they are bottled under the name of the Quinta and can be yours for somewhere under £30.

One hell of a tea trolley

The generally accepted wisdom on single quintas is that they are ready to drink earlier than their straight vintage counterparts, and will not age much beyond 10-15 years. Based on a tasting of Symington family single quinta Ports going back to 1950, however, this might not necessarily be the case.

The Symingtons are one of those Anglo-Portuguese port families who remain staunchly English, despite spending all their working lives in the Douro Valley. The family has been producing port for five generations and is responsible for some of the biggest names in the port business: Graham's, Cockburn's, Dow's and Warre's.

The Graham's Quinta dos Malvedos 1950 might be more of an interesting experience than a classically enjoyable glass of Port, with its hauntingly ethereal floral perfume and hint of balsamic vinegar and even stout (as in Guinness) flavours.

The Malvedos 1958, however, would make an elegent ending to any meal. It is still sweet and richly flavoured with caramel and nuts, the structure has endured and the finish is incredibly long. How many of us would like to aspire to be in such fine form at 54 years of age!

Unless you have some of these wines already stashed away, I'm afraid you won't get the chance to try them, as literally just a few bottles remain. The currently available vintage for most single quintas is 1999, though you'll find a peppering of other years too. Here are my recommended ones to search out:

Graham's Quinta dos Malvedos 1999 - £30.56 (case price) from Imbibros near Godalming

This is beautifully perfumed, incredibly rich and sweet. There are flavours and aromas of pipe tobacco and sweet spiced cherry. Malvedos is famous for producing opulent, sweet ports and this certainly fits that profile. The sweetness would make it a great match for desserts – sticky toffee pudding or crème brûlée could be naughty but nice.

Dow's Quinta do Bomfim 1999 - £26.50 from Tesco, £26.96 (case price) Imbibros

Barely five miles from Malvedos, but a world away from it in style, Bomfim is renowned for its drier, more tannic and austere style. This one is rather more “winey” and with a less spirity nose than the Malvedos with lovely leafy notes. It is lighter bodied with more lifted aromas. Great on its own, but this would make a wonderful to finish a meal along with some nuts – and maybe a cigar, if that's your thing.

Cavadinha 1996 - £30 from Waitrose, £29.66 (case price) from Imbibros

Cavadinha produces wines that have a distinctive and attractive floral character on the nose. The palate has plenty of sweet, figgy fruit, with a savoury undertow and a nicely elegant finish.

"You'd have to be an idiot not to make great wine in 2011."

Finally, a word to the wise. Paul Symington is seriously excited about the quality of the just completed harvest and says that “You'd have to be an idiot not to make great wine in 2011.” Will this be the first vintage declaration of the new decade? You heard it here first.

Cavadinha 2011 - vintage in the making?

You can follow the progress of the 2011 ports in the making and get lots of in-depth information about the Symingtons via their blog, http://malvedos.wordpress.com/

Stop the (wine) world, I want to get off

Sometimes I wish the wine world would just stop for a bit, so that I can catch up. It seems every time I look, there's a new wine region in Spain, a handful of grape varieties from Italy that I've never heard of, and a whole new grape-growing valley in Chile. Is there a never-ending supply of these things?

This latest yearning for a pause button on the wine world was prompted by a Chilean wine which hails from the Choapa Valley. Choapa? Choapa???

It's enough to make you hanker after the simplicity and stability of classic regions like...Burgundy. On the surface, it's all so straightforward: white wines are all Chardonnay, reds are Pinot Noir; the vineyard area has been minutely graded and differentiated over centuries and new bits do not spring up overnight like so many mushrooms; there is a strict hierarchy of quality, with generic Bourgogne at the bottom, going through village level, then Premier Cru and finally the pinnacle of Grand Cru.

Except it's not quite as simple as that....

Here's an illustration: Clos de Vougeot is a single walled vineyard in Burgundy's Côte de Nuits that is all classed as Grand Cru, hence it commands pretty astronomical prices. But it's big: 50 hectares (125 acres) of vineyard is enclosed within the walls, sub-divided between many growers (the average plot size is around 0.2 of a hectare).

The far-sighted Cistercian monks who decided to rip out the French beans, tomatoes and apple trees in favour of grape vines, would have made wine blended from the entire plot. Nowadays those monks are long-gone and each grower must try to wring the best quality possible from their few rows of vines.

The slopes at the middle and top of the Clos are generally agreed to make better wines than the plots on the flatter, damper ground at the bottom. And, let's be realistic, not all winemakers are created equal. Hence two equally eyewateringly expensive bottles of Grand Cru Clos de Vougeot may contain wine that varies considerably in terms of drinking pleasure. Caveat emptor!

So, to return to Chile, there they are at the other end of the wine adventure to Burgundy and most of the Old World. They are constantly exploring new territories within their long, thin string-bean of a country to see where grapes will flourish and which varieties best express the terroir. In vinous terms, Chile is a gigantic wine laboratory and, it must be said, the results are deliciously drinkable.

Chile, unlike any other major wine producing nation, does not have a long tradition of wine drinking. Up until recent years, grapes were grown primarily for distillation to make pisco – basis for the pisco sour cocktail. There were small winemaking concerns, based primarily in the Maipo Valley, close to the consumers and transport links of capital city, Santiago.

Over the years, Chile's winemakers have spread their wings and wineries to further flung and ever cooler regions, which would have initially been dismissed as too cold to ripen grapes – especially for such heat-loving varieties as Syrah (aka Shiraz).

This week's recommendations – Chile rather than Burgundy.

De Martino Legado Syrah 2010 - £10.49 from Caves de Pyrene (Artington, near Guildford)

The wine that prompted this column: from the Choapa Valley, which, I now know, is north of Santiago, roughly half-way between the Aconcagua and Limari Valleys. Chile is a long, narrow strip of land that flanks the Andes, but it is especially thin at this point, where the vines here are exposed to the cooling air of both the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Having initially made their name with well-crafted, reliably gluggable Merlots, then taking up Carmenère as their signature red grape, Chileans are now showing the wine world that they are also pretty nifty when it comes to Syrah. Really, do they have to be so good at everything they do? The answer seems to be yes.

The fact that they choose to label the wine Syrah, rather than its New World synonym, Shiraz, tells you that in terms of style this is much closer to the peppery, herbal, cooler-climate Northern Rhone versions than the exuberantly fruity Australian ones. This has a definite tannic structure and an almost Old World restraint to the black-pepper tinged berry fruit.

Matetic Vineyards Corralillo Syrah 2009, San Antonio - £85.80 for a case of 6 from Armit, £15.95 from Sipp London

Matetic have had a real cachet about them and their wines since they burst onto the Chilean wine scene in 1999. The other Syrah made by Matetic, labelled simply Syrah, is undoubtedly a fine wine, but the price has gone up to a frankly ridiculous £37 a bottle. This little brother, Corallilo, however, still offers class in a glass at a much more reasonable price and has got better with each vintage I've tasted. Satisfyingly savoury, but with bumptious juicy fruit and great balance, this is also organic and biodynamic.

Maycas del Limari Quebrada Seca Chardonnay 2008, Limari - £18.95 from slurp.co.uk, £24.95 from Berry Bros (bbr.com)

Limari is yet another recently exploited wine region where you'll find deliciously fresh, juicy red wines – and this altogether very sophisticated Chardonnay.

If you know someone who has an expensive white Burgundy habit, but who struggles to afford to keep it going, then do them a favour and point them in the direction of this wine.

I was lucky enough to taste this wine with the man who makes it, Marcelo Papa, the man responsible for the phenomenally popular Casillero del Diablo wines. It combines the ripeness of fruit and mealy nuttiness of Meursault with the poise and linearity of Chablis. It's a truly lovely wine and incredibly moreish.

I say Argentina, you say....?

Some way down the list, after maybe tango and Maradona's hand of God I'm guessing, as you're reading a wine blog, Malbec might make an appearance.

Despite hailing from France originally, Argentina has single-mindedly focused on making Malbec its vinous calling card. It successfully combines a modern, fruity and food-friendly style of red wine that chimes with Argentina's rugged image as a land of steak-eating, horse-riding gauchos.

But man (and woman) cannot live on red wine alone. There are times when a glass of something cold and white is what's required and in those situations, Argentina's wine industry would like us to embrace the charms of the Torrontes grape.

Torrontes is a unique grape to Argentina. In style it's light and fresh, with a distinct floral, grapey aroma – though the palate is always dry. If you like Gewurztraminer from either Alsace or, increasingly, Chile, you'll probably like Torrontes – especially if you find the French versions sometimes a little too sweet.

Also, dare I say it, all you Sauvignon Blanc lovers out there – think about giving Torrontes a try. It has the same full-on aromatic kick on the nose, leading onto a palate with good acidity, so stylistically it is in the same territory.

When I first came across Torrontes a few years back, too many of the wines I tried had rather over-floral aromatics, making them redolent of Old Spice aftershave, then a slightly bitter, sometimes sweaty flavour on the palate. Whatever the winemaking issues were then, they seem to have been resolved and most Torrontes nowadays is a pure pleasure to drink.

That combination of flowery aromas and a refreshingly crisp and dry palate makes Torrontes a shoo-in when choosing a glass to have as a palate-cleansing aperitif. But can it cut the mustard when you move onto the main course?

Dear readers, I have undertaken some food and Torrontes matching research on your behalf, guided by Master of Wine and ex-Good Food Magazine Associate Editor, Sarah Jane Evans. The results were perhaps a surprise – at least they were to me.

Argentina is renowned for its love for steaks, the bigger the better. And I wouldn't suggest you try glugging Torrontes with that. However, their other great love is seafood, especially when made as a ceviche, where the fish is “cooked” in a combination of lemon or lime juice, herbs, spices and olive oil. As you can imagine, this is a pretty intense flavour combination and Torrontes stands up to the citrus sharpness impeccably.

However, I'm guessing that prawn ceviche isn't a regular on the Autumn weekday menu in these here parts. But what about that great midweek standard, an English-as-a-middle-order-batting-collapse fish pie?

I was intrigued to find that a couple of the 100% Torrontes wines recommended below coped admirably. I had worried that the quite rich creaminess of the potato and fish would make the wine taste skinny and smell like cheap perfume – but not at all. Somehow the weight of fruit in the wine, combined with a slightly salty-mineral tang, served to enhance both the food and the wine.

Personally I've never been much of a fish pie fan – too much like anaemic nursery food pap. However, with a glass of chilled Torrontes on the side, perhaps I'll learn to love it.

Recommended Torrontes wines

La Riojana Tilimuqui Single Vineyard Fairtrade Torrontes 2011 - £6.99 at Waitrose

It's also organic. Too often, the Fairtrade label (or indeed the word organic) on a wine is no guarantee of quality in the bottle. Generally such wines languish at the cheaper end of the market (why? Don't we all think it worth paying more, not less, for ethically produced food and drink?) and offer neither enough concentration nor varietal character.

This one, however, is knockout value for money. The nose is reminiscent of Muscat – grapey, with a hint of tangerine peel. The palate, though, has more toned-down aromatics, with that lovely tangy minerality which helps to give weight and presence in the mouth, leading onto a long finish. Great with fish pie and pretty good with chorizo, so it's a good choice to have with some pre-dinner nibbles.

La Riojana Fairtrade Torrontes Chardonnay 2011 – currently £4.99 at The Co-operative

From the same producer, La Riojana, so named as they make their wines in the Argentine region of La Rioja – as you can imagine, this name gets the European Appellation Contrôlée authorities a little exercised.

If you don't want to scare the horses and would like a gentle introduction to Torrontes, then spending a fiver on this 60/40 Torrontes Chardonnay blend should be relatively painless. It still has aromas reminiscent of peaches and flowers, but the more assertive aromatics are toned down and softened by the more anonymous Chardonnay. The palate is smooth, fresh and ripe, with a slight spiciness – and it coped really well with the prawn ceviche. It would make a great party white.

Susana Balbo Zohar Torrontes 2010/11 - £11.99 single bottle price at The Vineking (branches in Reigate and Weybridge), down to £10.79 as part of a mixed case of 6; £10.99 a bottle from Hennings Wine Merchants (branches in Petworth, Pulborough and Goring-on-Sea)

Susana Balbo is one of the best winemakers in Argentina and all her wines are worth a try. This wine, though, struck me as the most food-friendly from the selection. It breezed through the prawn ceviche, stood up to the fish pie and got along swimmingly with smoked duck.

It had more weight and presence than the other two wines, with a sense of richness, despite being completely dry. The trademark floral aromatics combine with a lick of salty tang and a kick of spice on the palate. Altogether it's a class act.

The vines don't bite - but the iguana might

I've visited a fair few vineyards in my time, but a winery with a menagerie attached was a new one on me.

At Plumpton College, tucked into a fold of the South Downs just below Ditchling, you can study vine-growing and wine-making in their brand spanking new Wine Study Centre. On your way to the vineyard though, you might find yourself distracted by Tony the Hawk, or Elgar and Egor the owls, or even Iggy the Iguana (that name I may have made up, but it's the obvious choice) who are all residents in the adjoining Animal Care Centre.

As the English and Welsh wine industry grows ever larger, with around 400 vineyards currently in production, there is a burgeoning demand for a homegrown solution to training tomorrow's wine-makers and Plumpton College is meeting the need.

Wine production has been taught here since 1988, when they started out with just a few rows of vines and some demi-johns to ferment the resulting juice in. Things have moved on in the intervening years and now around 150 students are here at any one time, learning hands-on how to train, prune, spray and tend the vines; then how to ferment, rack, pump over, fine, filter age and bottle the final wines. Not to mention learning how to drive and manoeuvre a tractor, a vital skill for anyone looking to be of any help in a vineyard.

Unlike the product of most diploma courses – wads of paper, files and bumf which gather dust over the years before finally succumbing to the recycling bin – Plumpton students' labours have a very tangible, nay drinkable, result. Each year Plumton produces 15,000 bottles of wine which are all available to buy. I tried four of them on my visit and was impressed by the fact that all were not just drinkable, but of a commercial standard. Their biggest customer is a seafood restaurant in nearby Brighton.

And you can try them too, to judge for yourselves whether the future of English winemaking is in good hands. Waitrose stocks two of Plumpton's wines: their sparkling white and rosé.

Plumpton Estate, “The Dean” Brut NV - £18.99 at waitrosewine.com

Plumpton Estate, “The Dean” Blush Brut NV - £18.99 at waitrosewine.com

As with most pink fizz, this is made by adding a small amount of red wine, made from Plumpton's own pinot noir grapes, to their regular white sparkling wine. Although non vintage, this is based on the 2008 vintage. The colour is a pale smoked salmon rather than pink and it has an invitingly creamy nose. It might be maturing faster than it ought to, but it's a great pleasure to drink now with plenty of sherbetty acidity and an elegant finish that leaves you wanting another sip.

As well as teaching the next generation of UK (and Indian and Scandinavian) winemakers, Plumpton is also setting up a Research Centre, which will help to support the UK winemaking industry by undertaking scientific research into areas that mean little or nothing to wine drinkers, but are of intense interest to winemakers. I learned, for example, that English chardonnay must (juice) destined for sparkling wine has much greater “foamability” than its French counterpart in Champagne. Who knew? 

Plumpton College is generally not open for casual visitors, but you can find out about their various courses for those interested in learning about the practical and business side of wine on their website: www.plumpton.ac.uk. But be careful, you could find yourself getting distracted by the wildlife...

A few miles up the A23 from the college is Bolney Estate, an English wine success story, whose winemaker, Sam Linton, is herself a graduate of Plumpton. Bolney, then known as Bookers Vineyard, began making wine back in 1972, from just 3 acres of vines. Now they have over 39 acres under vine and plan to produce over 200,000 bottles of wine in 2012.

Sam, daughter of the owner and founder Rodney, has a gift for making delicious red wines – always tricky in our really too-cool climate – and consistently makes one of the country's best pinot noirs. Her sparkling wines are pretty good too.

Here are my favourites from the range:

Cuvée Rosé 2008 - £23.99 from Bolney

100% pinot noir traditional (ie same as Champagne) method sparkling wine. There's a lovely leafy and floral lift to the strawberries and cream nose and the palate has plenty of juicy red fruit.

Cuvée Noir 2009 - £19.99 from Bolney

You might have come across rather thick, treacly sparkling red shiraz before. This is a red wine and it is sparkling, but the Bolney wine is altogether a different beast from those Australian heavyweights, made from Dornfelder grapes. It manages to combine light, juicy frivolity with more serious wine characters and has a delicious hint of cocoa bitterness on the finish which makes it food friendly – great for barbecues, says Sam.

Waitrose also stock Bolney's Dark Harvest red blend, which is a very accomplished English wine. It's a soft and spicy, slightly earthy mouthful of blackberryish fruit. £8.99 at waitrosewine.com

To sample and buy the full range of Bolney Estate wines, you'll need to take a trip down the A23 to the vineyard, where they run tours and tastings every day except Sunday. Find out more via their website on: www.bolneywineestate.co.uk.

Vinho Verde: not just white and certainly not green

We all think we know what to expect from Vinho Verde. It's a white wine from northern Portugal that is bracing in its acidity, very light bodied and usually with a hint of soluble aspirin spritz about it.

Well you and I both know that this would be a very short article if that were the case. I would simply usher you onto the next page with a “Move along people, nothing to see here...”

Therefore it will come as no surprise whatsoever that there is more to Vinho Verde than something that resembles lightly alcoholic, slightly flat mineral water.

For a start, Vinho Verde can be red (or rosé, or indeed sparkling). The name refers to the region, rather than describing the wine. So it's the vast expanse of verdant, not to say rain-soaked, vineyards in this chunk of northwest Portugal which are green, rather than any of the wines which emanate from them.

The vine in its natural state originally evolved to scramble up trees, and in Vinho Verde vines were traditionally allowed to grow this way, either twining through branches or along wires strung between the trees. This makes pruning the vines and picking the grapes a time-consuming – and even dangerous – process. You certainly need a head for heights. And a very long ladder.

Most vines nowadays are more commonly trained along wires at a more picker-friendly height, so the vineyards look much like any other across the world. The wines themselves, however, maintain a delightful individuality, with a style all of their own. Not least among their charms is a tendency to low alcohol – many of these wines are just 11 or 11.5% - perfect for a lunchtime glass.

Traditional styles of Vinho Verde

Quinta da Aveleda 2010 - £7.25 from www.drinkfinder.co.uk

A classic mix of traditional varieties make up this textbook example of white Vinho Verde: Loureiro, Trajadura and Alvarinho. It has a mineral, iodine nose, redolent of the sea. There is a definite spritz on the palate and very crisp acidity, but plenty of flavour too and a touch of soluble aspirin on the finish. Very fresh, very individual.

Quinta da Lixa 2010 - £8.99 from www.averys.com

In a similar vein to the Aveleda, though it has a softer feel in the mouth. There is less driving acidity and rather more fruit, making for a gentler and less uncompromising wine.

Modern styles

Quinta de Gomariz 2010 - £9.99 (mixed case price) from The Wine Reserve in Cobham

Rather than blending, this producer makes several wines, each made from a single traditional variety. The Wine Reserve stocks their Loureiro, which has an intensely floral scent, verging on violets. The palate has Vinho Verde's hallmark crisp acidity, citrussy fruit - and only 11.5% alcohol. While you're there, you might be talked into trying the Gomariz rosé and red, which they also stock.

If you get the chance, look out this producer's single varietal Avesso, a variety that you'll rarely see unblended. The nose is bracing, like a breath of sea air. The palate has a lovely weight of rich, citrus fruit, with a hint of citrus pith bitterness too.

Quinta do Soalheiro 2010 - £13.95 from The Wine Society

Fourteen quid for a Vinho Verde? Here's a quick lesson in wine geography and how to spot a bargain. Just across Portugal's northern border is the Spanish region of Galicia, which is renowned for its white wines made from the Albariño grape. Famously a seafood wine par excellence, you'll be lucky to find a good one for under £15 in this country.

The same variety, back in Portugal, is known as Alvarinho and is a familiar grape in many a Vinho Verde blend. Some producers are now wanting to highlight the star qualities of the variety by making a pure Alvarinho Vinho Verde – but pound for pound, you get a lot more quality for your money on the Portuguese side of the border.

The Soalheiro has a pure, mineral nose. The palate is quite weighty and there is not even a hint of spritz. What impresses most is that it manages to strike a wonderful balance between the abundant ripe fruit and lip-smacking freshness, making for a serious, yet lively wine: a beguiling combination.

For daredevils

Afros 2010 - £8.82 from Les Caves de Pyrène, Guildford

A red Vinho Verde (I did promise they existed) which will certainly pique the interest of adventurous wine lovers. It's an uncompromising sort of wine, which has to be experienced – though I can't promise that most people will enjoy it. The dark-fleshed Vinhão grapes make for an intensely-coloured, deep purple-to-ruby wine. There's an initial big hit of full-on, sour fruit, the tannins are low, but there is something very green and grippy at the back of the palate. Tight acidity provides the structure and a slightly unexpected (but pleasant) perfume emerges on the finish. You might not be surprised to know that this wine is biodynamic. Caves de Pyrène also stock Afros' rather more mainstream white Vinho Verde.

Doesn't sound like your cup of tea? Come on, it's only a bottle of wine and wouldn't life be boring if they all tasted the same?

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.

Spain: sun, sea and...sherry

Jerez, pronounced Haireth, is a vibrant white town shimmering in the heat of the plains of El Andalus and epitomizes all things that conjure up the earthy image of the heart of Spain. It is here that you find The Royal Equestrian School of Art with its magnificent Lipizzaner “dancing” war horses. As if this was not reason enough to travel to Jerez de la Frontera it is here too that you can tour (and taste) at the Sherry bodegas from the ancient to the modern state of the art.

After the incredible spectacle and emotions engendered by the skill and beauty of the Andalusian dressage, and the historical knowledge gained from the tour of the bodegas, escape up to the bars of the “mountain”-top Arcos de la Frontera. Here watch the soaring birds of prey silhouetted again the pink sky as the sun sinks and join the locals for jamòn, cheese and wine to contemplate the simple wonders of the world.

Alternatively, go to your local wine merchant or supermarket and buy a little bit of Spanish magic to warm the cockles of your heart as you shiver around the coals of your British barbeque. Here are our suggestions to tempt you to explore Spanish wines, beyond the realms of Rioja:

Verd Albera 2010, Celler Marti Fabra - £7.95 from The Wine Society, £11.99 from the Vineking (Reigate, Weybridge and Horley)

A bunch of French interlopers (Grenache blanc, Muscat, Grenache gris and Chardonnay) have tiptoed across the border to the far northern Spanish region of Empordà. That cocktail of varieties makes for interesting texture and a fresh, herbal quality – but it has enough weight of fruit to avoid being too skinny.

Gran Tesoro Garnacha 2010, Bodegas Borsao, Campo de Borja - £4.29 at Tesco

This is consistently one of Spain's most reliably good value wines. It's rather rustically built, but has plenty of dark fruit, with a rasp of tannin and 13.5% alcohol. Fine and dandy for a mid-week night in – with food.

Altos de la Guardia Reserva 2005 Altos de Rioja - £12.50 Laithwaites Wine

OK, OK, here's a Rioja to keep you happy. Plenty of juicy berry fruits with a tomato leaf edge which combine to provide plenty of refreshment. Very decent Rioja for the price.

Monasterio de Santa Cruz 2010 Artiga & Fustel, Tarragona £6.99 Laithwaites Wine

Mostly Monastrell (aka Mourvèdre in France) with 20% of Rioja's hallmark variety, Tempranillo. This shows how much wine you can get for your money when you look beyond the big name regions. Masses of dark, blueberry and blackberry fruit and inky, peppery spice.

Tinto Figuero 4 Roble 2009 Viñedos y Bodegas García Figuero, Ribera del Duero - £12.99 Old Butcher's Wine Cellar (Cookham, Berkshire)

The cult status of wines like Vega Sicilia has helped to haul up prices in Ribera del Duero, so this wine represents good value for the region. Very attractive black fruit aromas lead onto a palate of sweet n' sour fruit and softish tannins. Not a shouty wine, but a satisfying one to unwind with.

Lest we forget....sherry

It's not fashionable, it's not new – but none the worse for that.

One of the problems people have with sherry is that they don't quite view it as wine. And yes, it is fortified, but the lightest, driest sherries, Fino and Manzanilla, will be 15% alcohol – hardly more than a new world Sauvignon Blanc.

To help you get in the swing of sipping sherry as you eat, here's some pithy Jerezano food and wine matching advice: if it swims, drink Fino; if it flies, drink Amontillado; if it runs, drink Oloroso. Simples.

But what, you may well enquire, about that British favourite of sherries, sometimes known as Auntie's tipple - the sherry that we most associate with Christmas, Cream Sherry? Should we just ignore this secretly admired drink until log fires are burning? Certainly not. Amuse yourselves with these:

Frontera

A southern Spanish cocktail. If Pimm's is THE drink for June, then this is THE drink for August. Cream Sherry, tonic water, sprig of mint, slithered zest of orange and lemon. Any quantities to your own taste. Serve on lots of ice.

Or, steep a few raisins and almonds in sherry and use in or on ice cream; especially good with dark chocolate; Devilled barbeque sauce is improved beyond compare with a generous slug of this versatile wine. Finally, of course, you can drink it on its own, chilled or room temperature around your blazing barbeque and dream of the sunny climes from whence it came!

Waitrose's Solera Jerezana Rich Cream Sherry, £8.39 will provide the perfect ingredient for all these delights.

But in summer, we should be craving dry sherries, so here are some suggestions to try.

Tio Pepe Fino Palomino, Gonzalez Byass, £9.49, widely available

A benchmark Fino that is as bracing as a dip in the Channel. The epitome of dry and the king of aperitifs. Serve it really cold, with jamòn iberico, chorizo, prawns and the like. And treat it like a normal white wine, so keep it in the fridge and finish it within 2-3 days. Please don't let it languish on the sideboard until Christmas.

Waitrose Solera Jerezana Dry Amontillado, £8.39

Don't turn your nose up at supermarket own label sherries – these guys know what they're doing and all of Waitrose's sherries are sourced from the eminent Emilio Lustau, yet are ridiculously underpriced. Still in the realms of dry (in fact all sherry starts out dry, sweet sherries have sweet wine added to them) this is all nuts, caramel and tangerine marmalade. Try following the food and wine matching advice and serve it with the first grouse of the season on the Glorious Twelfth.

If you'd like to explore more in the world of sherry, then have a read of Heather D's blog on a whole range of sherries: http://heatherdougherty.blogspot.com/2011/07/if-it-swims-serve-fino.html

Ole!