CVNE Rioja Crianza 2006, Spain (£7.99 Majestic, Booths, www.everywine.co.uk, Wimbledon Wine Cellar) Bouncy pippy berry and bramble – raspberries, loganberries – with a spicy edge, a touch of vanilla rather than a huge dollop, fresh, sappy, tangy finish. Nice wine, tastes of modern Rioja, but also a good refreshing summer red. B+
François Lurton Barco Negro Douro Tinto 2007, Portugal (~£10) Heady, rich warm dark fruit, blackcurrants and blackberry, with earthy overtones, yet despite its brawn, remains fresh, and has a gentle floral/spicy edge. S-
Onda Nova Syrah 2007, Algarve (£9.99 www.mollybrownswinelist.co.uk) A full-flavoured, fleshy youngster that speaks of a warm climate with its plummy dark chocolate flavours, but which never goes overripe and remains fresh. Nice meaty finish and potential to develop further. B+
Quinta da Lagoalva de Cima Tinto 2008, VR Tejo (£8.40 Clark Foyster) Smooth, easy drinking red – too smooth? There’s soft strawberry and plum fruit, but the flavours are slightly muddied by a confected vanilla edge. B-
Quinta da Lagoalva de Cima Tinto Reserva 2008, VR Tejo (£10.90 Clark Foyster) More of that vanilla, but here it’s in balance with the black cherry, blackcurrant and redcurrant flavours, and there’s an intriguing mineral twist to the finish. Good but not great. B(+)
A couple of wines from a well-known (in the UK at least) singer’s estate in the Algarve plus a rather unusual sweet wine from the Ribatejo – or Tejo, as we should now be calling it.
Onda Nova Verdelho 2008, Algarve (£9.99 www.mollybrownswinelist.co.uk ) Clean, fresh, tight peach, citrus peel and gritty pearskin character with a touch of brine, ripe but still refreshing, wears its 14% alcohol well. B(+)
Onda Nova Syrah Rosé 2008, Algarve (£9.99 www.mollybrownswinelist.co.uk ) Bouncy rosé, packed with strawberry (fresh and tinned) flavours, fleshy and ripe but still dry, with an honest lively finish. B
Quinta da Lagoalva de Cima Late Harvest 2008, Ribatejo (N/A in UK – Clark Foyster are Lagoalva’s importers) A touch of volatility (think nail varnish), then oodles of fruit – peach, pear, apricot, grapefruit, elderflower, orange marmalade – but there’s also a less ripe, almost smoky edge that seems slightly at odds with the lusher sweeter side of the wine. Overall though, pretty tasty. B+ (see notes on the 1995 here)
La Cuvée Mythique Blanc des Vignerons de la Mediterranée 2008, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France (£7.99 The Co-op – down to £3.99 10th Feb – 1st Mar) (Would love to give a link to the two Cuvée Mythique wines, but in classic French fashion, there’s no obvious web site…) Nice combination of aromatic complexity, fleshy fruit and minerally restraint. Peach, waxy pearskin, cream and nut kernel all bound up in a taut stony overcoat. Lots going on here but never in-yer-face, very moreish. B+
Paul Mas Estate Viognier 2009, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France (£8.99 Majestic – £5.99 if you buy two 2nd Feb-26th Apr)
(Even here, the web site is poor, and neither this nor the red seem to feature at www.paulmas.com)
Proper plump, plush Viognier, with lush peaches and cream fruit, but there’s also some freshness and tension here, plenty of fruit and flavour, but finish reined in by zesty acidity. B+
La Cuvée Mythique Rouge des Vignerons de la Mediterranée 2008, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France (£7.99 The Co-op – down to £3.99 10th Feb – 1st Mar) Classic southern French red, all meaty, herby intensity with gentle, mature plummy berry and raisin fruit encased in a refreshing white-peppery structure, rustic in the best sense of the word. B+
Paul Mas Estate Syrah/Viognier 2008, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France (£8.99 Majestic – £6.49 if you buy two 2nd Feb–26thApr)
Big, rich roasted meat aromas, then bold berry, blackcurrant and orange peel character comes through, along with a ferrous edge, young, wild wine with a promising future. S
Australia Day + 1, so a few hangers-on from the haggis adventure, plus a moody but not all that magnificent Italian…
Jacobs Creek Grenache Shiraz 2008, South Eastern Australia (£5.99 Tesco, Asda, Ocado) Quite light, almost refreshing, sweet raspberry aroma and flavour, slightly jammy, but then the more earthy gravitas of Shiraz comes through. Good, easy commercial style, almost chillable. B
Peter Lehmann Layers Red 2008, Barossa, Australia (£10.50 SWIG) Liquorice and earth, slightly jammy dodger-like sweetness, big, quite fleshy, concentrated and juicy, and the blackberry and plum fruit isn’t overripe, but seems not to be quite sure what it wants to achieve. B
Wyndham Estate George Wyndham Founder’s Reserve Shiraz 2005, South Australia (£9.99 Majestic) Big, pungent, peppery, inky, has a pleasing black fruit and herb intensity, but there’s a slightly ‘processed’ feel to it, along with some vanilla that detracts from that nice fruit. But a decent glug all the same. B(+)
Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino 2007, Tuscany, Italy (£15.07 Bibendum – sale price from Feb 2nd £7.82) Vague brown sugar, black cherry and Cola, touches of vanilla and bayleaf, but ultimately quite simple with not much in the way of aroma, and a finish that’s just that bit too dry and charmless – too controlled. B-
Cantina Tramin Lagrein 2008, Alto Adige, Italy (£11.49 Hallgarten Druitt, www.wineman.co.uk, www.everywine.co.uk) Refreshing, genuinely light-to-medium-bodied red, almost Dolcetto-like, with crunchy, earthy black fruit (especially cherry) and fresh, sausage-friendly finish. B+
The Society’s Exhibition Chianti Classico 2007, Tuscany, Italy (£11.95 The Wine Society) Modern and fresh, but has this lovely velvety Morello cherry, cherry kernels and blackcurrant, quite full but fragrant, almost violet-like edge, smooth, but with structure of slightly grainy tannins and fresh acidity. S(+)
Château Fabre Gasparets Corbières-Boutenac 2005, Languedoc, France (£9.50 The Real Wine Company) The strawberry-rich flesh of Grenache, the plummy floral edge of Syrah and the wild meatiness of Mourvèdre all bound together by the held together by the peppery/stalky/spicy character of ripe (but not raisinny) Carignan. S-
Ferngrove Shiraz 2007, Frankland River, Western Australia (~£9.50 Seckford Agencies) Quite full-bodied but it’s the fresh berry and blackcurrant fruit that shines through. Add in tinges of violets, liquorice and vanilla and you have a very tasty wine for drinking any time over the next three years. S(-)
Leaping Lizard Cabernet Merlot 2007, Western Australia (£7.99-£8.50 Seckford Agencies) Vibrant, crunchy blackcurrant nose, then slightly pippy blackberry flavours, with a tar-like streak, easy fleshy wine, quite powerful and ripe but finishes dry. B
Ferngrove ‘Symbols’ Cabernet Merlot 2008, Frankland River, Australia (£8.99-£9.50 Seckford Agencies) Fresher and tangier than the Leaping Lizard, with fine cassis, black cherry and leafy Cabernet edges joined by an oily richness, intense, but never aggressive. S-
Yalumba The Scribbler Cabernet/Shiraz 2007, Barossa, Australia (£9.99 Oddbins, Noel Young) Jovial forward style, ripe and rounded, with the sweet edge of plump Shiraz and the vanilla sheen of (American?) oak coming through. Good meaty finish, tasty and honest, but not hugely complex. B+
Casillero del Diablo Reserva Privada Cabernet/Syrah 2007, Maipo Valley, Chile (£8.99 Asda) Classic Chilean dusty blackcurrant pastille, intense but quite angular – needs sexing up. B(-)
Brown Brothers Patricia Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, Victoria, Australia (£22.99 Christopher Piper, www.everywine.co.uk) Corked! Bugger.
Houghton The Bandit Shiraz/Tempranillo 2008, Western Australia (£8.99 – available from Spring 2010) Young but not disturbingly so, with bright strawberry, blackcurrant and jammy dodger fruit, a touch of reduction and hints of mint and milk chocolate. B(+)
D’Arenberg “d’Arry’s Original” Shiraz Grenache 2006, McLaren Vale, South Australia (£9.95-£12.99 The Wine Society, Oddbins, Bibendum) Lovely lush sweet allure, ripe, plump, plummy fruit, rounded and easy to drink with extra interest provided by earthy mineral and iron notes. S-
Jim Barry The McRae Wood Shiraz 2005, Clare Valley, South Australia (~£22.50 winedirect.co.uk) A weighty giant, initially a tad minty but then the voluptuous black fruit washes over you. Add in notes of bread dough and licorice, and a leathery meaty finish, and you have wine that, while not refined, is certainly complex, warm-hearted and honest. S(+)
Château Pech-Redon ‘Les Cades’ Coteaux du Languedoc La Clape 2008, France (£7.99 The Real Wine Company) 30% Cinsault, 30% Carignan, 20% Syrah, 10% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre
Sappy, white pepper, forest fruits like brambles and blackcurrants, lovely garrigue herbs, fresh and vibrant, some liquorice, super red, ripe yet refreshing, perfect sausage wine. S-
Château d’Or et de Gueules ‘Les Cimels’ Costières de Nimes 2006, Rhône, France (£8.99 The Real Wine Company) Syrah (40%), Carignan (40%) and Grenache (20%)
Mature and meaty red, some brown sugar and raisin, more old-fashioned and mellow than the Pech-Redon, unoaked, classic winter warmer for cassoulet and other hearty dishes. B+
La Châsse du Pape Shiraz/Grenache Vin de Pays de Vaucluse 2007, Rhône, France (£6.98 Asda – down to £4 17 Nov- 7 Dec)
Ripe, friendly, gentle plummy style, some stalky/spicy notes, a touch of toasty oak, maybe a touch thin, but very friendly style. B(-)
Quinta do Noval Labrador 2007, Vinho Regional Duriense, Portugal (100% Syrah named in honour of the winemaker’s dog) Reduced blackcurrant, then an almost metallic, herby edge emerges. Spicy, toasty oak edges, brooding style, ginger biscuits and brown sugar, bags of fruit, maybe a little short – these are very young vines after all – but very interesting debut. S-
Circumstance Shiraz 2007, Stellenbosch, South Africa (£15.20 The Vineyard, Amps Fine Wines, D Byrne) Big plush, savoury style, has some of the SA baked edge, along with some chocolate wafer-y oak, but there’s also a gentler plum, orange peel and berry edge, again, feels like a young vine cuvée, with the wine starting well, but the finish, while clean and dry, maybe lacks a little polish. B(+)
