Three great value, easy to find wines
Back in March, I published my Top Ten Supermarket Wines list (here). I'm currently tasting three excellent wines that should be added to this list. As a wine journalist I'm always delighted to find wines that I can recommend to people that they can actually find and buy without too much trouble.
Asda Extra Special Shiraz 2008 Vin de Pays d’Oc, France
Here’s a wine that should give a lot of hope to France’s wine industry. It’s affordable, delicious, modern and characterful. Jean Claude Mas of Domaines Paul Mas is the man behind it, and everything he is touching seems to turn to gold. It’s deep coloured, with spicy dark fruits on the nose and has a lovely savoury, tarry, earthy complexity. The palate shows ripe, sweet blackberry and plum fruit with a nice spicy bite and some grippy tannins brilliantly countering the sweet fruit. With its richness this will appeal to lovers of Australian Shiraz, but with its savouriness and definition it will win over those who like the old world style. Brilliantly judged. 88/100 (£6.07 Asda, 13.5% alcohol)
Vinalba Reserva Malbec 2007 Mendoza, Argentina
14.5% alcohol. This is the follow-on vintage to the hugely successful 2006 that sold out fast. Deep coloured. This has a full-on nose with sweet dark cherry and blackberry fruit, with a spicy depth to it and hints of smoke and tar. The palate is dense, dark and sweet, but has a lovely spicy, savoury character and good tannic structure which helps keep things in balance. It has some jammy, berryish sweetness, as well as a bit of chocolatey richness, but there's savouriness, too. A lovely wine. 89/100 (£9.99 Majestic, but will likely be on multibuy discount -stock will be in by July)
Dr L Riesling 2008 Mosel, Germany
8.5% alcohol. Pale in colour, this has a lovely light lemony, herby nose. The palate is bright and fruity with lemon and grapefruit character, a hint of apples, and good acidity. There's a hint of sweetness, too, but overall this is really crisp and bright with a nice minerality. Great value – a perfect summer wine. 88/100 (£6.99 Asda, Sainsbury's, Majestic)
Here’s a wine that should give a lot of hope to France’s wine industry. It’s affordable, delicious, modern and characterful. Jean Claude Mas of Domaines Paul Mas is the man behind it, and everything he is touching seems to turn to gold. It’s deep coloured, with spicy dark fruits on the nose and has a lovely savoury, tarry, earthy complexity. The palate shows ripe, sweet blackberry and plum fruit with a nice spicy bite and some grippy tannins brilliantly countering the sweet fruit. With its richness this will appeal to lovers of Australian Shiraz, but with its savouriness and definition it will win over those who like the old world style. Brilliantly judged. 88/100 (£6.07 Asda, 13.5% alcohol)
Vinalba Reserva Malbec 2007 Mendoza, Argentina
14.5% alcohol. This is the follow-on vintage to the hugely successful 2006 that sold out fast. Deep coloured. This has a full-on nose with sweet dark cherry and blackberry fruit, with a spicy depth to it and hints of smoke and tar. The palate is dense, dark and sweet, but has a lovely spicy, savoury character and good tannic structure which helps keep things in balance. It has some jammy, berryish sweetness, as well as a bit of chocolatey richness, but there's savouriness, too. A lovely wine. 89/100 (£9.99 Majestic, but will likely be on multibuy discount -stock will be in by July)
Dr L Riesling 2008 Mosel, Germany
8.5% alcohol. Pale in colour, this has a lovely light lemony, herby nose. The palate is bright and fruity with lemon and grapefruit character, a hint of apples, and good acidity. There's a hint of sweetness, too, but overall this is really crisp and bright with a nice minerality. Great value – a perfect summer wine. 88/100 (£6.99 Asda, Sainsbury's, Majestic)
posted by Jamie @ 9:27 PM
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2 Comments:
I find it quite funny that the French are so terrible at marketing that they now identify their Syrah's as Shiraz. On the label!!!
Mr. Everitt, that hardly seems a fair or particularly insightful attribution of French 'terrible marketing'. This is obviously marketed directly to Britiain, and the producer's labelling of Syrah or Shiraz also communicates to the consumer a chosen wine style. It would be sad if only the French didn't have the option to do this.
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