JANE MACQUITTY chooses her 25 favourite wines under 8 this week as part of her Top 100 Summer Wines series. The star white is 2004 Mcon-Milly-Lamartine, Vieilles Vignes, Christophe Cordier, France (8.99 or buy two for 7.99 each until 9 June; Majestic), and the star red is 2003 Seigneurs d'Aiguilhe, Ctes de Castillon, France (7.99; Waitrose).
Read more...'Ros isn't naff any more and it's perfectly acceptable for the alpha male to be seen in the pink,' proclaims ANTHONY ROSE. Retailers have expanded their ranges to meet an increase in demand for ros from UK wine drinkers, with Tesco doubling its ros listings from 15 to 30 following a 54% growth in sales between 2003 and 2004, he notes, and the UK wine drinker has 'moved on from cloying sweet stuff to crisper, dry styles.' Top bargains on offer include: Asda Ros d'Anjou (2.81); 2004 Big Frank's Ros, Vin de Pays d'Oc (3.99; Sainsbury's); 2004 Laurent Miquel Cte Sauvage Dry Ros Coteaux du Languedoc (3.99; Somerfield); and 2004 Domaine de Pellehaut Vin de Pays des Ctes de Gascogne (4.494.99; Booths, Waitrose).
Read more...JONATHAN BRACEY-GIBBON picks the best party wines, including 2003 Kendermann Dry Riesling (15.99/3l box; Waitrose); 2004 Corbett Canyon Grenache Ros (2.84; Tesco); and 2004 Cuve de Richard Vin de Pays de l'Aude (3.05; Majestic).
Read more...Likewise, GILES KIME's New Zealand Sauvie selection includes 2004 Asda Marlborough (5.48); 2004 Jackson Estate (8.99; Waitrose); and 2004 Sanctuary (6.99; Sainsbury's).
Read more...JOANNA SIMON's pick of Sauvignon Blancs includes 2004 Buitenverwachting Sauvignon Blanc (7.99; Majestic); 2004 Dashwood Sauvignon (7.59; Oddbins); and 2004 Alta Tierra Sauvignon/Semillon (7.65; Laithwaites).
Read more...JONATHAN RAY's recommendations include 2003 Palma Real, Rueda (5.85; Jeroboams); 2002 Las Almenas, Utiel-Requena (5.49; Marks & Spencer); and 2003 Otto Bestu Tinto, Somontano (6.95; Great Western Wine).
Read more...Angered by the price of a glass of house Champagne in most London restaurants, RICHARD EHRLICH looks for alternatives. 'My top choice will always be a bone-dry Fino or Manzanilla Sherry, whose mouth-watering acidity gets the salivary glands racing just as efficiently as fizz,' he says. He would also opt for a glass of vermouth with a touch of sparkling water, and he is 'edging towards' a glass of dry cider, particularly Sheppy's Dabinett Cider (1.59/500ml; Booths).
Read more...As a judge for the annual Andr Simon book awards, RICHARD EHRLICH names a few of his favourites, including Cognac by Nicholas Faith (20; Mitchell Beazley): 'It ranges so widely through history, politics and economics that you can never take another sip without thinking about Cognac in a more globally enlightened way. Faith loves Cognac as much as any drinker on the planet, but he is not a purist. He likes to mix the stuff when it's appropriate, either in cocktails or with a mixer - but not tonic, which he and I both consider to be one mixer with which the amber nectar is totally unsuitable.'
Read more...One of TIM ATKIN MW's golden rules is never to trust a wine that you've enjoyed on holiday: 'The most obvious example is retsina, a resin-flavoured wine that has fuelled more hangovers than the Munich Beer Festival.' He admits that until recently he would have included ross in the same category, but thanks to a new-found 'quality and diversity', ros sales in the UK have shot up 60% in the past two years. Atkin says that modern ross are 'a lot better made than the pallid, over-cropped fare we used to drink', and that most styles these days are 'dry, fruity and extremely good with food'.
Read more...To mark English Wine Week, MATTHEW JUKES picks his favourite home-grown fizzes, including 1996 Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs (19; selected Waitrose); 2001 RidgeView Bloomsbury Cuve Merret (14.99; Waitrose); and 2002 Camel Valley 'Cornwall' Brut (14.9916.75; selected Waitrose, Wadebridge Wines).
Read more...How soon is too soon to drink a bottle of vintage Port, wonders JANCIS ROBINSON MW. She says that there is always an assumption that Ports 'start to come into their own from about 20 years old', but Paul Symington tells her that the British need to be 'more adventurous', and he berates the Brits for 'sneering' at Americans who serve vintage Port young. Robinson, who puts 2003 Fonseca and Quinta do Portal as top of her 2003 list, adds: 'Vintage Port, while being impressively concentrated, extremely alcoholic, pretty tannic and deeply coloured, is very sweet. I cannot imagine glugging a bottle of Port with any main course in my culinary vocabulary, and the modern wine drinker seems to have a strange aversion to opening a bottle of something grand and sweet at the end of a meal.'
Read more...Completing her round-up of 2004 Bordeaux tasting, JANCIS ROBINSON MW recommends her pick of dry and sweet white wines. She says that 2004's prolonged growing season, unplagued by tropical temperatures, together with increasing skill in white winemaking, has resulted in some delicious dry white Bordeaux which combine wonderful freshness with real intensity of flavour'. On the sweet side, she says that the vintage lacks consistency, and the weight of the past couple of years. However, most wines display very refreshing acidity', and a good level' of botrytis.
Read more...Finding the right occasion to crack open a bottle of 1995 Masi La Mezzanella Recioto della Valpolicella, which she bought six years ago for her boyfriend, 'proved harder than you might think', says VICTORIA MOORE. 'If I had known more about wine six years ago I wouldn't have chosen something that was not dry,' she admits. The recioto, drunk with cheese, was 'rich, bittersweet and dried fruity' but also 'like cough mixture plus'. The moral of the tale, she concludes, is: 'Do buy the odd bottle to save for a rainy day; do seek advice from a local wine merchant; and, if you're making a bigger outlay than usual, make sure it's on a style of wine you enjoy.'
Read more...Easy-drinking whites are the order of the day, says GILES KIME. He opts for 2004 Sainsbury's Classic Selection Muscadet (4.99): 'Even those with a deep-seated prejudice against Muscadet would find it hard to deny the lightly honeyed charms of this thirst-quenching white.' Next up is 2004 Lizards of Oz Reserve Viognier (5.97; Asda), 'a crisp white from the Clare Valley with an apricot-like freshness'. Finally, he picks 2003 Gavi Madonnina Araldica (6.99; Waitrose), a 'delightful wine that is vibrant and citrussy without being overpowering'.
Read more...With summer on its way, JANE MACQUITTY picks her favourite summer drinks, and also recommends 2004 Spy Mountain Sauvignon Blanc (down 3 to 4.99 until 31 May; Sainsbury's); 2003 Misiones de Rengo Carmenre (down 1.50 to 3.49 until 17 May; Somerfield); and 2003 Warwick Estate Chardonnay (8.99; Waitrose).
Read more...RICHARD EHRLICH is convinced that's it's spring: firstly, the Chelsea Flower Show kicks off in a week's time; secondly, 'G&Ts are back'; and, finally, the days are getting longer, 'which means more time to be outside drinking delicious cocktails'. Ehrlich recommends Fevertree Tonic for his G&Ts (1.30/200ml, call 020 7349 4922 for stockists), describing it as 'fresh, clean, and complex'.
Read more...JANCIS ROBINSON MW reports back from Bordeaux, and believes that the best reds will make the wine lovers of the world fall in love with tannin again'. The great thing about the tannins in the most successful 2004 red Bordeaux is that they are not bitter or rasping but refreshing. They are not the dry, obtrusive sort that characterised so many wines made in the drought year of 2003, nor the green, underripe ones that plague the least successful 2002s.' Robinson already rates the 2004 offerings from Chteaux Latour and Margaux as excellent', with honourable mentions to Cheval Blanc, Haut-Brion, Mouton and Palmer. She adds: Many winemakers the world over, and particularly in the Americas, seem scared of tannins. Perhaps the superb quality of the best Bordeaux 2004 tannins may encourage some of these producers to return to picking the grapes when a little less ripe so that the tannins are perceptible, possibly refreshing, and alcohol levels are less embarrassingly high.'
Read more...Fed up with the anodyne nature of certain wines and wine labels 'great with red meats'; 'made from specially selected red grapes' VICTORIA MOORE is delighted to discover a wine from Jean-Luc Matha ('a winemaker who resembles a character from an Asterix cartoon'), 2002 Le Vieux Porche, Cuve Lairis Marcillac (6.95; Les Caves de Pyrene). Made with the Fer Servadou grape variety, 'its high acidity makes it very refreshing, especially for a red, it has a lovely, rustic fullness of fruit, and underlying all that is a sort of twitching minerality'.
Read more...In a similar vein, JOANNA SIMON encourages her readers to be more adventurous with Chilean wine, with new varieties such as Pinot Noir and Riesling and new areas like the Limar and Elqui valleys making waves. She recommends 2004 Concha y Toro Winemaker's Lot Syrah (6.99, down to 5.94 when two bottles are bought; Majestic); 2002 Tabal Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (6.99; Sainsbury's); and 2004 Cono Sur Viognier (4.99; Majestic, Somerfield).
Read more...'Antioxidant-rich' South American wines get the JONATHAN BRACEY-GIBBON treatment this week. He picks 2003 Terrazas de los Andes Malbec (9.49; Selfridges); 2003 Santa Rita Reserva Chardonnay (6.49; Sainsbury's); and 2002 Anakena Merlot (6.49; Threshers).
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