Morrisons The Best Muscadet Sevre et Maine sur Lie

If you're looking for a crisp dry wine to drink with seafood muscadet fits the bill perfectly.

It comes, as you may know, from the Loire region of France where it's consumed - in quantity - with the local oysters and other shellfish in the classic plateau de fruits de mer. The description 'sur lie' means the wine is left on its lees - the remains of the yeast that is left after fermentation which adds extra texture and a slightly nutty taste.

These days it's considerably cheaper than more fashionable albarino especially when it's on special offer - as it is in Morrisons at the moment - at a bargainous £6.50 rather than the usual £8 (which is by no means greedy for a well made wine of this quality. )

In a completely different register I also like Morrisons The Best Western Australia Cabernet Sauvignon which sells for £7.25. Western Australia produces a more restrained elegant style of cabernet than south Australia but in this case still it's still a powerful 14%. It would be good with both a barbecue or a burger.

Wine of the week: Melonix 2014

One of the best ways to make new wine discoveries is to experiment with wines by the glass. And that is how I found Melonix, a fabulous wine from biodynamic Loire producer Domaines Jo Landron at the newly opened Frenchie in Covent Garden yesterday.

Because it mentions the grape on the bottle it can’t be labelled muscadet (for heaven’s sake!) so it’s classified as vin de France

According to Doug Wregg of importer Les Caves de Pyrène* “grapes are harvested by hand (unusual in the region), fermentation with wild yeasts (very unusual), no chaptalisation, no SO2 added, it undergoes a natural malolactic (very unusual) and no sulphur is added even at bottling. It breaks all the rules.” In Landron’s own words he sees it as ‘a rustic wine, untamed and free.”

It sailed effortlessly through a rich dish of hot smoked trout with whey and was so delicious I treated myself to a second glass, despite resolving to have only one at lunchtime. (Well, it is only 12%!) I can imagine it being great with sashimi and other raw fish dishes as well as the obvious suspects of oysters and mussels.

Apparently it benefits from opening ahead as many natural wines do. The bottle I tried - which incidentally was on the full list not the wines by the glass selection (it’s always worth taking a look at the longer list) - already had a glass taken out of it so could have been open since the previous day but was still wonderfully pure and intense. Natural wine sceptics take note!

*Who sell it for £14.20