Wine of the week: Booths Manzanilla sherry

Chilled Manzanilla sherry is one of my favourite drinks at this time of year so I was impressed to come across this great value, full-size bottle at the Booths Christmas in July* tasting last week.

It's apparently made for them by Williams & Humbert and recently won the Manzanilla trophy at the International Wine Challenge. I also like the packaging - as you can see it comes in a lightly tinted glass bottle with a modern design. Best of all it’s only £7.75 which is an absolute steal.

If you don’t have a branch of Booths nearby, which you won’t if you live in the south of England, you can order it on Amazon Fresh where they confusingly list it as 'dry sherry red wine'. And that too is is only available in selected locations throughout the UK but if you can get hold of a bottle I certainly would.

What to pair with it? Well, almost any kind of seafood - a selection of fishy tapas would be perfect. You can see a full list of suggestions by clicking on the link below or a wider one in my ebook 101 Great Ways to Enjoy Sherry.

The best pairings for fino and manzanilla sherry

*No, I don’t want to think about it either but all the retailers showcase their ranges around now.

Wine of the week: Louis Pommery England Brut

The standard of English sparkling wine is already high but I can’t remember being as impressed by a homegrown sparkling wine for a while as I am by this bottle. Of course you could argue that it’s not really English at all as it’s made by the team at Vranken Pommery in collaboration with Hattingley Valley in Hampshire.

Pommery is the first champagne house to release an English wine. They have already planted a vineyard in Hampshire but it won’t be productive until 2024 so they have had to source the grapes for this cuvée from vineyards in Hampshire, Essex and Sussex.

It has an elegance depth and finesse that some English sparkling wines lack with a lovely fine stream of bubbles. I’d be amazed if most people could tell it from champagne which is just as well as it’s in the champagne price bracket (£40 normally). However it’s on offer currently at Ocado at £26.66, and at Lea & Sandeman for £34.95 a bottle.

The only thing it lacks is a more stylish label but at least they’re not using the ghastly WineGB logo. It’s made in England so that’s what it says on the label.

Lovely as an aperitif or with some elegant seafood like langoustine ravioli. And a lovely wine to serve at a wedding.

Planeta Alastro 2015

If you’re a fan of sauvignon blanc you’re going to love this fresh, aromatic Sicilian white from one of the island's best known wineries, Planeta.

Admittedly the weather in England right now isn’t quite as gorgeous as it was when I tasted it in a beachside restaurant in Ragusa in sweltering 34°C heat (below) but I still think you’d enjoy it

It’s based mainly on the island’s indigenous grecanico (70%) with 15% each of grillo and sauvignon blanc and is really quite sauvignon-like but with more of a zesty citrus than a gooseberry/elderflower flavour. It went brilliantly well with a vast array of different seafood dishes from salads to grilled fish.

The reason I’m recommending it at this particular moment is that Great Western Wine has it on offer, reducing it from its usual £13.75 to £9.95 which is an incredibly good deal. You get a further 10% off if you buy a case which reduces the cost per bottle to £8.96.

Alternatively you could split the order between the Alastro and Planeta’s very attractive, crisp rosé which is also on offer at £9.25. (That should appeal if you’re a Provence rosé fan.) The deal lasts until the end of the month.

I travelled to Sicily as a guest of Planeta.

Mon Vieux Hell’s Heights Sauvignon Blanc 2013

It’s always a bit hairy doing a live food and wine pairing if you haven’t had a chance to have a run-through first - and even if you have some variable, usually the food, invariably changes.

So I was hugely relieved to find the both the wine and the cheese I showed at the Three Wine Women session with Kate Goodman and Jane Dowler at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival yesterday evening struck sparks off each other.

The wine, which was supplied by local Manchester wine merchant Hanging Ditch (thankyou, guys!) was a lush sauvignon blanc from Boutinot called Mon Vieux Hell’s Heights and comes from 535 metre high vineyards in South Africa’s Banghoek district which lies between Stellenbosch and Franschoek. It’s not as herbaceous as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with more of a tropical fruit than a gooseberry character and is very rich and textured thanks to being aged in oak for 6 months and left unfined. At 14.5% it’s quite high in alcohol but doesn’t seem at all heavy or cloying. For the price (Hanging Ditch is currently offering it for £12.50 a bottle or 3 for £30) it’s a real bargain. Other stockists are already on to the 2014 vintage which I haven’t had the opportunity to taste but which has picked up several medals - check wine-searcher.com for prices.

I paired it with a rich crumbly Vernieu goats cheese log from Booths and that was perfect but it’s also recommended with spiced seafood, octopus with parika, pasta arrabiata with clams (sounds good!) and “rich oily mediterranean dishes”