Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja

If you want proof of how adventurous a wine retailer Marks & Spencer has become you only have to try this unusual Spanish white made from Pedro Ximenez, which is more usually used to make a sweet syrupy style of sherry.

This is altogether a different animal - pretty well bone dry and nutty with a touch of fino sherry about it it though it actually comes not from Jerez but the neighbouring denomination of Montilla-Moriles. The word Tinaja refers to the traditional earthenware jars in which the wine is aged (also pictured on the label) which accounts for the slightly oxidative - for which read deliciously nutty/almondy - style

Although I personally love it I’m aware it won’t be to everyone’s taste* but it would be a great wine to drink with tapas - as they also point out on the label - especially jamon iberico and (I reckon) olives and anchovies. Normaly £9 a bottle, it’s currently on promotion at £7 which is a steal.

* if you like fresher, fruitier whites like sauvignon blanc, for example

Wine of the week: Crittenden Estate Cri de Coeur Savagnin sous voile 2011

Those of you who read my Guardian column may have spotted that last week’s was devoted to winemakers who tackle an established grape variety or wine style on their own doorstep

One omission was Garry Crittenden of Crittenden Estate on Australia’s Mornington Peninsula, who with his son Rollo has been pushing the envelope by making Spanish style reds and whites and, most interesting of all, a savagnin called Cri de Coeur which is aged, like vin jaune under a layer of yeast.

It’s not widely available, even in Australia - the Crittendens make very little - but they were good enough to send me a bottle to try. And it was really delicious - perhaps more like a fino sherry than a Jura wine but a real curiosity that it would be fun to serve to wine geek friends or drink with Comté cheese or tapas.

The two Spanish-style wines are the Los Hermanos Homenaje 2013 (14.2%), an exuberant, juicy blend of Tempranillo Mataro and Garnacha that would make perfect barbecue drinking and the Los Hermanos Saludo al Txacoli 2012 (11.5%) which, like the Basque original, tastes like a sharp squeeze of fresh lemon.

In the UK Christopher Keiller has the Homenaje by the case for £141.75 ex VAT or, if you live in Oz, you can order the two Los Hermanos wines direct from the estate. The Savagnin costs AUD 70 from the Crittendens' cellar door.