Joseph Drouhin Rully rouge 2012

The dilemma for us wine writers is when to recommend a wine we're really excited about. Do we save it up for a round-up of the best wines we’ve tasted in that category or tell you about it straight away on the basis that every other journo will be pushing it too?

Well I’m going for the latter course of action because delicious affordable red burgundies are few and far between. It was shown at the Waitrose tasting this week and comes from one of the region’s most reliable growers and negociants Joseph Drouhin and from one of the lesser known and therefore better value Burgundy appellations, Rully.

There’s a white and a red - both good - though the red, a lovely delicate ethereal pinot, is only available in 18 branches while you can find the white, a premier cru, in 231. The red, which is also organic, is made by head winemaker Veronique Drouhin using natural yeasts (no, it isn't remotely scary!)

If you feel £15.49 is still a fair bit to pay my guess is that Waitrose will almost certainly have one of its 25% off deals over the next few weeks so you could hold on. But if you spot some on the shelf of your local branch I’d grab a bottle to try or include a couple of bottles if you're ordering online. It’s also stocked by winedirect.co.uk for £16.50 (or £15.83 if you buy an unsplit case) or £125 in bond from Justerini & Brooks.

The red should easily keep 2-3 years.but would be lovely right now with game like simply roast partridge or pheasant, with calves liver, rack of lamb or with seared tuna

From the cellar: Domaine d’Aupilhac Montpeyroux 1992, Coteaux du Languedoc

One of the pleasures of being at our house in the Languedoc is diving into the cellar and fishing out old, overlooked bottles.

We normally open at least three on the basis that only one is likely to have survived. Last night it was this amazing 23 year old bottle from Sylvain Fadat of Domaine d’Aupilhac which was better than it had any right to be for its modest price tag and the fact that it was only his third vintage. I can’t remember what we paid for it but it would certainly have been well under £10.

There’s no back label so I can’t tell you exactly what the grapes were either but the current 2013 vintage is a blend of mourvèdre, syrah, carignan and grenache - in that order. The ageability is almost certainly due to the mourvèdre according to Doug Wregg of Aupilhac’s current importers Les Caves de Pyrène, a view that gave my husband particular satisfaction as he said it tasted to him like old Bandol.

The colour as you can see was still extraordinarily vivid - it was hardly faded - nor was the gentle, sweet, mellow, plummy fruit. And, more surprisingly still, it was only 12.5% in those days. (The current ABV is more like 14%-14.5%). Considering the conditions in which we keep our wine - not even a proper cellar but a dark, former kitchen with a dirt floor on the ground floor of an old village house its survival in such good condition was nothing short of miraculous*.

The current 2012 vintage is available from les Caves at Pyrene at £12.35 plus VAT (£14.82) or, if you want to sample an older vintage, Terroir Languedoc has the 2000 vintage for £11.95 and the 2006 for £10. You can also buy it direct from the domaine for €14.70 (£10.84 at the current rate of exchange). They have old vintages too.

(What did we eat with it? I’m embarrassed to say nothing grander than a vegetarian pizza we had so little hope of any of the wines being drinkable but it wasn’t a bad match. In an ideal world some roast or grilled lamb would have been a better foil.)

*although the website does say it will age from 4-20 years.

Berry Bros & Rudd Brunello di Montalcino 2009

Brunello di Montalcino is normally way out of my price bracket but this own label bottling from Berry Bros & Rudd is such good value, it’s hard to resist.

It was selected by the company’s Italophile wine buyer David Berry-Green and comes from the Mantengoli family’s La Serena estate in Tuscany which is organically cultivated.

It comes from 2009 which was a hot vintage which has produced a powerful full-bodied wine of 15%, an ABV with which I don’t normally feel comfortable but it’s so beautifully balanced you don’t feel the heat. Apparently the estate didn’t make a riserva wine in 2009 which gives this wine the benefit of the estate's best fruit. It would obviously be excellent with red meat, especially lamb, but is graceful enough to go with game*. It's drinking perfectly now but you could keep it for several more years.

The individual bottle price is £26.95 - but if you can run to a case of six that currently brings the cost down to £21.36 a bottle. The next cheapest Brunello on the BBR list is £37.50 and most are a great deal more which underlines what a bargain this is.

*For more Brunello pairings see here.

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”