Drinks of the Month
Wine of the week: a cut-price Sauternes
If you’re unsure what to buy it’s always tempting to go for a big name but when you find you’ve got an equally good option at half the price it’s mad not to go for that.
Tesco’s finest Dessert Semillon is an Australian sweet wine, made for them by the respected De Bortoli which would be the perfect wine to have with the last of the summer fruit (especially peaches and nectarines). The 2015 vintage is light (just 10%), lemony (with a touch of apricot) and lusciously sweet and incredibly good value at £6 a half bottle.
The Sauternes is good too and will age better but I suspect you’re not going to do that and at twice the price it really doesn’t make sense to buy it just for the name. (There's a great value one coming up in Lidl at the end of the month though.)
Incidentally a half bottle may not look much but will easily serve 4 and even 5 or 6 if you serve it in small glasses. And because it’s sweet it should be really well chilled.
If you’re wondering what else to pair with the semillon it will go with similar food to Sauternes
Colomban Muscat de Saint-Jean de Minervois
If you’re a fan of dessert wines here’s an absolutely cracking bargain from Lidl’s latest limited edition release which went on sale on Thursday.
It’s an award-winning* Muscat de Saint Jean de Minervois from the Languedoc for just £5.99 a 50cl bottle which is plenty for 4 and could even stretch to 6.
Although it doesn’t have a vintage on the label it’s beautifully light and fresh with a lovely apricot fruit flavour. Perfect now with in-season apple and pear tarts but at this price it would be worth laying in a couple of bottles for Christmas.
Another wine you might enjoy is a fresh-tasting Touraine Sauvignon Blanc from the 2016 vintage which compares favourably to some of the Sancerres I’ve tasted recently. (2016 wasn’t a fantastic vintage in the Loire but at £6.49 this is an decent buy)
Look out for my Guardian column next weekend for my pick of the Lidl reds
* a silver medal from the Concours General Agricole
Pillitteri Cabernet Sauvignon icewine
One of the Christmas bargains last year was a Pillitteri vidal icewine which Lidl was managing to sell for an astonishing £14.99 a half bottle, probably cheaper than you could find it from its country of origin, Canada.
My friend Jenny scoured all the branches in Bristol for weeks to pick up every available bottle.
This year they’ve added a cabernet sauvignon ice wine at £15.99 to their Christmas range which is, if anything, even more appealing - a pale dusky pink which tastes of rose petals and would be a fantastic match for a box of milk chocolates or a milk chocolate dessert. I say milk because I think it would show off its delicate flavours better than dark chocolate. A few raspberries on the plate wouldn’t go amiss.
The range went on sale last Thursday so I’d pop into Lidl and snap up enough to last you not only through Christmas but Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter as well*. If you can keep your hands off it until then! With its elegant bottle and box it would also make a lovely gift.
* There's also a £4 off if you buy 4 bottles deal at the time of writing. The Monbazillac and Tokaji Szamorodni are also worth buying at £6.99 if you have a sweet tooth.
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