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.

Two really good wines to buy from Help 4 Hospitality

As I'm sure you know the hospitality industry - i.e. restaurants, pubs and hotels - is in dire straits with no clear idea when businesses can reopen or even if they’ll be viable if they do.

Despite the British government’s most recent initiative 66% of UK hospitality businesses do not think they will survive three more months of lockdown measures, while 87% will cease operations without a nine-month rent holiday.

So it’s good to see a leading industry supplier, Berkmann, setting up an online wine shop called Help 4 Hospitality to raise money for struggling busineses.

I like the fact that the selection is not safe or predictable but full of interesting bottles that you might well find in a good restaurant and which should appeal to any adventurous winedrinker.

I’ve picked out two I really liked a Greek red and a Lebanese white.

The red is Thymiopoulos Xinomavro 2017 from Macedonia. 13% £14.25 which, despite its light colour, is deep-flavoured and brambly but quite refined - almost pinot-ish. It would be great with barbecued lamb or kid or with duck. (It was ace with a smoked duck salad and watercress and orange salad I had last night.)

The white Chateau Ksara Blanc de L’Observatoire 2018 13% £13.75 is a really unusual blend of 30% Clairette, 30% Muscat, 30% Obeidi and 10% Sauvignon Blanc but tastes to me quite like an oaked white Bordeaux. It’s richly textured and lush - not as aromatic as it might sound from the clairette and muscat - and with a crisp, refreshing lift to the finish though funnily enough I think it would go better with south-east Asian than Lebanese food.

For two really unusual wines I think the prices are reasonable plus Help 4 Hospitality is donating 12.5% of the ex VAT price to participating businesses, or to two charities issuing grants to those in need, The Drinks Trust and Hospitality Action. (If you want to support a particular business you'll find the code to apply here which also earns you a 5% discount.)

If the wines I've picked don’t particularly appeal to you, there are mixed cases on their website too, chosen by different chefs and sommeliers. I quite fancy the Walk on the Wild Side case myself.

The wines were supplied as samples by Help 4 Hospitality.

6 wines from grapes that begin with VE to drink on VE day

With VE day coming up on Friday you may have already made plans for what you’re going to eat and drink which could well be home-grown, UK produced, wine, beer or cider.

But if you want to drink something different and have a bit of fun you could open a wine made from grapes beginning with VE of which there are, surprisingly, several.

Four - including the ones you’re most likely to lay your hands on - are from Italy, one from Spain and one, verdelho, traditionally from Madeira but it also pops up in Australia. All are white wines.

To be honest many of the supermarket versions are not the most exciting examples so if you have an Italian deli nearby or an Italian wine specialist like Passione Vino give them a ring and see what they’ve got.

The beauty of Italian whites is that even if they taste comparatively underwhelming on their own they burst into life deliciously with food

Six wines that begin with VE

Masseria Pietrosa Verdeca 2018 £8.25 Morrisons

A relatively rare grape from Apulia and one of my favourite wines in this line-up. Crisp, fresh and fruity without being obvious. Really good value. Drink with fish (and chips, if you like!)

Verdicchio di Matelica San Vito Lamelia 2018 13.5% £10.95 Jeroboams

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi is the wine you’re most likely to come across (Marks and Spencer has a good one from the 2018 vintage for £7 though it appears to be sold out online) but, looking beyond Friday, this one from Jeroboams has just that bit more texture, fragrance and character. It would be good with a selection of antipasti, seafood-based pasta dishes such as spaghetti vongole or, should you feel inspired, vitello tonnato (veal - or chicken - in tuna fish sauce)

Sassi del Mare Vermentino Toscana 2018 Tuscany £7.99 Lidl

Vermentino is the classic white wine grape of Sardinia but more often found in Tuscany or in the south of France where it goes by the name of Rolle. This is a fresh, clean, citrussy example - simple and really drinkable. Again, I’m not sure how much of it there is left at Lidl so I also very much like the appealingly smooth Domaine de Cazelles Vermentino Pays d’Oc 2018 from Davy’s at £10.50. Brilliant with all kinds of seafood

The best food pairings for Vermentino

Castellani Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2018, Tuscany Great Western Wine £9.95

If you’ve been to the hill town of San Gimignano just outside Florence you may well have come across this slightly earthy, nutty white which you could drink with almost anything you care to throw at it. This is a decent example but again I’d be prepared to pay the extra for this stylish bottling from Casale Falchini from Berry Bros & Rudd

Beronia Verdejo, Rueda 2018 currently on offer at £6.99 at Waitrose

A light, lush, citrussy white from sauvignon drinkalike verdejo, Rueda is Spain’s most popular white wine. It’ll go with much the same sort of food that sauvignon pairs with but would make a good aperitif too.

You'll find more suggestions in my ebook 50+ great ways to enjoy Rueda

Margan Verdelho 2017 £13.20 Tanners

It’s not as popular as semillon in Australia’s Hunter Valley but verdelho does very well there especially in the hands of the Mangans. Smooth and mouthwateringly limey, it's great with seafood and summery salads.

Another manifestation of verdelho, is Henriques & Henriques 10 y.o Verdelho madeira which you can also buy from Tanners for £21. Waitrose has the 15 y.o. for £20.99. It's a lighter, drier style of madeira than the style you normally come across with a perfect balance of delicate sweetness and acidity. Sip with almonds.

The Society’s Saint-Aubin 2017: a poor man’s Puligny-Montrachet

This wine is a winner on three counts - it’s from a lesser-known - and very good value - Burgundy appellation, Saint-Aubin, which is just next door to the better known and more expensive Puligny-Montrachet, it comes from the excellent 2017 vintage and it's an own label bottling from the admirable Wine Society,

Made by the respected Henri Prudhon it’s really quite like a Puligny - crisp, taut and elegant, delicious now but certainly capable of lasting another two to three years. The sort of wine that’s made for classic seafood such as langoustines or Dover sole or as the Vins de Bourgogne website more imposingly puts it “with a wine like this, firm-textured fish and grilled or steamed crustaceans would be at ease". Course they would.

The best food pairings with white burgundy

You can buy it on its own or until March 8th (while stocks last) as part of a mixed case of six white burgundies which also includes a couple of classy Saint-Verans (not always the case with Saint-Véran), a bottle of Chablis and two decent Macons. That’s great value for £85.

I was sent the case as a sample by the Wine Society but am also a member and would have bought it anyway.