Wine of the Week: The Society’s Exhibition Rioja Reserva 2017

There are apparently only low stocks left of The Wine Society’s Exhibition Rioja Reserva 2017 which should encourage you to snap up a few bottles if you're a member.

You might say with some justification that you can’t get a rioja for less than the £16 it costs but this is a particularly good buy, made for the Society by La Rioja Alta which normally charges a good bit more for its wines (Their 2015 Viña Ardanza Reserva, for example, is just under £26 at Lay & Wheeler)

It’s made very much in the traditional mellow oak-aged style and is drinking really well right now. It would be the perfect wine for Easter if you’re having planning to have roast lamb or beef.

The best food pairings for rioja

If you're looking for another wine to make up a case I really like the latest vintage of the Society's Exhibition Santorini Assyrtiko at £14.95, a bright zesty white that would be great with taramasalata, olives, tsatziki and other meze as well as spanakopita, pretty well any kind of seafood and grilled lamb.

Two massively drinkable natural wines for under £10

I’ve long been a fan of natural wine but can’t argue with the fact that it’s expensive. For good reason - it’s often made on a very small scale by artisan producers but that generally takes it out of the realm of everyday drinking.

So hats off to natural wine pioneers Les Caves de Pyrène who have collaborated with winemaker Luca Hodgkinson to make two delicious wines you’d be as pleased to drink on a midweek night in as to find in a wine bar.

The red, La Cueva, a blend of pais, carignan and cabernet sauvignon from the Maule valley, is a light juicy vin de soif I’d be inclined to chill and which would be great gulped down with a selection of mezze or antipasti.

But it’s the white, La Patagua a hazy blend of semillon and moscatel from the Colchagua valley with a lovely taste of fresh pineapple which really excites me. It would be great with all sorts of seafood and salads but at 14.5% it’s more alcoholic than it tastes so watch it!

Both the wines come from the 2021 vintage, are made from organically grown (but uncertified) old vines and vinified with natural yeasts. You can buy them for £9.05 from Les Caves or online from Lola in Leamington Spa for £9

The best of the new Blind Spot wines from The Wine Society

The Wine Society has had a range of exclusive Australian wines called Blind Spot which are made for them by winemaker Mac Forbes for a while.

The idea originally was to offer a range that sat somewhere between the cheap and cheerful wines you found in a supermarket and the country’s more expensive top end wines. They were perfectly decent but not wildly exciting.

The current Australia buyer Freddy Bulmer has introduced four new wines however that are really interesting, although one, the Garganega which is made from the same variety that goes into Soave, seems a bit pricey at £11.95. I’d be happy to pay that for the cheerful brambly Dolcetto, the only 2020 of the line-up, which comes from the Adelaide HIlls and which I think would make the perfect wine for a Friday night pizza but it’s the other two wines that really rock my boat.

The Blind Spot syrah which is very much a syrah rather than a shiraz comes from vineyards in the Grampians that are owned by the Chapoutier family and is just deliciously spicy and peppery. Bulmer believes it’s got ageing potential but I doubt you could hold onto it long enough to verify that.

And my top choice is the simply sensational Pinot Meunier, a grape that is generally used to make champagne but here makes a deeply aromatic wine which it’s hard to decide whether it’s a light red or a rosé. It would be good as an aperitif, as Freddy suggests, but I love the thought of drinking it with mezze or right through a middle eastern meal. A rosé for winter drinking basically and all the more welcome for that.

Both the syrah and the pinot meunier are £12.95 and I suspect will sell fast.

Wine of the Week: Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Faugères

I must admit I’ve always had a soft spot for Faugères which was one of the wine regions closes to our house in the Languedoc. The reds tendsto have a higher percentage of syrah compared to neighbouring appellations which makes the wines more elegant.

This one, which is part of Sainsbury’s new ‘Discovery’ collection is made by the admirable Laurent Miquel who also makes some of the best viognier in the region. It’s a robust 14% but wears it lightly with a lovely spicy freshness that would work with all kinds of all sorts of wintry food, especially roasts and casseroles. Just what we need now the clocks have gone back.

Unfortunately, along with the other wines in the range, it’s already been repriced since the tasting a couple of weeks ago but on the current 25% off six bottles deal which lasts until Tuesday November 2nd it’s a very affordable £8.25 rather than £11 so I’d definitely snap some up if I were you. (Note the Ts & Cs below* - it's not available in Scotland.)

I’m not as smitten by the other wines in the Discovery range which aims to showcase less familiar wines though the Alsace riesling at the same price is a great buy if you’re a riesling fan and the Verdicchio Classico Superiore is interesting though at 14.5% uncharacteristically rich and peachy for that grape - more likely to appeal if you like chardonnay or viognier than Italian whites. And that’s been repriced at £13 or £9.75 on this offer.

The Chateau Thebaud Muscadet too, which comes from the 2016 vintage, won’t be to everyone’s taste, being nutty rather than the crisp wine that you might expect but if you're a fan of mature muscadet it should appeal, especially at £11.25 on this discount (the full price is £15). It would go with richer fish dishes rather than raw shellfish.

Of the other two reds the Côtes de Beaune Villages 2019 is OK at £15 though I wouldn't pay £20 for it as it’s a bit too young to drink now and I didn’t like the oddly tarry Vino Nobile de Montepulciano (now £12 rather than £10) at all.

It does show that there is a price to be paid for these across the board discounts though it’s always possible there will be an offer on the range in the next promotional period. But prices are heading inexorably upwards.

*Offer ends 02/11/21 Offer not available in Scotland. Excludes bottles under £5 in England or £7 in Wales. Minimum unit pricing applies in Wales. Excludes bottles 200ml and under, Sainsbury’s House wine, fortified wine, boxed wine & gift sets. Max 36 bottles. Available in selected stores. Offer available on orders delivered on or before 02/11/21