High Street Wine Challenge: Perez Burton Rioja 2012, M&S

Following on from my blog post on Spanish wines, I sent my husband off to our local M&S Simply Food with the instructions "buy something Spanish for less than a tenner." He returned with a bottle of Rioja for £8.79, evidently embarrassed for being so unoriginal in his choice as he explained that the only other option was a Tempranillo/Syrah blend for a fiver. So we'll let him off.

First observation is that this must be a Tinto Joven wine as there's no sign of any other classification on the label, however this is no bad thing and just means it's likely to be a fruity red.

And on tasting, my assumption was correct. Bags of ripe plum and blackberry fruit, very soft and smooth. As ever with Spanish wine, this may be classed as "young" but you can still taste that it has been aged in oak as you can taste the sweet spices. This is a nice, easy red wine, not very exciting but perfectly decent and would be delicious with roast lamb.

Happy Swigging!