Prosecco Pinch

According to the news this week, we are facing a global shortage of Prosecco this summer. But before you all dash out to the supermarkets to bulk buy, I thought I’d reassure you that there are other options out there.

 One of the reasons for Prosecco’s huge success is its moreishness. It isn’t a copycat Champagne (the method of production used is far cheaper and less time-consuming than Champagne), but instead it is a soft, fruity and fresh sparkling wine – a great deal tastier than most cheap Champagnes. I will admit that it can be a struggle to find similarly budget wines that are as easy-to-drink but if you’re prepared to stretch up to £10 per bottle I can definitely find you something.

 

Spain

Probably the second-most famous budget fizz is Cava, which is actually much more like Champagne in style than Prosecco because the method of production is very similar. The quality of top-end Cava has improved dramatically in the last decade and brands such as Codorniu are producing sparkling wines that are really rather delicious. Add to this the fact that the most expensive examples in our shops rarely reach above £12, this is really rather an attractive option. One word of warning though: if you go lower than £7 a bottle, you really do get the most tasteless, acidic, headache-inducing fizz, so just don’t.

 

Italy

They may be most famous for their Prosecco, but if you’re looking for something even more easy-drinking, try hunting down a Moscato d’Asti or Asti Spumante sparkling wine. This is made from the Muscat grape and fermentation is stopped early to produce a sparkling wine which is deliciously sweet and low in alcohol (typically 7%). This is what I would class as breakfast wine!

 

France

Crémant wine is a close cousin to Champagne. It is made with the exact same method but in other regions around the country. One of my personal favourites Crémant de Limoux, which is made from Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Noir grapes grown in the Pyrenean foothills and it is fresh, fruity vibrant and normally available for around £10 a bottle. Also worth looking out for is Blanquette de Limoux, from the same region but made with local grape Mauzac and often even cheaper.

You will also spot Crémant d’Alsace, Crémant de Bourgogne, Crémant de Loire… you get the idea. All of these are worth exploring if you want the Champagne quality without paying Champagne prices.

 

New World

A lot of the New World is far too warm to be able to produce good quality sparkling wine, but where there are high altitude vineyards (Chile, Argentina) or cooling sea breezes (New Zealand, Tasmania) you can find some excellent alternatives.

 

pic courtesy of http://chicvintagebrides.com

Happy Swigging!

 

 

 

High Street Wine Challenge: Freeman's Bay Pinot Gris, ALDI

Another ALDI bargain this week, £5.69 for a New Zealand Pinot Gris!

Pinot Gris (aka Pinot Grigio) is a far more exciting variety than Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand's most famous white grape. Unlike the Italian Pinot Grigio you may be more used to drinking, the Kiwi version (and indeed those from the USA) is much richer in style. So rather than citrus and apple fruit, these wines show ripe tropical fruit eg mango and papaya.

This ALDI version shows all the typical tropical fruit with a hint of ginger spice. However, as is to be expected at this price point, there's not much else going on. That's not an enormous criticism, in fact if you're normally an Italian Pinot Grigio drinker you'll probably enjoy this! Either way, it went down very well with tonight's sticky honey & soy chicken.

Happy Swigging!

Home Grown

23^rd to 31^st May marks English Wine Week, and numerous supermarkets, wine merchants and restaurants across the UK will be running promotions on this country’s fine wine produce. This is the perfect opportunity for me to write a bit about these wonderful wines and hopefully encourage you to explore them further.

 

Last week Waitrose announced that sales of its English wines almost doubled in 2014. This really got me thinking. I definitely don’t drink enough English wine, despite thinking of myself as pretty patriotic, and I’m sure I’m not alone. The truth is that English wines are not cheap (thanks to low production and high labour and land costs) so you can expect to be forking out at least £10 for a decent bottle of still wine and £20 for a bottle of English fizz.

 

Most of our vineyards are down South, where they are planted on south-facing, chalky hills. It’s this very same stretch of chalky soil that extends down to the Champagne region of France, which is one of the reasons why our sparkling wines are making such waves around the World. If you haven’t yet tried an English sparkling wine, you’re missing out – the best can easily compete against Champagne in a taste test. They aren’t cheap (the method of production is the same as in Champagne, which is an intricate, expensive method). In fact, the Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee with a few glasses of Nyetimber sparkling wine – a Sussex vineyard whose standards are so high that they scrapped their 2012 vintage of around 400,000 bottles because of the poor quality of the grapes.

 

Away from our top notch sparklers, English white wines have a distinctively crisp and aromatic character: think gooseberries, elderflower, grass and asparagus. Whereas for sparkling wines the main grapes planted are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, for our white wines Germanic grapes dominate, especially crossings (eg Muller Thurgau) which were designed to beat the cold. One of the most widely seen grape varieties is Bacchus, which is England’s answer to Sancerre.

 

I have to admit here that I haven’t yet tasted an English red wine that I have enjoyed. The most promising grapes are Pinot Noir and Dornfelder but they are all very dependent on the English weather being warm enough to ripen properly (and let’s face it, that’s not often!)

 

If you would like to try English wine, Waitrose definitely has the best supermarket selection. The Wine Pantry in Borough market in London sells only English wines so their range is by far the best I’ve found, and if you can’t get to London they sell all their wines online (www.winepantry.co.uk).  

 

Of course the best idea is for you to take a trip to see where the magic happens, so here is a list of some of our top English vineyards which cater well for visitors:

 

Camel Valley, Cornwall http://www.camelvalley.com/

An idyllic location with a climate warm enough to produce really exciting wines.

Ridgeview, East Sussex http://www.ridgeview.co.uk/

A great opportunity to see first hand how top quality sparkling wines are made (it’s not easy!)

Denbies, Surrey http://www.denbies.co.uk/

If you’re feeling energetic, they host marathons with wine stations en route!

Chapel Down, Kent http://www.chapeldown.com/

Delicious wines, and they have a fabulous restaurant on site too

 

PS: don’t make the mistake of buying “British Wine” as this is NOT the same thing. "British wine" is made using cheap imported grapes and can be found in some supermarkets for around £3…

 

Happy Swigging!

High Street Wine Challenge: Pezenas, ALDI

I've been hearing a lot of exciting things about the wine range at ALDI so this week I'm trying one of their more premium wines at a "whopping" £9.99.

Pezenas is an appellation in the Herault valley in the Languedoc, where the sun shines brightly and the wind keeps the grapes dry and disease free. This wine is just one of 36,000 bottles, a tiny production which explains some of the price.

A blend of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan and Mourvedre, aged for 12 months in oak, this wine smells of blueberries and liquorice. It took a little while to open up (I'd definitely recommend decanting), and it's quite high in acidity so I made a big mistake serving this with cheese on toast. It would've been far tastier alongside a roast leg of lamb! There is a lot of sweet, ripe blackberry fruit, vanilla spice and rosemary, some lovely flavours once you get past the acidity. I feel like I haven't done it real justice with my food choice as it has the potential to be a very yummy wine - perhaps someone can try it with their Sunday lunch and let me know? An exciting red nonetheless, well done ALDI.

Happy Swigging!