RAISE A GLASS
There’s nothing more uplifting than sunshine and bluebells and daffodils and garden benches as the sun dips down after a day of home working.
The bench has seen a fair bit of me (and my daughter) in recent early evenings as we’ve welcomed the gathering warmth of the season.
We’ve been joined by the dog, blue tits and the occasional glass of red, including these.
Bosman Nero (RRP £12, Sainsbury’s) is a very nice lightdrinking style for spring.
It’s a vibrant ruby colour, but is translucent and elegant; one of those wines you can see through. It’s the first South African wine to use the native Sicilian grape variety Nero d’Avola.
The Bosman producers travelled to Sicily in 2004 and took back cuttings of Nero d’Avola to Wellington (about an hour from Cape Town).
I’m very glad they did as I really enjoyed this vibrant, drinkable, fruitdriven wine with its flavours of cherry, redcurrant and raspberry.
My next light springtime red is created from one of my favourite red grapes, gamay.
The grape is at the heart of Beaujolais red wines, but this one is from the Loire Valley.
Touraine Gamay, Domaine Roc de Châteauvieux, 2019 (£9.99, or £8.99 in a buy six deal at Majestic) is the wine of which I speak.
It’s one of a trio of Loire Valley red wines which have been taste-tested on the garden bench.
The gamay was a treat with a late supper of lamb steaks. It nudged its softly spoken characteristics of raspberry, cherry and vanilla towards us and we welcomed it happily.
I adored this next wine, Saumur Rouge, Cave des Vignerons de Saumur Robert & Marcel, 2018 (Yapp Brothers, £11.25). As I kept saying I liked it so much, I occasionally forgot to sip it, and my daughter sneaked ahead on the wine pouring front. But who could blame her as it was delicious, its silky, supple red fruit characteristics, edged by a dash of spice, delivered by cabernet franc.
My final Loire red was this one: Anjou Rouge, Sur La Butte, Château de Plaisance, 2019 (Lea & Sandeman, £19.50).
This was my third Loire wine undergoing the garden bench test in recent weeks. It’s a class act of a wine which delivers another red berry vibe, but with more ripe pudding concentration and a freshening of acidity.