RAISE A GLASS

One of my favourite things is to talk to a winemaker. It’s a special thing (for me) to have an insight into the decisions about how a wine is made.

There aren’t any winemakers near where I live so imagine my glee when 30 of them came to town at once in the form of a Naked Wines roadshow.

Naked Wines’ online customers are “Angels” who help to fund the winemaking, and then in turn get a discount on their wine buys. There were a few Angels eagerly sipping wines that night!

I had a long list of ticks in my tasting booklet. Here’s a high five to just some of them:

Teona Omarashvili and her uncle Levan Chichinadze run a small winery in their back garden in Tblinski, Georgia.

They have crafted a lush red PI Saperavi 2020 (£20.99, or £17.99 Angels’ price). Saperavi is a native Georgia red grape variety, and this wine won Best Georgian Red and Grand Gold at the Mundus Vini wine awards.

I was won over by the achingly gorgeous ice wine Stepp Sylvaner Eiswein 2020 (£29.99, or £16.99, Angels’ price). It is lush with peach, pineapple and lychee.

In the room that night, many fingers of recommendation were pointed in the direction of Australian winemaker Josh Pfeiffer, and his elegant Breaking Grounds Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2021 (£10.99, or £9.99 for Angels). It is crunchy with blackberries, cherries and flecks of spice.

New Zealand winemaker Bill Small poured his Small and Small Sylvia Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2021 (£20.99, or £11.99 for Angels) and the classic notes of gooseberries and grapefruit zinged and refreshed.

And a special nod to

Weingut Kaufmann Wisselbrunnen Riesling GG

2019 (£34.99, or £28.99, Angels). It’s a stunning, complex riesling from the Rheingau, with dried honey, lemon and lime, peach, a cutting edge of wet knife and a hint of salinity.

ALSO IN MY GLASS …

Congratulations to the Co-op’s Irresstible Carménère (£7) for winning a Gold and Value medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards. The judges said that the Chilean wine was: “A deliciously peppery style and a lot of wine for the price! There are attractive varietal aromas: roasted red pepper, soy, rich cassis, and a hint of mint. Impressive.”

Jane is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. Find her on social media and online as One Foot in the Grapes.