RAISE A GLASS

I’M a bit dizzy as in the past two weeks I’ve made new wine discoveries and remembered old ones.

First, my new discoveries. Last week I went to Veneto in Italy, to visit the home of Soave white wines and some delicious reds from Colli Berici.

I’ll share some wines with you in a couple of weeks, but for now, my first wine discovery was this; an Italian fizz based on a native grape called durella, which is made into a sparkling wine called durello.

I was slap bang in the heart of prosecco land and you know what, in four days I didn’t sip a single glass of the stuff. I asked if durello was the new prosecco, but apparently it is little-known even in Italy. I was so giddy when I visited the wine co-operative Cantina Di Soave (which sits in the shadow of the Soave city walls and its castle) to be told by the team that they export a durello wine to the UK. Here it is folks. Left, Settecento33 Spumante Brut NV (£10, oddbins.com, 12% abv). If you love fizz, and you love trying new things, then give it a go. This fizz is a treat, with crispy apple and pears centre stage but layers of tangier fruit too, such as grapefruit and lemons. The grapes are grown in soils influenced by now extinct volcanoes and the wine has a mineral, upright edge.

Now, to remembering an old discovery. Many, many moons ago, when my wine life was but a dream, I visited Chablis and it was that trip which started me on this wine adventure. Chablis is in Burgundy, France, and the white wines are classic, with chardonnay grapes growing on vines which seek nutrients deep down in an ancient seabed. An entry-level wine is petit chablis and it is lovely to see one being released in Lidl’s new French Wine Cellar range (due in shops on September 28). Domaine de Oliveira Lecestre Petit Chablis (£10.99, 12.5% abv), below, has aromas of lemon and crisp freshly sliced green apples, and just a flirt with springtime flowers. Petit chablis is the lowest of the four levels of Chablis wines and the simplest to embrace; then comes Chablis (the most common) the premier cru and finally grand cru. Other picks in Lidl’s French range include an Alsace Vieilles Vignes Gewürztraminer (£7.99, 13% abv), a Rhône red, Mémoire du Terroir Cairanne Côtes du Rhône Villages (£5.99, 13.5% abv) and a tasty dry crémant, L’Éphémère Crémant de Limoux Brut (£7.99, 12.5% abv).

Also in my glass … the previous crémant leads me on nicely to Tesco Finest Crémant de Limoux

Rosé (£11) which I know in another life was voted one of the Sud de France Languedoc-Roussillon Top 100 wines (head to suddefrancetop100.co.uk to discover more).

I wanted to bring you this wine the other week in my crémant feature but as it was so new on Tesco’s shelves (and hot off the press) I needed to confirm the price.

It is a blend of chardonnay, chenin and pinot noir and is dry, toasty, and laden with fresh redcurrants and raspberries. I sipped with a steak and salad and it was delicious.