The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Saturday
May I see the wine list?
Clean, crisp whites and ripe, juicy reds: the 50 best bottles to savour this summer, by Victoria Moore
We are going out less than we once did, so the home wine rack has become even more important. Choosing wines for this summer drinking list I have thought about the bottles (and box) I would like to have in my own fridge when sun is flooding in to the kitchen, and the reds
I would like to be pouring with the food that is cooked in summer.
That might mean a brilliantly clear grüner veltliner from Austria or a bracing carricante from Sicily – both great “apero” wines – or, in the case of reds, a bright Argentinian malbec, the spice of Château Musar’s Aana cuvée for Lebanese
takeaway nights (much as I’d love to be someone who made their own labneh, I’m not there yet) or a very useful, juicy claret for less than a tenner if you buy an unmixed case, which I could drink every day.
I know those ordering bottles from an online retailer might want a handful of recommendations so that they can spread risk by mixing a case, especially if it’s not a merchant whose wines they know, so I have tried to include clusters of bottles. In the interests of helping you to order a good case of wine, I do have a handful more excellent recommendations from Haynes, Hanson &
Clark; The Wine Society; Yapp; and Lea & Sandeman, which I will send if you email me at victoria@howtodrink. co.uk by July 18. I’m afraid I can’t offer personalised recommendations. That’s it – happy drinking all.
Torres Viña Sol 2019 Spain (12%, Morrisons £6 down from £7.25 until July 14; Sainsbury’s £7.50; Tesco, £7.50; Co-op, £6 down from £7.50 until July 21)
For all those who can’t bear wines that taste like fruit, here’s one that is clean and crisp as a sheet of white paper. Made near Barcelona using the cava grape, parellada, with a bit of grenache blanc. Very easy to drink and great with a tomato salad.
Terra Madre Catarratto 2019
Sicily (12%, Co-op, £6.50) Catarratto is one of Sicily’s native grapes and whilst it’s not terrifically exciting – used mostly as a blending component and in marsala – it can make decent cheap wines like this, which has a slightly fuzzy texture and gentle flavours of crystallised citrus peel.
M&S Classics No. 32 Touraine Sauvignon 2019 Loire, France (13%, M&S, £8) Made by Paul Buisse this is a good, solid wine, which carries the classic flavours of a touraine sauvignon very well – it’s dry and savoury, grassy and green with a hint of elderflowers.
Domaine Paul Mas Reserve
Blanc Languedoc 2019 France (13%, Waitrose, £6.99, down from £9.39 until
July 28)
Three grapes here: vermentino leads and is fermented in stainless steel. The more textured grenache and marsanne both see some oak. There’s the scent of long meadow grass with wild flowers and hay, with white florals, texture and a twist of bitter almond on the finish.
Vignerons Ardéchois Viognier Grès du
Trias 2018
Coteaux de l’Ardèche, France
(14%, Yapp, £11.95) Viognier comes in many guises and this is a distinctly grown-up version, creamy and textured, with a hazy summery scent, like meadow grass with a waft of evening jasmine. Drinkers who prefer perky, refreshing styles need to head to M&S or to HH&C for their Gayda Viognier.
Finest* Pecorino Terre
di Chieti 2019
Italy (13%, Tesco, £6 down
from £7 until July 20) One of those citrusy, refreshing whites that Italy does so well. Pecorino is the grape; pecora means sheep (hence the label). The wine has a slightly creamy, bouncy feel, and tastes of lemon rind and juicy white and pink grapefruit.
Tapada de Villar Vinho Verde Branco 2019 Portugal (10%, M&S, £7) Vinho verde, the lithe, youthful white from northern Portugal is brilliant in summer. A blend of three grapes – loureiro, arinto and trajadura – this one is gently effervescent and has a gentle flavour of nectarines with a salty, seltzer finish.
Bodegas La Purísima Consentido Macabeo 2019 Yecla, Spain (12%, Stone, Vine & Sun, £8.33/9.25 by the case/
single bottle price)
A beautiful white made from the macabeo grape (known as viura in Rioja), this is highly deserving of a place in your fridge. From the relatively uncelebrated region of Yecla in eastern Spain, it tastes of juicy white peaches, greengages and Asian pear and has a refreshing salinity.
Pontemagno Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi 2019 Italy (12.5%; Haynes, Hanson & Clark, £8.75/7.75 single bottle/case price; Tanners, £7.95)
The great thing about Italian whites is that – unlike some others – they don’t taste sweet and blowsy when you start eating. Verdicchio is the grape and the flavour is cool and hydrating, with nips of green and a herbaceous background.
Mallory & Benjamin Talmard Mâcon-Chardonnay 2019 Burgundy, France (13%, Tanners, £12.50)
An affordable and beautifully lucid white burgundy that has a tremendous following in and around the trade. From a family domaine, it’s a chardonnay with a creamy feel, gentle as a soft white blanket, and refreshing too.
Araldica Piemonte
Cortese 2019
Italy (12%, The Wine Society,
£6.50)
A simple, brisk white from a large and highly capable cooperative, made from the cortese grape, which is used to make gavi. Think fresh lemons with a vestige of bay. A long-standing favourite, it needs to be drunk very young – while it retains its vigour and brightness.
Domaine Mandeville Viognier Pays d’Oc 2019 France (13%, M&S, £7.50) Viognier is known for its floral fragrance – a smell that can be thick like honeysuckle in full bloom, or, like this one, more delicate, like distant star jasmine mingled with fresh peaches. This one is refreshing enough to drink as an aperitif but doesn’t lose the personality of the grape. Incredible value.
La Guardiense Fremondo Falanghina del Sannio
2019
Italy (12%, Tanners, £8.50) Falanghina is an ancient grape variety found in Campania, the region around Naples. It makes fresh-tasting wines with a distinctive whiff of neroli, bitter orange peel – and sometimes also fennel. This one’s a beaut, made for aperitivo hour.
The Society’s Greek White
2019
Greece (12%,
The Wine Society, £8.95) Floral and yet also refreshing: smelling this is like putting your nose into a bunch of blowsy roses with sharp riffs of white grapefruit and lemon rind going on in the background. The two grapes are moschofilero and roditis and the wine is made for TWS by Semeli Estate in Nemea.
Jackson Estate Stich 2019 Marlborough, New Zealand (13%, Majestic, £12.99/£14.99 mix six deal/single bottle price; Waitrose, £12.99) One of the more muscular Marlborough sauvignon blancs, and in this vintage it’s fruity too, thick with the smell and taste of yellow peach and passion fruit, with a hint of blackcurrant leaf.