Victoria Moore

Red wine has entered a refreshing new era

Remember the That Mitchell and Webb Look sketch, set among an SS division, in which a disconcerted David Mitchell, in full SS uniform, approaches Robert Webb to ask, ‘Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them? Hans… are we the baddies?’ I sometimes feel similarly about what my red-wine tastes – which take in a love for Médoc Bordeaux, nebbiolo and aglianico; the more punishing the level of tannin the better – might reveal about my age. Am I… one of the oldies?

Because ‘the younger generation like red wines that have freshness, crunchy fruit, less tannin’, says Dan Kirby, who is part of Adnams’ wine-buying team. To be fair to myself, as a classic in-betweenthe-trends Gen-x-er, I like these too.

But there has been a stylistic shift away from tannin and towards more fruity, ‘smashable’ reds. It started with younger winemakers keen to do things differently to their parents – less oak, more freshness, sometimes a more natural approach. The take-up, meanwhile, began in wine bars full of young people free from the tyranny of stratospheric babysitting rates but who might not have the budget to dine out. If you’re playing the apéro-with-a-bunch-of-mates-at-awine-bar game, it makes sense to go for a refreshing glass. This means fizz, rosé, cocktails – or a lively red.

The trend has filtered down from wine bars into wine shops and supermarkets. It takes in reds that might always have been smooth and juicy, such as cabernet franc from the Loire in France or pinot noir from Chile or New Zealand. (See my wines of the week for a fantastic Antipodean pinot sold in Asda, which has really smartened up its wine act lately.) It also involves new expressions of wines you might once have expected to be very oaky and thick, such as Argentinian malbec.

Remember the days when there was so much oak on Argentinian malbec that it smelt of a lumberjack yard? And the grapes used were routinely left on the vine to get so ripe that the wine came in at 15% abv or higher, and had a dull taste a friend dubbed ‘Dead Fruit Zone’? Now producers such as Matías Riccitelli (look in Majestic) and Domaine Bousquet (Waitrose has two of these, both excellent, especially the more expensive Gaia Organic Malbec; 14.6%; 16.99) make malbec in a more juicy style, variously unoaked or with more subtle oak.

Producers in classical regions are also opting in. The key word is ‘drinkability’ – one Lea & Sandeman use to describe the brilliant Artuke Rioja 2021, Spain (13.5%; £12.95, or there’s a discount if you buy a mixed case). Made using a technique called carbonic maceration – famously used in Beaujolais – this is a bright, vivacious wine that’s all about joyful red-berry flavours, a world away from the coconut matting and vanilla oak of some Rioja.

Then there are wines that break all the rules. At Adnams they are listing a new wine from the Italian family producer Endrizzi – Dalis Rosso 2022 (12.5%; £13.99). This is unusual for blending grapes from different regions: it’s made with teroldego grown in the foothills of the Alps and cabernet sauvignon, petit Verdot and sangiovese, grown in coastal Tuscany. And it’s delicious: uplifting, smooth and delicious drunk slightly chilled. Yes, even in winter.