Wine club November offer
NOT SO DARK NIGHTS – 12 BOTTLES FOR £84
Packed full of dark red fruits, layered with vanilla oak and finished with a dusting of spice. It is complex, rounded and long and really shows best if you open the bottle early, or maybe even decant it before serving, just to let the flavours fill out. Terrific value for a wellmade wine.
Ramón Bilbao Selección Especial 2017, Rioja, Booths £10: A notch up from the regular wine and it shows in exuberant fruit, thyme and rosemary notes and a fresh, food-friendly finish.
Finca San Martin 2017, Rioja Crianza, Torre de Oña, Yorkshire Vintners
£15: Based in Rioja Alavesa, and owned by La Rioja Alta, this is a gem of a producer. Despite the early frost some good wines were made with depth and concentration. Cherries and strawberry fruit, with vanilla, balsamic and spice notes on the finish.
Contino Rioja Reserva 2017, Field and Fawcett, £19.95: Contino is a 62-hectare estate, owned by the CVNE company but run as an independent entity. Contino wines always have a sheen of quality with cherry and plum fruit, oak and structure in perfect harmony.
Finca Valpiedra Reserva 2014, Hic! Ledston, £24.75: There are stones in the vineyard and so they put them on the label too, to show that this valley of stones, Valpiedra, is a tough place to grow grapes. But the stones work around the clock, absorbing heat during the day and reflecting it back at night adding deeper flavours and ripeness to the wine. This wine has structure, with raspberry and blackberry fruit layered with cedar and a hint of crumpled leather. Serious stuff and worthy of the best roast lamb you can find.
Allende 2014, Rioja, Harvey Nichols £29: Miguel Angel de Gregorio started this company from scratch just 26 years ago, buying vineyards, building a winery and making a name for his exceptional wines. High altitude vineyards, 100% Tempranillo grapes and predominantly French oak gives this wine a fresh style, allowing the blackberry, blueberry fruit to shine out, backed by tobacco and savoury character. Delicious and distinctive.
La Rioja Alta 904 Gran Reserva 2011, Bon Coeur £55: This is the wine of legends, a step back in time to classic, large cask-aged Rioja with layers of fruit, oak, tobacco and silk. Old school but still fabulous. Everyone needs to have tasted it at least once in their lifetime.
Now the clocks have gone back it is time to close the curtains at night and settle down by the fire with a glass of greattasting wine. This month’s wines are good enough for Saturday night drinking, but in this case, each bottle is enjoyable any night of the week.
There are 12 bottles in the case, two bottles of each wine, with three whites and three reds to provide lots of choice. The crisp, dry whites all come from France – Bordeaux and the Languedoc – while the reds come from Navarra, Portugal and Romania.
This 12-bottle case costs just £84 with delivery at £9.95 for a single case but if you order two cases to the same address, it is free.
Just Google “Yorkshire Post Wine Club” and the offer pops up, or go to www. houseoftownend.com/yorkshire-postwine-club. You can also ring our order line on 01482 638888, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Outside this time, leave a message including your telephone number and we will ring you back.
There are two each of:
Whites: Les Hauts de Bel Air Sauvignon Blanc 2020, Bordeaux – fresh-tasting, lively, minerally Sauvignon Blanc; Chardonnay 2019 Les Argelières, Languedoc – rounded and elegant Chardonnay, perfect with roast chicken; Grenache Blanc 2020, 172 de Visu, Sélection Parcellaire, Languedoc – dry and delicious with white peach, mango and lime .
Reds: Paparuda Feteasca Neagra 2019, Romania – dark plum and bramble fruit; Smart Dog Syrah 2020, Alentejo, Portugal – ripe damson fruit with chocolate and spice; Campo Nueva Tempranillo 2020, Spain – full of juicy red fruit flavours.