RAISE A GLASS

January isn’t just about Dry January, it can also be Try January. I like to pick up the gauntlet by sipping new wines and I hope you do too.

Here’s a couple of chardonnays which have recently graced a glass in my household. Both of them – by default rather than design – I sipped with roast chicken which had been roasted with lemon butter.

I’ve realised that for two consecutive weeks I served the same Sunday dinner. Woops! Anyway, the chicken juices dripped into thyme dappled carrots, onions and potatoes which were only too happy to embrace the moment and partner the wine.

Robert Oatley Finisterre Chardonnay 2018 (£19.99, Waitrose) is a delicious wine from Margaret River in Australia. I’m falling for the wines from this south-western tip of the country.

It’s warm, but the sea on three sides of the region allows grapes to gracefully develop delicious flavours.

This wine is fermented, and aged, in new oak – oooo, lots of flavour!

The result is a wine with a lovely freshness, displaying citrus, tropical fruit, vanilla, and with a creamy, nutty mouthfeel. The flavours linger for a long, long time.

My next chardonnay is from Limoux in the south of France: La Voûte (£13.99, online at Laithwaites). It has been created by Laithwaites, and in particular winemaker Mark Hoddy.

I joined a Zoom call when Mark proudly declared the wine is “something quite special”. Indeed, I would agree. The oak-fermented wine is buttery and lush. I sensed pineapple, lemon, caramelised apples, and summer flower beds.

My last for this week is a vodka with a caffeine kick. Mason’s Espresso Vodka (£28, online at masonsofyorkshire.com) is one of a new range of vodkas from the brand which already makes a statement with lovely gins.

The vodka is “nuanced” with coffee beans from El Salvador, and is perfectly placed to be a main ingredient in an Espresso Martini.

So I made one.

I shook these ingredients with one ice cube in a cocktail shaker; 50ml Espresso Vodka; 25ml Guinness; 7.5ml Monin Caramel Syrup; and 25ml Espresso. And then I added more ice and shook again before straining into a cocktail glass.

It hit the spot, as it was meant to do when it was created for a weary Kate Moss back in the 80s.

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