The perfect pre-dinner wine to stimulate your appetite. Pale straw in colour with a camomile and white-flower nose; light-bodied, crisply dry and elegant with great length and an edge of salinity.
Shockingly good for the price. Pale lemon in colour with citrus and mineral nose; medium-bodied, dry and crisp with green apple and green pear flavours; well balanced with a long finish.
An interesting blend providing blackberry, blueberry, currants and spice with nice weight and structure. The oak stands out a touch. Try with braised meat dishes.
Ripe plum, leather and a puff of sweet pipe smoke open this stalwart silver label Monastrell, always a consistent Spanish bet. This captures Jumilla's massive heat and generosity well, highlighting the savoury, concentrated old vines (40+ years old) grown on chalky, limestone soils. Whole-cluster maceration for 25 days before a year in French oak builds in structure as well as power. Not shy, this is drinking very well now in its 4th year, as the grippy, ample tannins are wearing around the edges.
Savoury anise, graphite and dried cassis open this Priorat, a blend of Garnacha and Cariñena. Bright blue plum, ripe cassis, anise and smoky quartz stoniness fill the generous body, one shouldered with plush tannins and moderate structure, and laced with bergamot. Acidity is fine, but enough to moderate the concentration and heat (14.5% feels hot on the finish). Drinking well now, decanted, and with herb-roasted lamb.
Produced in a solera and bottled after 25 years, this is a remarkable dessert wine. Dark brown in colour with an olive-green rim, it smells of molasses. Sweet and unctuous and soft on the palate, there’s an intense honeyed sweetness mixed with flavours of coffee beans and toast.
Medium-deep yellow with abundant bubbles. Medium-intensity, grapey aromas with ripe apples and yeast. Light-bodied, palate-cleansing lemony acidity and a slight taste of sherry in the background. Good as an apéritif. Drink now.