Sweet wine heaven! I often prefer the Chenin Blancs from the Loire to Sauternes and, sure enough, this is a candidate for my dessert wine of the year. It’s very rich, yet elegant and poised at the same time, with only 11.5% alcohol. Honey, apple, quice and vivid acidity combine to perfection on your tongue. A remarkable wine that only seems to get better with age.
Food Match: Cheese
2009 Ségla, Margaux, Bordeaux
( £39, 14%, Oddbins )Attractive Margaux made in a very approachable style, even for a 2009, with sweet cassis fruit and stylish oak integration. The wine has good acidity for the vintage, with elegant, fine-grained tannins and good palate length. Not a keeper, but attractive now.
2010 Berry Bros & Rudd Good Ordinary Claret, Bordeaux
( £9, 13.5%, Berry Bros & Rudd )Not quite as sumptuous and fleshy as the 2009 GOC, but you’d expect that based on the character of the 2010 vintage. Just give this a little time to fill out, because it’s an appealingly fresh, well structured red with attractive berry fruits and medium tannins.
2007 Ogier, Clos de l'Oratoire des Papes, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rhône
( £25, 15%, Majestic )Too many UK retailers are already on the 2009 and even 2010 vintage of CNDP, so it’s good to taste a wine that, while still young, is showing some bottle maturity. This is rich and deeply coloured with dark berry fruits, a hint of clove and a spicy, meaty finish.
2008 Iona, One Man Band, Elgin
( £23.99, 14%, Enotria & Coe )There are no fewer than six varieties in this well-crafted red from the high flying Iona winery in Elgin. Syrah dominates to the tune of 80%, with support from Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Mourvèdre and Viognier. The wine has real density, with smoky, bramble and blackberry fruit, toasty oak and the freshness you’d expect from a cooler area. A bright debut.
2008 Caiarossa, Tuscany
( £12, 14.5%, Farr Vintners )A ripe, expressive , full-bodied Tuscan blend of no fewer than seven Bordeaux, Rhône and Tuscan vareities. The wine is is ripe and textured, with sweet oak, ripe fig and plum flavours and attrctive clove spice. The oak os a little drying on the finish perhaps.
2009 Vignobles Jeanjean, Les Hauts de Castelmaure, Corbières, Languedoc-Roussillon
( £11.99, 14%, Majestic )Heady, aromatic, garrigue-saturated red blend of Carignan, Grenache and Syrah, made in a modern style with some carbonic maceration and French oak. Richly aromaitc, with lots of fresh herbs and a sweet, spicy succulence. Needs a barbecue to show at its best.
2008 Isole e Olena Cepparello, Tuscany
( £45, 14.5%, Liberty Wines )Paolo de Marchi is in the vanguard of Italy’s top rank producers with his switch to screwcaps. This, his top wine, is a stunning expression of Sangiovese, full of youthful, vibrant red cherry and damson skin fruit, with well integrated oak, medium tannins and bags of potential.
2011 Changyu Cabernet/Gernischt, Ningxia, China
( £9.99, 12.5%, Waitrose )One of the more drinkable Chinese wines to cross my tasting bench, this is a quaffable, sweetish blend with slighty angular acidity and pleasant cassis and red cherry fruit. Not masively (or even slightly) complex, but certainly drinkable.
2007 Concha y Toro, Otorio Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Maule Valley
( £6.99, 12%, Tesco, www.tesco.com )It’s comparatively rare to find Sauvignon Blanc made as a sweet wine on its own (as opposed to blended with Semillon), but this value-for-money sticky from Chile suggests that the grape is well suited to these styles. Honey and quince with an undertone of pink grapefruit.
2009 Trapiche Broquel Bonarda, Mendoza
( £10.99, 14%, Tesco )Bonarda could be one of Argentina’s USPs if only more producers made the wine as well as this rich, savoury, liquorice and blackberry-like red, with its sweet vanilla oak, medium weight tannins and spicy concentration. Serious stuff with an Italianate twist.
2011 Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Les Dix Arpents, Montlouis, Loire
( £15.99 down to £11.99, 13%, Waitrose )The 2011 vintage was a tricky one in the Loire, but this wine is gloriously unaffected. It’s a pure, dry, oak-matured Chenin Blanc which combines notes of apples, honey and pears with some sweet vanilla and assertive, mouthwatering acidity. A delicious wine from the talented Jacky Blot.