Is this New Zealand’s best Pinot Noir? It’s certainly in the top half dozen examples of the grape, a wine that nods towards Chambolle-Musigny as much as its native North Island. It’s a subtle, fragrant red with silky tannins, sustaining acidity, chalky minerality and a stylishly judged balance of oak, fruit and tannin. Winemaking of a high order.
Food Match: Chicken
2013 Collefrisio, Vignaquadra, Abruzzo
( £13.50, 13.5%, Dvine Cellars )An impressive Pecorino from the Frisa hills of the Abruzzo, this shows that you don’t need wine to make a tasty white. Peachy and just off-dry, it’s got bags of flavour, bright acidity and a taut, minerally finish.
2012 Laurent Miquel Vérité Viognier, Pays d'Oc
( £14.99, 13.5%, Majestic )Laurent Miquel has long been the leading Viognier producer in the south of France, making wines that are as good as most Condrieu but at less than half the price. This vintage is his best yet in my view, a rich, spicy, sumptuous, yet well balanced white, with sweet vanilla oak, just the right amount of acidity to temper the concentration of the wine and hedonistic flavours of apricot, fresh cream and fresh ginger. Available on line initially by the half case, so hurry.
2012 Zalze Chenin Blanc Reserve, Coastal Region
( £9.99, 13.5%, Sainsbury's )Kleine Zalze deserves to be more famous than it is in South Africa. It consistently turns out a very good range of commercial wines, as well as smaller quantities of top end stuff. This belongs in the latter category and it’s a great example of ripe, tropically fruity Cape Chenin. Pineapple and melon notes are balanced by the refreshing acidity that’s the variety’s calling card and rounded out by subtle oak fermentation.
2011 Cloudy Bay Te Koko Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough
( £29.50, 13.5% )Te Koko is made in much smaller quantities than Cloudy Bay’s regular Sauvignon Blanc, and it’s a much more interesting wine, benefiting from wild yeast fermentation in French oak. Some people find the funky flavours a little challenging, but I love them. This is smoky and complex, with yeasty, doughy aromas, pithy grapefruit-like acidity, a touch of wax and gunflint and long, lingering finish. A wine that wouldn’t look out of place in Pessac-Léognan.
2013 Quinta de Azevedo, Vinho Verde
( £7.25, 11%, The Wine Society )The price of this eminently gluggable Vinho Verde has crept up in recent years (although it’s sometimes on a deal at Majestic), but it was almost too cheap before, given its quality. It’s light and refreshing, with appealing spritz, a whiff of the Atlantic and delicious peach, guava and citrus notes. Just as good as many more expensive Spanish Albariños produced on the other side of the border.
2013 Los Amigos, Rogue Vine, Grand Itata, Itata Valley
( POA, 13.2% )Made with a combination of old vine Cinsault and País, grown in the southerly Itata Valley, this is one of the most exciting Chilean reds I’ve had in years. Perfumed, spicy and full of personality, it’s fresh and minerally with subtle raspberry and red cherry fruit, understated (non existent?) oak influence and vibrant, cool climate vivacity. Like a Pinot Noir crossed with a northern Rhône Syrah, but with an ancient Chilean personality that is all its own.
2011 Canyon Park, The Guardians MRV, Danube Plain
( £14.95, 13%, The Wine Society )With a name like Canyon Park, let alone a price tag close to £15, the last place you’d expect this blend of Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier to come from is Bulgaria, but the country that gave us impossibly cheap Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1980s is emerging from the Eastern European doldrums at last. This is smoky, savoury and perfumed, with aromas of jasmine and honeysuckle, ripe, pear and apricot flavours and subtle oak integration. A sign of very good things to come?
2012 Evans & Tate Metricup Road Chardonnay, Margaret River, Western Australia
( £17.95, 14%, South Down Cellars )If you’re a fan of slightly old fashioned Aussie Chardonnays, rather than the Burgundian tastealikes that are increasingly being produced in regions like the Adelaide Hills and the Yarra Valley, you’ll love this peachy, ripe, pineapple fruity wine from Western Australia. It’s a big, bold wine with attractive, toasty oak and enough lemony acididty for balance.
2013 Neudorf Moutere Pinot Gris, Nelson
( £23, 14%, Must Wines )Neudorf is best known for its Pinots and especially its stellar Chardonnay, but winemaker Tim Finn can turn his hand to aromatic white grapes, too. This rich, musky, off-dry Pinot Gris is a case in point. Floral and intense, it combines notes of rose petal, sweet pears and quince, supported by acidity. Complex stuff with less residual sugar than many Kiwi examples of the grape.
2012 Mavum Pinot Grigio/Pinot Nero, Veneto
( £9.50, 12.5%, Amp Fine Wines, Hennings Wine Merchants )Pinot Grigio and Pinot Nero are very close genetically, so why not combine them in a white wine, vinifying the latter without its skins? The result is rather tasty, with aromatic, Golden Delicious apple, pear and quince notes, and just a hint of wild strawberry. Unoaked, refined and well balanced, this is a real find for less than £10.
2012 Château de France, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux
( N/A, 14% )There’s been a lot of talk about the 2013 Bordeaux whites being the vintage’s silver lining, but it’s important to remember that there are some appealing older vintage on the market that are already in bottle, this being a case in point. This is quite an opulent Pessac-Léognan, exhibiting flavours of guava and melon, subtle oak, a touch of gunflint and a fat, lees-influenced finish.