Focused, herbal, pithy white from the talented Katie Jones, who is making ground-breaking wines in the Languedoc-Roussillon. There are notes of nutmeg spice, citrus and pear on this beautifully framed dry white, with a bone dry, almost saline finish.
Food Match: Chicken
2012 Cullerot, Celler del Roure, Valencia
( £12.99, 13%, Davis Bell McCraith, Tivoli Wines )A highly unusual (possibly unique?) blend of Macabeo, Verdil, Pedro Ximénez and Chardonnay from Valencia of all places, this stylishly packaged, leesy white was made with very little suplhur, but it’s cleaner and fresher than many “natural” wines. Ageing takes place in clay amphorae, rather than oak and the result is all about fruit: apple, pear and a hint of stone fruit with subtle spices.
2011 Domaines Schlumberger, Riesling Les Princes Abbés, Alsace
( £13.99, 12.5%, Majestic )It’s a pleasure to drink an Alsace Riesling made in a dry style like this one. Stony, minerally and unoaked, this is tangy and transparent with appealing bottle development but enough concentration to age for another four to eight years. Great with food.
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.
2012 Terraprima Massís del Garraf, Penedès
( £12, 12.5% )An off-the-wall blend of Riesling and the Cava grape, Xarel-lo, this is something to challenge your friends with in a blind tasting. It’s got that slight earthiness of Xarel-lo, leavened by the acidity and lime blossom notes of Riesling, made in a dry style that works really well with food. Stony, mineral and ocean-influenced.
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.