Trivento Private Reserve Malbec 2021, Uco Valley (Argentina)
A very good value Malbec from Argentina’s Uco Valley, this Private Reserve 2021 was awarded a gold medal in the International Wine Challenge 2022, and was recently awarded 93 points by Master of Wine Tim Atkin in his 2022 Best of Argentina report.
With bramble, plum and black pepper on the nose, and blackberry and plum, with a hint of spice and vanilla on the palate, this is a smooth, medium-bodied wine with medium tannins and a lengthy finish. A well-balanced wine which is a good match for red meat dishes or cheese.
Available from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons (£8.50-£10)
This past year I have particularly enjoyed exploring English and Welsh wines and it has been a delightful voyage of discovery. And so I have also included some choice wines from our fair isle in this list of Christmas wines for you to enjoy either with food, or simply when you are chilling out with your favourite film over the festive period. Merry Christmas!
Apéritifs
If sherry is your favourite pre-prandial tipple, the Don Gaspar Dry Amontillado Lustau has a pleasant nutty and dried fruit flavour, together with a hint of tanginess. It is perfect with cured meats, manchego and olives. Waitrose (£11.99)
If you’re looking for a refreshing sparkling wine to get your Christmas lunch off to a fine start, this Nyetimber Classic Cuvée MV is a treat. With flavours of honey, almond and brioche on the palate, this is a very fine and elegant sparkling wine. It is no wonder it is consistently judged top of its game. Grape Britannia (£32.99, also available as a half bottle).
Or why not try a fresh and light Greek white wine? The Moschofilero-Roditis 2020 from Marks & Spencer’s Found range brings together the floral attributes and zippy citrus flavours of the two grape varieties. The result is a dry white wine with Muscaty, honeyed tones and a minerally, lemon tang to create a well-balanced wine with a lengthy finish. Marks & Spencer (£8.50)
White wines
This Paco & Lola Albariño 2019, described by Decanter as ‘everything you want on the palate, and more’ is a fresh, lively wine with flavours of lime, lemon, peach and a touch of salinity. It is a very well-balanced wine that is a perfect match for white meat and fish dishes. Tesco, Sainsbury’s (£12- £14)
The Camel Valley Atlantic Dry 2020 is a delightful blend of Pinot Blanc and Bacchus grapes. It is a dry, medium-bodied wine with refreshing acidity and flavours of apple and peach. This is an ideal wine for a fish or seafood dish – you can almost feel the sea air and hear the waves of the Cornish coast as you drink it. Grape Britannia (£14.99)
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Jurançon Sec is a dry wine made from a blend of Gros Manseng and Petit Manseng grapes from southwest France. With flavours of apple, pear and grapefruit, it has medium acidity and a medium finish. This is a wine that will handle the myriad flavours of a festive Christmas lunch very well if you prefer white wine with your main dish. Sainsbury’s (£9)
Red wines
The complex interplay of flavours associated with a traditional Christmas turkey lunch means that a wine with lower tannins will cope better. The Winbirri Signature 2017, made from Norfolk-grown Dornfelder grapes, has blackberry and cherry flavours, together with a hint of toastiness and spice. This is a well-structured wine with medium tannins and a long, smooth finish. It will be an excellent match for your turkey and trimmings. Grape Britannia (£14.99)
A Malbec from Cahors will go well with duck or pork and Le Grand Retour 2018 is a dry wine with medium acidity and medium tannins. It has flavours of blackberry and jamminess, with a hint of chocolate and liquorice, and is a well-balanced, medium-bodied wine. Majestic (£11.99, Mix Six £9.99)
For something bolder, this 1000 Stories Zinfandel 2018 from California is a very good full-bodied wine. It has intense black fruit flavours together with vanilla and caramel on the palate. It is a well-balanced wine with a lingering finish, and will cope well with roast beef or similar strong flavours. Tesco, Sainsbury’s (£15).
Dessert wines
Christmas is a time for indulgence. And what nicer indulgence than a glass of port? Taylor’s 10-year old Tawny Port has a fruity, nutty flavour to enjoy with cheese or dessert, or post-lunch while watching the Queen’s speech. Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose (£16-£22)
The Australian Campbell’s Rutherglen Muscat is another treat. This is a lusciously sweet wine made from a blend of vintages of Muscat à petit grains rouges (Rutherglen Brown Muscat). With flavours of fruitcake, dates and nuts, this is a smooth, wonderfully balanced wine. It is a perfect match for cheese or dessert. Majestic (£14.99, Mix Six £12.49)
Why not try a Welsh fortified wine? The White Castle Vineyard 1581 is a cracking way to finish your lunch. Or perhaps try it with a mince pie later in the day. Well, anytime really – it’s a delight. A soft, smooth wine with a long finish, it has rich blackberry and plum flavours on the palate. In a word, heavenly. Grape Britannia (£27.49).
Merry Christmas!
Look out for more wine suggestions from around the world in 2022.
Argentina’s wine regions are defined by altitude, with many of the best vineyards located at a height of over 1000 metres above sea level. In Salta, in the north of the country, some lie more than 3000 metres above sea level and it is altitude which enables Argentina to produce such good quality wine so close to the equator. The country’s two best known grape varieties are Malbec and Torrontés, though Bonarda and Chardonnay are also widely planted.
Torrontés grapes flourish in the high-altitude, cool, dry climate of the Salta region of northern Argentina, situated on the edge of the Andes Mountains, producing highly aromatic dry white wines with a crisp, refreshing flavour and a lingering finish. The wines are an excellent match for chicken and fish dishes and their light aromatic style and relatively high acidity also pair well with spicy Indian and Thai dishes.
Mendoza Province in the south of Argentina dominates wine production in the country and within Mendoza, the Uco Valley with its high-altitude vineyards is known for its high quality Malbec. There is plenty of sun to ripen the grapes, and the cool nights help retain acidity and fresh fruit flavours in the grapes, producing expressive, flavourful wines. A natural pairing for these Malbec wines is of course steak, but they will go well with most meat dishes.
Here are two wines to try to give a flavour of what Argentina has to offer:
Alamos Uco Valley Malbec 2019, Mendoza
This dry, medium (+) bodied wine with high acidity is bursting with fruit. Aromas of blackberry, red cherry, plum and raspberry on the nose, and intense flavours of blackberry, plum, cherry and chocolate, with a hint of spice, on the palate, it is a well-balanced wine with medium (+) tannins and a medium (+) finish. A natural pairing is steak but we enjoyed it with a grilled lamb dish. Available from Majestic £9.99 (£8.99 Mix Six)
If you enjoyed this Malbec and would like to compare it with a Malbec from its ancestral home in SW France, why not give this Cahors Malbec a try?
Zuccardi Valles Torrontés, Salta 2019
This is a very good example of a Salta Torrontés wine. With intense floral aromas of elderflower, orange blossom and honeysuckle, as well as peach and apricot on the nose, and flavours of lemon, apricot and peach with a hint of spice on the palate, this is a dry wine with medium (+) acidity. It is a medium (+) bodied wine with a medium (+) finish and high alcohol. A very good, well-balanced wine.
If you enjoyed the Cahors Malbec the other day, you might want to try these other wines from the southwest region of France. Lying between the Pyrenees and the Massif Central, and somewhat overshadowed by neighbouring Bordeaux, this area is a veritable cornucopia of interesting grape varieties, many not found elsewhere, and is in my view, a greatly under-rated wine producing region. The huge diversity of grape varieties and wine styles found here is what makes the region so compelling for the wine enthusiast.
Mind you, the names don’t all roll off the tongue so easily. On the red side, for example, you have Fer Servadou (also known as Mansois, Braucol and Pinenc depending on locality), Duras, Malbec, Tannat, and Négrette. And on the white side, Mauzac, Len de l’El (Loin de l’Oeil), Arrufiac, Petit Courbu, and Gros / Petit Manseng are some of the indigenous grape varieties.
And with this wide variety of grapes, so too the wines they produce: from the sweet white wines of Monbazillacand the Merlot blends of Bergerac, to the historic ‘black wines’ of Cahors and the bold reds of Madiran, the dry and sweet white wines of Jurançon, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and the subtle and unique wines of the Gaillac appellation. There is something for everyone in this part of France and there are some wonderful dishes and cheeses to pair them with. It’s a gastronomic delight.
Ossau-Iraty, for example, goes well with a Gascony white; a light red Marcillac is a great match for a platter of cold meats; and duck confit with a Cahors or Madiran red go together like a horse and carriage. Try a chicken dish or seafood with a Gaillac white, and a cassoulet is a perfect match for a Gaillac red.
Southwest France is an Aladdin’s cave of new discoveries and here are three wines from the region to whet your appetite. And all under a tenner!
Gaillac Rouge 2019, Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference
This dry red wine is a blend of local grape varieties Braucol and Duras, together with the more familiar Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. With aromas of blackberry and cherry, and a hint of peppery spice on the nose, and flavours of raspberry, black cherry and blackberry with a hint of vanilla on the palate. Medium-bodied, with medium tannins and medium alcohol, this is a well-balanced wine which will go well with a stew or casserole. Sainsbury’s £8
Jurançon Sec, Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference
Tucked away in the foothills of the Pyrenees near the town of Pau, Jurançon has been known for its wines since the Middle Ages. This Jurançon Sec is a dry wine made from Gros Manseng and Petit Manseng grapes, both indigenous to the region. With aromas of apple, pear, peach and nectarine on the nose, and apple, pear and grapefruit on the palate, the wine has medium (+) acidity, medium alcohol and a medium (+) finish.
This is awell-balanced wine which can be served as an aperitif or with a spicy Asian dish. We enjoyed it with Korean Yangnyeom chicken – spicy, fried chicken. It’s a great introduction to this oft overlooked wine. Sainsbury’s £7.50
Gaillac Blanc 2019, Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference
This is another recent discovery. The Gaillac Blanc is made from the Len de l’El (Loin de l’oeil) grape, so called because the bunches of grapes hang quite low, so quite some way from the bud (the ‘eye’) they grew from. The grape is indigenous to the region and all Gaillac Blanc wines must contain at least a percentage of it to qualify for the appellation.
A crisp, dry white wine of medium (+) acidity, this is a medium bodied wine which is very well balanced. It has aromas of apple, pear, peach and orange on the nose, with apple, grapefruit and orange flavours, and a hint of flintiness on the palate. An excellent match for fish. Sainsbury’s £8
Like most people you probably think of Argentina when you think of Malbec. That is hardly surprising since over 70% of wines produced from Malbec grapes are from the country. But its origin, of course, was France, southwest France, where once upon a time the ‘black wine’, as it was known, accounted for more than half of the exports from the port of Bordeaux. After a period of decline lasting several hundred years until the latter half of the 20th century, efforts were made to revive Malbec in its home region.
And very successful they were, too. By 1971, the Cahors region had achieved Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) status and rightly so. However, only around 4,000 hectares of the vineyards that are designated AOC Cahors cultivate Malbec grapes, and so Malbec from Cahors is not seen as much as its Argentinian cousin.
But this wine from Georges Vigouroux is an excellent example of what a Cahors Malbec can be. The Vigouroux family has been producing Malbec since 1887 and was instrumental in the work to raise the profile of the grape variety in the Cahors region from the 1940s.
Le Grand Retour (The Great Comeback) celebrates Malbec’s revival in Cahors. It is a dry wine with medium (+) acidity and medium tannins, and has aromas of blackberry, bramble and spice on the nose, and blackberry, jamminess and a hint of chocolate and liquorice on the palate. It is a well-balanced wine, medium-bodied, with a medium (+) finish and medium alcohol.
We enjoyed it with duck but it will go well with lamb, and it is a perfect match for cassoulet, the rustic pork and bean casserole from the region. Call me sentimental, but I do like to try wines with a back story and this is one that has a happy ending! Majestic £11.99 (Mix Six £9.99)
