CityLife

Quality wines from the New World

Charles Back's wines range wide

LOTS of offers around on quality wines at the moment. Sainsbury’s, for instance, have knocked £4 off Louis Jadot Meursault 2006, a classic white Burgundy from a top village.

It smells of hawthorn and honey and on the palate is ripe, creamy and buttery with discreet oak from 15 months of barrel maturing before being bottled. Worth the still hefty £19.99 price tag (until April 7).

Two seductive organic wines from California, next.
Bonterra Sauvignon Blanc 2007 offers spring early with its scents of new-mown grass and meadows. It tastes melony with a whack of welcome acidity. It is down from £9.99 to £6.99 at Waitrose and ocado.com until March 24.
 

There’s a similar deal at the same outlets on Bonterra Merlot 2006, which is down from £10.99 to £7.32 between March 25-April 21.
The addition of some cabernet sauvignon adds backbone to the fruity merlot, with its riot of blackberry and herb flavours. A lovely approachable red.
 

Smoky vanilla notes

Campo Viejo Gran Reserva is less approachable, slightly stern indeed, but it is intense benchmark Rioja. Produced only in exceptional vintages, oak ageing gives its dark plum fruit smoky vanilla notes, which I’m a sucker for. It costs £12.99 from Sainsbury’s and Thresher’s.
 

Reserve Wines of Didsbury, recently named independent wine merchant of the year, are strong on the new world. Check out their New Zealand pinot noirs alone.
 

In the medium price range, I like two South African wines from the Fairview Range, which Reserve can order - Fairview Darling Chenin Blanc 2008 (£7.99) and Fairview Pinotage 2007 (£8.99).
 

Owner Charles Back’s family took over the winery a couple of generations back but Fairview, with its views of Table Mountain, dates back to 1693.

Antelope steak

Back is very much a 21st century winemaker, maintaining high profile with affordable quality wines from the whimsically titled Goats Do Roam range and even Fairtrade wines (reviewed recently in these pages).
 

The Chenin, from Paarl, offers fresh, unwooded tropical fruit on nose and palate, while the American-oaked Pinotage is all mulberries and vanilla with a grind of spice, perfect for an antelope steak.
 

Staying with the new world and a duo of Chilean Reds, whose labels contain a recreation of the Chilean huaso (gaucho) dance.

Certainly showing its spurs is Dona Dominga Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 which, at £9.99 from Waitrose or Oddbins, unleashes an all-singing all dancing mix of plums, cherries, chocolate and tobacco.
 

Raspberry shortcake

Not quite such a sensory overload from the Dona Dominga Reserva Carmenere Shiraz (Waitrose, £6.99) but its blackberry fruit is perhaps less assertive with food.
 

Finally, a lovely champagne for Mother’s day (any excuse). The distinctive Philipponnat Royale Reserve (Oddbins, £33.99) is made from up to 50 per cent pinot noir with a touch of oak and it shows.

Lime and honey on the nose are followed raspberry shortcake tastes, if that’s not too fanciful!