Spain, the final frontier, to boldly go....

Okay I am excited about the Star Trek movie but that is irrelevant.....

Spanish wines are so easy. I’ve just enjoyed a couple of days taking in the best that Spain has to offer and it did not disappoint. Great wine, full of flavour, fruit and it is so easy to drink. Admittedly most of the time it was washing down some superb Tapas but somehow the two go together like they are inseparable. Okay I have to admit to having a soft spot for Rioja, it is my drink of choice when I just fancy a glass of wine, satisfying on so many levels. The beauty of drinking it in Spain is not only the food but the constant sunshine and the incredibly cheap prices compared with anywhere outside of the country. The Euro’s relative strength to the Pound and Dollar may have hurt but when you think about the quality and satisfaction received from Spanish red wine, it’s very tempting to move there permanently.

I can strongly recommend the 2005’s, 2004’s and indeed most of this decade if you want a solid, reliable fruity wine with bags of flavour. Tempranillo, Gamacha (Grenache) and Carinena (Carignan) compete and meld to form this excellent wine. Personally I like Marques de Riscal, Vina Ardanza and Marques de Caceres, all readily available outside of Spain.

I’m off to the London International Wine Fair next week for two days of overdosing on every wine imaginable, wish me luck.

Good Wines under £10

I’m always on the look out for good value wines under a tenner (or under £30 in restaurants) that nobody else is drinking and at the moment I seem to be obsessed with Spanish Tempranillo grape red wines that are not Rioja. Tesco’s wine club do a good range of very drinkable wines that fall into this category with names you cannot pronounce but just look for the grape variety on the label and you will be fine.

I recently had two excellent white wines by the glass in restaurants for less than £9 a glass. I know it’s above my limit but wines by the glass in most restaurants are limited in choice so these are worth a mention. The first was a Viognier/Semillon mix from the Barossa Valley in Australia, a 2006 Grant Burge Zerk. Yes I know the name is horrendous but it was exquisite. A slightly flinty taste on the palette it had a lovely creamy texture without the usual bucket loads of wood shavings you expect from Ozzie wine. It gets better after two or three mouthfuls and then it’s gone (why does wine taste better after the first mouthful???) leaving you with a yearning for another glass then another then another...

The second was from Italy, a Flors Di Uis 2005 Vie Di Romans from the Friuli region. A superb visceral quality wine with honeyed overtones that sits beautifully in the mouth and is the perfect accompaniment to the excellent food at my local French restaurant Le Cafe Anglais in Bayswater. If you get a chance to get over to Whiteley’s just to have a glass of this stuff at the bar it is well worth the trip.