Thursday Club with talk RADIO: Classic Iberian Wines

This week on talkRADIO, we are continuing the Iberian theme for the summer as most of us can’t get out to Spain or Portugal. I’ve gone for three wines in very different styles that you may have heard of, but not be sure what they are. We have a white, a red and a dry sherry. Yes! It’s time to taste that again.

ILUSIONISTA, Verdejo, Rueda, Spain. 

Rueda is another Spanish wine region that favours white wine, and these whites are made with a grape called Verdejo. If you like a more tropical style of Sauvignon Blanc, you will love this. It’s aromatic, zesty and limey with notes of smoky passion fruit and guava. There’s a creaminess here too that makes it a great food pairing wine and as you’d expect, it loves Spanish cuisine. Try it with seafood, white meat, carpaccios, sushi and semi-cured cheeses.

Find it for £11.15 from Vinissimus here.

Tio Pepe Fino Sherry, Jerez, Spain.

Don’t run away! This is not the sweet stuff your nan drinks. Sherry is one of the most misunderstood wines in the whole world. I think it’s because the word itself sounds sweet! The truth is, classic, ‘proper’ sherry is dry. Bone dry. If you’re into salted almonds, twiglets and salty umami goodness, then you should give it a try, chilled in a small glass. It’s incredibly moreish and fantastic with salty snacks. Fino is made with a grape called Palomino fino, hence the name. It’s made as normal dry white wine, then fortified with grape spirit to around 15% and aged in barrels under a type of yeast bloom called ‘flor’. You could also switch thing up and try it in a ‘Tiojito’ instead of rum. So refreshing! Here’s more on Fino and the other style of Sherry here.

Find it for £10 from Sainsbury’s here and many other stores

Extra Special Douro Red, Portugal.

In the past when we thought about red wine from Portugal, it was all about Port: a fortified red. Nowadays however, Portugal is producing some fantastic DRY red wines that are totally unique to the country and provide fantastic value for money as they are less famous than others. The main red wine grape used to make quality red Port is Touriga Nacional and the Douro wine region is king for this. It often forms the backbone of the red wine blends (they’re usually always blended), with the rest being made up by several local red wine grapes. Always big and bold, think blackberry, prune, blackcurrant and cinnamon spice. Open it up early to give it some air and it would love some grilled meat or even dark chocolate.

Find it on offer for £4.88 (down from £6.50) at Asda here.

Thursday Club with Talk Radio: Unusual Pinot Noir

Thirsty Thursday means it’s time for the Thursday Club on talkRADIO! This week, it’s about Pinot Noir - ‘the heartbreak grape’, so named because due to its thin skin, it's very difficult to grow to its best potential and has caused many a winemaker nights of lost sleep. When conditions are right and it goes well however, it makes wonderful, elegant, aromatic wine. 

Today’s Pinot Noirs are a little different as they are not from places you might necessarily expect and certainly not from the most famous regions for them, namely Burgundy in France, Champagne and California. Welcome to a Pinot Noir fine Wine special. 

Sancerre Rouge ‘Les Champs Clos’ Pinot Noir, 2019 FRANCE

Sancerre is always white, right? Wrong! While the majority of Sancerre wine is white, 20% of wine production there is actually red and it will be made with the Pinot Noir grape. Mind blown? I thought so. Sancerre is a region in France’s cool climate Loire Valley and it is the spiritual home of the white grape Sauvignon Blanc (White Sancerre = Sauvignon), but it suits a cool and elegant style of Pinot too. Think floral notes of violet with crunchy, red cherry and berry fruit and a moreish, tart acidity. 

Find it at Sainsbury’s here for £11.50

Bolney Estate Pinot Noir, 2020, Sussex, ENGLAND

English still wine used to be a bit of a joke, with germanic varieties producing wines that were at once screeching high in acidity yet also too sweet. Nowadays, we’re finding that many serious producers are looking to the key champagne grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for their still wines and having much better results - globally award-winning results in fact. The founders of Bolney Estate had the foresight to plant back in 1972 in Haywards Heath, West Sussex as only the 6th commercial vineyard in the country. Now, the winemaking team is lead by the daughter of the founders, Sam Linter. Her Pinot Noir has won multiple awards internationally and the 2020 is just released, with its soft, velvety red fruit, hints of earth and coffee beans with a touch of chocolate dipped cherry on the finish. 

You can also visit Bolney for a wonderful day out. They have tours, tastings, a bar, a lovely restaurant and an event space available to book. When we can do that again!

Find it at Waitrose Cellar here for £17.99 and Bolneywineestate.com

Akitu, Central Otago, New Zealand

Pinot Noir is one of the very few red grapes that is frequently used to make white wine. The most common version of this is of course in Champagne and sparkling wine; it's much less common to see still, white Pinot Noir like this one. Hailing from just beside Lake Wanaka on 250 million year old schist soils in New Zealand’s Central Otago, lots of sunshine and dry autumns give amazing fruit purity and complexity. The delicate pink gives away the grape’s red skin and subtle notes of raspberry, white chocolate, honeysuckle, citrus and mandarin. There’s also a proper, creamy texture that makes this a silky, serious white wine.

Find it here at The Champagne Company for £32

Spring Reds: Kevin O'Sullivan on Talk Radio

Today, Helena spoke to Kevin O’Sullivan on talkRADIO about some perfect Easter and spring time, red wines. Fancy a soft Pinot Noir with your Sunday lamb, or how about a bright and breezy País with your barbecue? And don’t forget the failsafe match for chocolate: Port. Here are the three they tasted today.

Polemico País, Viña Laurent, Itata Valley, Chile, 2019.

País is an ancient grape variety making a resurgence, produced here in Chile's cool, Southern Itata Valley from 150 year-old ungrafted vines. Rustic, aromatic and supple, Polemico oozes earthy, red cherry fruit with a touch of toffee. Very easy drinking. A great choice for a barbecue.

RRP £12.25 from Corney & Barrow

Nielson Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County, USA, 2017.

Santa Barbara in California is famous for silky, wild strawberry-scented Pinot Noirs with a cool minerality thanks to the area’s close proximity to the sea. This is your ‘Sideways’ Pinot; floral and aromatic, with crisp acidity, vibrant fruit and a gentle, mineral finish.

RRP £22.95 from Slurp.co.uk

Fonseca Bin 27, Reserve Port, NV.

Bin 27 is a reserve Port that has seen extended wood ageing to make it ready to drink upon release. It’s a blend from several vintages and has a deep ruby colour, with intense, blackberry, cassis, cherry and plum aromas and flavours. Luscious and velvety, it's great with tangy raspberry dishes or dark chocolate.

RRP £12.95 75cl from The Whisky Exchange, Majestic, Virgin Wines, Wine Rack & others.

See what else Helena has tasted on talkRADIO with Kevin O’Sullivan with Mike Graham, here, here and here.

Perfect Pairings: Manzanilla with Fish & Chips

If you’re thinking ‘Manza-what-now?’, you’re not alone. Manzanilla is a style of aged white wine that’s a bit different to the norm as it’s made in a super dry, deliberately savoury style that evoques salted almonds and something reminiscent of twiglets. It sounds weird, granted, but it’s immensely moreish, umami and textural - the very definition of a food wine. It hails from the south of Spain, not far from Seville, where it is sipped chilled on hot, dusty nights with small plates of nuts and tapas.

Why it works

The crispness of the Manzanilla cuts through the oiliness of the batter beautifully and the saltiness of it balances the fat and brings out the subtle flavours in the fish. Zesty, fresh, saline and nutty, it’s little wonder that Manzanilla is perfect with seafood. Cuisine in the Spanish, seaside town where it’s made is dominated by fresh fish and as they say: what grows together, goes together!

Try: Barbadillo Solear Manzanilla

Considered the benchmark for Manzanilla, this wine has been aged a bit longer than most (6 years) and is lip-pursingly dry and saline with subtle, chamomile notes.

RRP: Currently on offer at £9.19 from Waitrose for 70cl or £5.25 for 37.5cl from various stockists (see below*) including The Wine Society.

More about Manzanilla

You will know Jerez by its English translation: Sherry. In Europe, it’s usually the region that gives the name to a style of wine, so in the UK and the US, wines from here are known as ‘Sherries’. This fact has become a bit of a problem for the region as ‘Sherry’ is a word with so many associations to all things sweet, such as trifle and that sickly stuff in granny’s drinks cabinet. While it’s true that you can get sweet, ‘cream’ Sherries, the real stuff; the interesting stuff is bone dry, saline, nutty and complex. Manzanilla, like Fino, is white wine made from the Palomino grape that is aged in barrels under a layer of ‘flor’, which is a frothy, white yeast up to 2cm thick that protects the wine underneath from oxidation. This flor can only grow in this very specific part of Spain, which is why its effects on the texture and flavour of the wine are unique. The wines are also made using a solera system, where older barrels are topped up by the fresher barrels over time. Typically, the final wines are blends between 4 and 7 years old.

The difference between Manzanilla and Fino sherry is that Manzanilla is ever so slightly lighter than Fino in both colour and flavour, thanks to the cooler location where its made and aged, just down he road from Jerez in Sanlúcar de Barrameda by the sea. Manzanilla is still ostensibly known as a Sherry and Jerez and Sanlúcar are the only two locations where these wines can be made.

*Other stockists of the 37.5cl bottle:

Amazon, Oddbins, Bestway Retail (Wine Rack), Cambridge Wine Merchants, Connolly’s Wine Merchants (West Midlands), Village Wines (Kent), Baythorn Wines (Essex), Martinez Wines (Yorkshire), Lewis and Cooper, R Campbell, Roberts & Speight (Yorkshire), The Wine Press (West Midlands), Beers of Europe (Norfolk), Vintage Cellars (London), Sandhams Wine Merchants (Lincolnshire), Corkscrew Jersey, Mumbles Fine Wines (Wales), Richard Granger (Tyne & Wear), Alexander Hadleigh (Hampshire), Shaftesbury Wines (Dorset), George Hill of Loughborough, The Fine Wine Co (Scotland), Borders Wines (Scotland).

By Helena Nicklin

Disclaimer: We are regularly sent samples to taste for consideration for magazine pieces and social media. Not all of them are used. We are not paid to feature anything unless the article or post clearly states that the content is a promotion or sponsored.