Ocotber Newsletter - Autumnal wine tips

Autumn is well and truly upon us: chill winds, falling leaves and longer nights create a thirst for sumptuous, warming wines. In the summer months we have a tendency to quaff a great variety of wines with little discrimination. The solace we find in slurping finer wines, demands a more discerning and considerate approach. When spending an evening with one particular wine, curled up on the sofa, there has to be some personality there, an expression of individuality and an intensity of flavours that are a joy to return to again and again.

This is my favourite type of drinking, spending that little bit extra and really spoiling myself. The beauty is that when you are spending that little bit extra, all the value is in the bottle. The difference between and £5 bottle and a £15 should be staggering, the taste and persistence of such wines will make you wonder why you don’t do it more often. So why don’t we? The truth is that on the high street £15 is rarely a guarantee of quality and can often be a costly mistake. The problem is that great quality wines generally come (surprise, surprise) from great quality producers; great quality and great quantity however rarely go hand in hand. When you’re talking about ‘multiples’ (off-licence chains) or supermarkets, finding truly distinctive wines can be extremely difficult. The secret lies with small specialist importers or wine merchants with a keen eye for those carefully crafted boutique / artisan wines.

The beauty of the independent is that they really know their product: rather than the wines being selected by a distant head office, the tasting and selection of every wine has been undertaken by the manager/owner of the store. This level of knowledge combined with more than a pinch of passion doesn’t just guarantee a good bottle it means you have the chance to find out what’s actually in the bottle: where it came from and how it was made. Before you know it you might have learned something! I think this was how my interest in wine began, I loved drinking the stuff, but it was only when I was introduced to winemaking methods and terms like ‘terroir’ that I began to realise how much more there was out there.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing though: as soon as I realised the above shopping for wine on the high street became much less rewarding. To buy wine that has that “expression of individuality and an intensity of flavours” (Me (above!)) rather than the variation on fruit punch which much of it has become, we would do well to gravitate again towards the specialist.

So once there, what do we look for? My answer would be to trust them to look for you, with full whites in mind, ones with well woven oak spices and opulent mineral tones, I’m thinking of the Rhone and Rousillon and perhaps a bold Loire Chenin. On the reds, the rocks and damsons of Madiran have their pull as do lavish Chianti and elegant Bourgogne Pinots. The promise of layers of enfolding flavours is mouth watering alone, the best bit however is knowing that you’ll savour every last drop and sip slowly away. One bottle should be plenty and it will have lasted the entire evening, that’s what I call for value for money.

Ben 17.10.2007