TASTING WITH WILLIE No.7
“We tasted six wines. Everyone was delicious, and one white and one red were off the Richter scale! and all for less than £10!”
Six Wines for the beginning of May. Spring has finally arrived! I chose a white and a red under £10 from Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
I always buy all the wines I taste unless I tell you otherwise. For Tasting number 7, I was looking for fresh zesty whites excluding Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and elegant fruity reds.
THE WHITES.
I wanted to compare three Albarinos because this is an increasingly popular variety, deservedly so, but ended up with A picpoul and two Albarinos.
TESCO FINEST PICPOUL DE PINET 2020 £7.50 16.5 points
A delicious first wine! how nice to taste a 2020 vintage Picpoul. This is produced by an excellent Coop in The Roussillon ‘Costieres de Pomerols’. Nothing to do with Bordeaux! If you are bored of aggressive ‘BO’ infused Sauvignon Blanc, you’ll love the zingy freshness of this Picpoul. Lots of citrus, lovely and light but nice balance. Really good as drink on its own or a dependable partner, for barbies and spice.
MOST WANTED RIAS BAIXAS ALBARINO 2020 18.5 points
This is by far and away the best white under a tenner that I’ve tasted this year. This comes from the Northwest of Spain not far from the border with Portugal. The weather is not so different to the UK’s, perhaps a bit warmer but with plenty of rain. The Albarino grape shares characteristics with Viognier, Riesling and Chenin Blanc. At its best it has fantastic peachy aromas, wonderful crisp acidity and a racy stone fruit flavour with hints of Asian spice. Despite not being a fan of the name, the wine is an absolute winner! And at £7.75, Sainsbury’s have got a blockbuster on their hands. BRILLIANT!
WAITROSE BLUEPRINT ALBARINO 2020 £8.79 17 points
If I hadn’t tasted the Most Wanted Albarino, I would have considered this very toothsome white a great success. It has the lovely peachy aromatics and flavours but it’s just a tad ponderous. But this is still really good for the money, and thoroughly recommended.
So we tasted three real cracking whites that I would be happy to share with friends and family. That’s a pretty good hit rate.
THE REDS
With Spring theme firmly on the agenda, I thought it would be fun to try three Chiantis together from the three Supermarkets featured this week.
TESCO FINEST CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA 2018 £8.00 16.5 points
Lovely rich powerful bouquet. More than a hint of vanilla oak. This tastes very full on with a tad too much alcohol, but nice supporting vanilla spice and grainy strawberries. For £8 you cannot go wrong. I’d chill this down to restrain the excess alcohol. Good value nonetheless, particularly with typical Tuscan fare.
SAINSBURYS TASTE THE DIFFERENCE CHIANTI CLASSICO 2019 £9.00 16.5 points
If you like a fruitier style of Chianti, this is the wine to go for. Nice spicy confit strawberry bouquet. Less obviously oaky that the previous red. Nice medium bodied fruity flavours, good balance of fruit to acidity and tannin. More fruit driven the the Riserva.
MELINI CHIANTI RISERVA 2016 £6.99 18 points
Wow this is really impressive. Gorgeous quite mature bouquet with hints of spice and ripe strawberries. Oh so smooth, this has the breed of a really serious bottle of Chianti. Strawberries, lovely complex flavours, hints of spicy vanilla. All this for £6.99 reduced from £10.79.BRAVO WAITROSE. Go fill your trolleys folks!
Again a fantastic collection of Chiantis. Two really good examples and one stunner!
CONCLUSION
So considering all the wines were well under a tenner, this has been a brilliant tasting. I cannot believe how good the Most Wanted Albarino and The Melini Chianti were! YUMMM!
