I picked this bottle of Siglo Special Selection Tempranillo Rioja up today to go alongside some lamb steaks, and on paper it felt like a pretty safe bet. Rioja and lamb is hardly reinventing the wheel, and Rioja has slowly become one of those regions I find myself gravitating towards more and more. Particularly at…
Sometimes you walk down the wine aisle and something just catches your eye. I was in Morrisons when I spotted the Ramos Family Selection Reserva for £8.50. This isn’t actually a new wine to me. I’ve had it before and know it as a trusty midweek Portuguese red, so initially there wasn’t really any intention…
I’ll start this one by saying I’m not a massive rosé drinker. Neither is Liv. It’s not that I dislike it, there are just normally plenty of other wines I’d reach for first. Tonight though, we were having a pretty clean dinner of steamed salmon and vegetables and I wanted something light and fresh to…
Aldi Specially Selected Rioja Gran Reserva 2019 Review Rioja Continues To Win Me Over Tonight’s wine was the Aldi Specially Selected Rioja Gran Reserva 2019, paired with minted lamb shanks, buttery mash, peas, tenderstem broccoli and cabbage finished with minted butter. I’ve got to be honest, coming into this bottle I was probably guilty of…
A Proper Friday Night Pairing Fish and chips night called for something refreshing and after enjoying the red from Marques de los Ríos previously, I spotted their Cava in Morrisons for £8.50 and thought it was worth a go. Sometimes these supermarket sparkling wines can be a bit one dimensional, but this one immediately showed…
Sometimes the Best Pairings Don’t Need Explaining Monday in our house means fish night, and this week I opened a bottle of Pecorino Superiore from Abruzzo to go alongside hake, Jersey Royals, mushy peas and sweetcorn. Nothing fancy, just good ingredients and a family meal. Before food, the wine was showing beautifully. On the nose…
A Wine That Punches Above Its Weight I opened this Morrisons The Best Albariño Calamata 2024 expecting a decent supermarket white wine. What I got was something that genuinely expressed where it came from. On the nose it was almost elderflower led with a muted peach note sitting underneath. Floral over fruit for me, which…
After a run of Rioja, Rhône and a few bottles that demanded a bit of thought, I found this lurking in the fridge and decided tonight was the night. Sometimes wine is about terroir, structure and complexity. Sometimes it’s about seeing what’s in the fridge. First Impressions The nose took me straight back to childhood….
Sometimes the Best Bottles Are the Unexpected Ones This bottle was a birthday gift from my best man and Fantasy Golf Hub partner, Dan. I wasn’t planning a pairing, wasn’t looking to analyse every detail and wasn’t expecting to be writing a review. The plan was simply to enjoy a glass and see where it…
Sometimes Simplicity Wins This weekend’s wine wasn’t anything particularly expensive or highly rated. It was simply a bottle of Artusi Pecorino from Terre di Chieti picked up to accompany a barbecue of garlic marinated chicken and pork ribeye chops. As it turned out, it was exactly the right wine for the occasion. Pecorino is still…