Tesco finest Cahors Malbec, Cahors, France 2022 (£8.50, Tesco) Late on a Friday evening, a text arrives from a dear family friend. “Friends to dinner and I thought of you as I tried a Wine Society red, which we all enjoyed. It was a red from the Cevennes called Camp Galhan. My idea of an everyday wine: unoaked and 13%. Syrah and grenache… Try it!” I’ve yet to get my hands on a bottle (£10.50 from thewinesociety.com for the 2022 vintage), but I have a feeling I’d agree with Bill that this is exactly my – and many Observer readers’ – idea of an everyday wine, too. Such wines should be thirst-quenching, not obtrusively oaky or syrupy-thick (and, therefore, food-friendly) and, perhaps most importantly of all, not too heavy on the alcohol – a quality that means you can drink more than a glass on a weeknight without feeling any ill-effects on the morning after (sadly not the case with so many 14%+ modern reds). All qualities that are present and correct in another everyday French red I’ve enjoyed recently: Tesco’s ebullient blueberry-juicy 12.5% abv malbec from Cahors.
Agricola Cortese Nostru Frappato, Terre Siciliane, Sicily, Italy 2022 (from £13, ndjohn.co.uk; reservewines.co.uk; hoults.com) Of course, “everyday” doesn’t have to imply “every day” – not least because wine, like every other food and drink, has got so much more expensive over the past couple of years, and the prices of “everyday” wines have crept up to a point where the term might better be replaced with “everyweek”. Whatever your preferred or affordable frequency, France, and specifically southern France, is a fertile source for the kind of quaffable, unpretentious but well-made and flavour-filled reds that are designed to fit into normal life rather than a special occasion. Another is Italy, with every region offering an approachable style to have by the glass with lunch as an alternative to their more serious vini da meditazione. In Sicily, one grape variety that is particularly adept at making lipsmacking lighter reds is frappato, with Agricola Cortese’s (13% abv) version beautifully capturing frappato’s characteristically perfectly ripe strawberry fruit in a wine to herald the beginning of spring.
De Martino Ungrafted Itata Old Vine Cinsault, Itata, Chile 2020 (£15.99, virginwines.com) There is a school of thought in wine circles that says that no (unfortified) wine should reach or exceed 15% ABV since it will always be undrinkably ungainly and overbearing with food. From a purely sensory point of view, I don’t agree: I’ve had plenty of wonderful red wines from warmer climates or warmer vintages at 15% and more where the alcohol doesn’t show, just as I’ve tried plenty of lower abv wines which have been marred by a spirity-throat-burning sensation. It’s all a matter of balance, and whether the wine has sufficient other qualities to mask or absorb the alcohol. Still, like many people, when it comes down to choosing between a couple of wines to drink at home as opposed to merely sampling (and spitting out) at a professional wine tasting, the lower abv wine always wins out, with the 13% to 14% band, where De Martino’s gorgeously slinky, succulent, subtly earthy 13.5% abv sits, a sweet spot for reds, no matter the day of the week.
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