Tesco Finest Viñas del Rey Albariño, Spain 2022 (£11, Tesco) The bank holiday trip to the seaside is an enduring British tradition that for most of us will inevitably feature fish and chips. That’s important for practitioners of what is, by all accounts, a dying art. Earlier this summer, executives at Sarson’s, the chippy vinegar supplier par excellence, put out a gloomy press release warning that as many as half of the UK’s fish and chip shops could be forced to close by 2025, as they struggle with soaring ingredient and energy costs. I will certainly be doing my bit to help out tomorrow: for me fish and chips and the summer bank holiday are indelibly linked, like turkey and Christmas. To drink with them? Champagne or its English equivalent works a treat, but fizz feels a little bit flash on the beach, so I’m going for Tesco’s classic seafood-partnering white from Atlantic coastal Spain, with its mix of salty citrus and white peach.
IGO Organic Red Wine Can, Spain NV (£4.15, 25cl, Waitrose) The picnic is another great British bank holiday tradition, one that covers a vast range of possibilities from the damp, sand-flecked cheese-and-pickle sandwich eaten while cowering behind a rain-lashed windbreak to a luxurious hamper stocked with deli-bought delicacies and opened beneath a weeping willow on a vast blanket by a sun-dappled river. In all cases, the decision about which wine to have with it is shaped as much by the container as the contents: practicality (weight, ease of opening, lowest risk of breakage) is what counts. A good thing, then, that the range and quality of wines available beyond the traditional 75cl glass bottle has been steadily improving over the past few years, with more drinkable wines than ever now available in a 25cl can. IGO Organic Red, a juicy, berry-scented 100% garnacha, is one of the best of this breed.
Domaine de la Mordorée La Reine des Bois Tavel Rosé, France 2022 (£30.50, Lea & Sandeman) Come rain, come shine, the final bank holiday staple is, of course, the barbecue, which can work with a variety of wines, so long as they are characterised by certain robust flavour or texture to match both smoky grilled flavours and punchy salad dressings and sauces. For whites, the strong spine of steely acidity and generous squeeze of tangy lime in Australian Rieslings, such as Jim Barry Lodge Hill Clare Valley Riesling 2022 (from £15, majestic.co.uk), hits the spot, notably with seafood or halloumi. For reds, the slight sweetness of plummy fruit, darkly figgy richness and balancing cherryish acidity you find in southern Italian reds such as Il Brutto Negroamaro Primitivo 2021 from Salento in Puglia (£11.99, laithwaites.co.uk) are great with charred red meat or aubergine. While a rosé on the darker, more intense side, such as Domaine de la Mordorée’s seriously fine, fluent and perfectly ripe example from the southern Rhône Valley, is the best all-rounder.
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