Castello ColleMassari Montecucco Riserva, Italy 2017 (£11.99, Waitrose) Having vineyards in a famous appellation can be an enormous advantage for a wine producer. Before anyone has tried so much as a sip of your product, the name on the label gives you a head start over lesser-known regions in prestige, attracting buyers and, of course, the prices you can conceivably charge. But no matter how justified that region’s cachet may be – no matter how consistently good their wines may have been over the years – there will always be second-rate producers working under its name who’d struggle to sell their wines at comparable prices if they weren’t lucky enough to have vines in a celebrated spot. Far better – and far more economical – as a wine buyer to seek out a good producer in a region without the celebrity baggage, but with an aptitude for similar wines, such as Castello ColleMassari’s oregano and cherry-scented alternative to Brunello di Montalcino, from nearby southern Tuscan DOC Montecucco.
Specially Selected Cairanne, France 2020 (£8.99, Aldi) Further north, the quality available in the alternatives to Barolo has increased enormously– good news for lovers of a style that has, like Brunello di Montalcino, become much more expensive. Wines made from the same grape as Barolo, nebbiolo, but bottled with the wider Langhe Nebbiolo appellation (or DOC in Italian wine terminology) are cheaper while retaining, in the case of Reverdito Simane Langhe Nebbiolo 2019 (from £17.50, bcfw.co.uk), much of Barolo’s mix of floral and red fruit prettiness. In France’s southern Rhône, meanwhile, spicy red alternatives to local celebrity Châteauneuf-du-Pape abound, not least in Cairanne, home to Aldi’s multi-varietal blend, like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, led by grenache and perfectly suited to rich stews.
Bergerac Rouge, France 2020 (£8.99, or £7.99 as part of a mixed case of 6 bottles, majestic.co.uk) In the northern Rhône, where spicy red wine based on syrah predominates, Crozes-Hermitage remains a more manageably priced alternative to the celebrated neighbour, Hermitage. The high-performing local co-operative, Cave de Tain, has a bright, sinewy version, Grande Classique 2019 (£15.99, Waitrose), that offers savoury tones of smoky meat and black pepper mingled with blackberry. On the other side of France, few regions exemplify the idea of lack of renown bringing better value than Bordeaux’s neighbour, Bergerac. A region still associated in many UK wine-drinkers’ minds with the 1980s TV cop, but which is responsible for some very useful wines using the same grape varieties as Bordeaux, and in a similar style: Château Bel Air’s cedary, blackcurranty red is a nifty example.
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