Late Summer Sipping

Two whites for late-summer sipping

As we move into late summer, the evenings get cooler even on a hot day; sitting out in the garden can mean repositioning several times to follow the patch of sun as it sets more quickly than a few weeks earlier.

These two white are light enough for summer drinking, but have a bit more warmth and substance; Les Jamelles produce consistently good wines mixing, as befits their origins, Burgundian elegance with New World fruit and precision; this vintage won a silver medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2017.

Château Toutigeac is new to me, but the increasing quality of white Bordeaux is not; warmer than the Loire and with the ability to blend grape varieties, white Bordeaux shows variety around a theme of freshness and substance.

Les Jamelles Viognier 2016 (£6.99, Co-op) honeysuckle, sweet spices and ripe yellow stone fruit, with a freshness and minerality. Long, warming and adept.

Good.

Bordeaux Blanc Château Toutigeac (£7.99, Bordeaux-Undiscovered) a blend of Sauvignon and Semillon with a dash of Muscadelle, it is fresh, slightly floral and musky with citrus, white and yellow stone fruit, good structure and mineral underpinnings. A beautifully crafted wine.

Good and good value.

This wine also features in the Everyday Bordeaux offering.