Pinot Noir 2016 (Mr Noir)

A film-noir Pinot from Virgin Wines

Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks? (Shaft)
You're damn right

- Shaft, Isaac Hayes (1971)

Pinot Noir is a cool-climate grape that is very tricky to make into good wine; like a Prima Donna, it needs just the right conditions to thrive. Historically, that meant Burgundy and high prices.

Now the New World does Pinot and the windswept, coastal Mornington Peninsula in Victoria is Australia's ground zero for this most finnicky of grapes.

Like a blaxploitation private dick, this Pinot is darkly suave and effortlessly cool.

Mr Noir Pinot Noir 2016 (£11.99) black and red cherry fruit, spice and Burgundian farmyard-ness with a silky Pinot texture; bigger and more fruit-forward than a Burgundy, but very well made with a Burgundian elegance.

Good Value (for a Pinot).

Match with gamey foods, such as venison.

Matthew Jukes is also a fan of this wine: