Jacob's Creek - The Co-op

Australia's Jacob's Creek at The Co-op

I was a long-haired student when I first heard of Jacob's Creek. In those days, the Student Union's subsidised northern ale was my alcoholic staple; I was incredulous at the idea that Australia could make drinkable wine. With a francophile father who rarely holidayed outside Europe, I had grown up innately suspicious of anything that came from the New World.

Even the name, Jacobs Creek, struck me as ugly and iconoclastic - as if the wine had somehow been dredged up from the bottom of a foetid outback gully. No, if it didn't come from France, or perhaps Italy, I wasn't interested.

And anyway you can't neck glasses of wine whilst moshing in a sweaty nightclub playing wall-to-wall grunge.

Fast forward more time than I care to acknowledge and I now rather like Australian wine; I think we've both probably changed quite a bit.

Jacobs Creek is still an iconoclastic name, in-yer-face and resolutely New World, even if the logos have become more sophisticated.

Some will argue that Jacobs Creek is Big-Brand Wine and therefore A Bad Thing, mass-produced plonk for the hoi polloi. I have the advantage of approaching it for the first time.

Yes, really. I have never tried Jacob's Creek before (I know).

Chardonnay (£7.85, the Co-op) toasty, oaky, spicy tropical-fruited Chardie; melon, pineapple, citrus and zippy lime. Fresh, substantial and supple. Deft and harmonious, sunshine in a glass.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Match with chicken liver pâté, roast pork belly or coconut curry.

Shiraz (£7.85, the Co-op) ripe black fruits, cassis and blackcurrant pastilles, pencil shavings and spice. Very fresh with soft, gentle tannins.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

More a white wine coloured red, match with prawn starters, antipasti or pasta with tomato sauce.