Calvet Menetou-Salon Sauvignon Blanc 2018

A Loire Sauvignon from Calvet via Waitrose

Loire Sauvignon tends to be more textured and complex than kiwi-style examples; this makes it a more versatile and food-friendly wine.

The Loire is perhaps France's most diverse wine region; Menetou-Salon is in the Centre-Val de Loire and consists of 10 villages.

Calvet Menetou-Salon Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (£14.99, Waitrose) fresh and mineral with lemon and lime fruit; full, supple, complex and mineral. Elegant and linear, very adept and assured.

Good.

Match with goat's cheese tart or asparagus.

De Martino Viejas Tinajas Cinsault 2018

A remarkable De Martino Chilean red from Virgin Wines

There is quite a back-story to the winery behind this Chilean red; you don't need to know it to enjoy the wine, but for those interested, the longer version of De Martino is here.

The TL:DR is this: Chilean winemaker gets the backing of the winery owner to put the bigger-is-better machine into reverse and starts making more elegant, subtle, European-style wines.

This Cinsault is made in old amphoras - giant clay pots or "Viejas tinajas" - and has a lovely, juicy-vibrant quality for easy drinking with plenty of freshness and low tannins.

De Martino Viejas Tinajas Cinsault 2018 (£14.99) toasty-smokey with juicy sour-cherry fruit and wild herbs; very fine tannins, Burgundian elegance and good underpinnings.

Good.

Serve slightly chilled as a summer aperitif or a picnic wine; match with beef carpaccio or salamis.

Doug Wregg's notes (quoted on Jancis Robinson's website): This wine rescues an old tradition deeply rooted in rural Chile: winemaking using large earthenware jars called tinajas. Once upon a time many farms used to make wine for their own consumption which they ferment and store in amphorae of various shapes and sizes.

The commercialisation of the Chilean wine industry has seen this tradition disappear, but a couple of years ago, the De Martino family decided to revive it and purchased as many clay pots as they could find including former ashtrays and holders of cactus plants!

This accords with De Martino's desire to row back from the throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-it winemaking style towards a more natural, nuanced approach involving respect for terroir and vintage. De Martino have converted most of their vineyards to organic viticulture; they now use natural yeasts in the winemaking, and from 2011 eliminated all new oak from their winemaking practices – a huge departure for a relatively commercial Chilean winery.

Viejas Tinajas has been fermented and aged as naturally as possible in amphorae over 100 years old, without intervention and in search of a faithful reflection of its origin. An old, unirrigated vineyard in the heart of the Coastal Mountain Range in the Itata Valley gives life to this wine, some 400 kilometres to the south of Santiago and just 22 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean.

Consider this: Cinsault, old bush vines (35 hl/ha yields), on granitic soils, farmed with horses, whole berries, no punch down, gentle pressing. In the winter the malolactic is ready. The wine is not filtered or fined and there is no added sulphur. No pumps are used with the tinajas, only good old-fashioned sucking.

Calvet Muscadet White 2017

An inexpensive Calvet Loire from Sainsbury's

Muscadet is a classic white wine from the Loire - light, lemony and mineral, it is perfect for summer sipping or drinking with seafood.

Muscadet is the most widely-produced Loire wine and is made from Melon de Bourgogne grapes, which are grown pretty much nowhere else and have nothing to do with Burgundy (Bourgogne). 

Calvet Muscadet White 2017  (£5.75, Sainsburys) lemony-mineral with melon fruit; supple, fresh and easy-drinking. Well-made with no rough edges.

Thoroughly pleasant and good value.

Drink as an aperitif, a picnic wine or match with very light starters.

Armit At Virgin Wines

Armit Wines at Virgin Wines' Cambridge Tasting

Virgin Wines don't just sell their own wines; they also have some tie-ups with other merchants, including the Armit whose wines I knew little about.

They had chosen to show just four wines, so I tried them all.

Chateau Dereszla Furmint Dry 2016 (£11.99) unusual dry Tokaji made from Furmint; orchard fruits and citrus. Clean and elegant. Think Chablis or Viognier.

Domaine Auvigue Pouilly Fuisse Solutre 2017 (£24) ripe, oatmealy and nutty. Harmonious and adept. Very Good.

Musella Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso 2015 (£16.99) supple, harmonious and long with blackberry fruit, spice and ripasso richness; vibrant and fresh. Good.

Musella Amarone Riserva 2011 (£45) dark-cherry fruit, tannic and porty; still not fully settled and will benefit from extensive aging. Rich, big and alcoholic. Good.

Les Jamelles Pinot Gris 2018

A Languedoc Pinot Gris from Les Jamelles at Majestic

Pinot Gris (aka Pinot Grigio) is a mutant clone of Pinot Noir. Its spiritual home is Alsace, but this one is from Languedoc.

The difference between Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio is not in the grape variety, but in the winemaking approach; Pinot Gris on the label suggests a fuller, riper, later-harvested style that will match with rich Alsatian food such as pork, tarte flambée or cervelas à l'alsacienne.

Les Jamelles Pinot Gris 2018 (£11.99 and £8.99 mix six, Majestic) ripe-yet-fresh with orchard fruits, citrus and grapefruit and white pepper; supple with good underpinnings, minerality and no rough edges..

Good.

Match with grilled meaty white fish, such as sea bream.

Chateau Musar At Virgin Wines

Lebanon's Chateau Musar at Virgin Wines' Cambridge Tasting

Lebanon's Chateau Musar is something of an iconic winery; growing Bordeaux grapes in Asia on the Eastern Mediterranean, it has seen its vineyards at times become battle lines in the country's civil war.

Lebanese wine has not really become A Thing and although there are other local wineries; Musar remains a benchmark.

Chateau Musar Jeune White 2016 (£13.99) nutty with fennel aromas, neutral and citrussy-fresh with excellent underpinnings. Good.

Chateau Musar Jeune Red 2016 (£13.99) fresh, vibrant and baked with classic Musar dried red fruits. Good.

Chateau Musar Organic 2011 (£27.99) sweet vanilla, ripe fruits and gamey leatheriness with a dense core; warming, supple and harmonious. Very Good.

Chateau Musar 2004 (£27.99) still very primary and youthful; does not show its age next to the 2011; apparently this is one of the strongest vintages, so you can buy this and allow it to lie for a long time. Very Good+.

Familia Zuccardi Chardonnay Q 2017 - Virgin Wines

A fresh and gently-oaked New World Chardie from Virgin

Chardonnay is perhaps the most versatile of all grapes - from steely cool-climates to warm, with oak and without, sparkling and still, it covers all the mainstream styles eschewing only sticky and fortified versions.

Chardonnay is the great grape of Champagne, white Burgundy and more latterly ripe-oaky New World styles.

After becoming everyone's go-to white in the 1990s, New World Chardonnays got ever bigger, riper and oakier in a sort of more-is-better cycle.

These days, a good New World Chardonnay is often a more restrained, more nuanced affair, with good fruit expression and subtle oaking. Outside of France, Chardonnay is perhaps most associated with Australia and California, but pretty much everywhere you've heard of makes some.

This Familia Zuccardi Chardonnay is, as the name suggests, from a family-run winery and is modern, classic New World style; clean, pure and deft; Burgundian yet better value than an equivalent Burgundy.

Familia Zuccardi Chardonnay Q 2017 (£15.99) citrus, melon and orchard fruits with zippy lime zest and deft oaking. Fresh and substantial. Pure, precise and mineral with excellent underpinnings.

Good.

A versatile wine, drink as an aperitif or match with white fish or white meats