Saumur Blanc "Secrets de Chai" 2017

A Chenin Blanc from the Loire via Auchan

Loire Chenin is, perhaps like German Riesling, something of an aficionado's choice - not a front-of-mind wine like kiwi Sauvignon or oaky Chardie.

A quick online search for Saumur Blanc suggests you'll struggle to find it easily in the UK at anywhere but a specialist wine merchant. Which is a pity, because it is a lovely wine with the expressiveness of Sauvignon and a rich, honeyed complexity.

The elements of the flavour profile will all be familiar, you just may not have had them all in a single wine.

Saumur Blanc "Secrets de Chai" 2017 (€5, Auchan) expressive and aromatic, zesty-zingy citrus and ripe stone fruit with a leesy, honeysuckle richness. Supple and full, very well-made and adept.

It has a silver medal from somewhere - which in France is a reliable indicator of quality.

Good.

Drink as an aperitif, with starters, fish or white cheeses.

Closerie de Malescasse Haut Medoc 2014

A classy second-wine red Bordeaux from the Haut Medoc

With red Bordeaux, they say in a good year you buy the second wine and in a bad year you buy the Grand Vin.

This is a second wine from Bordeaux's Haut Medoc from a good-but-not-great year. It is made from younger vines, so perhaps lacks some of the concentration of the first wine; lighter, fresher, earlier-drinking

Think of it either as a wine to drink young whilst you are waiting for your first wines to mature, or as an aperitif wine if you like Big Reds. Or just a good-value, inexpensive, classy and very typical Left Bank Bordeaux red.

Closerie de Malescasse 2014 bramble fruit, cherries and coffee grounds with mintiness and spice.Supple, harmonious and fresh with fine, ripe tannins. Well-made with good underpinnings.

At five years old, it is drinking nicely now and will age further.

Good.

Match with plain roast red meats.

Chateau D'Hanteillan 2016 Haut-Medoc

A classy Bordeaux for drinking now or cellaring

Based in Bordeaux's Haut-Medoc, Chateau D'Hanteillan is classified as Cru Bourgeois, better than everyday, better value than the classed growths.

From a good year with a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot, this is ready for drinking now but will improve with cellaring.

Chateau D'Hanteillan 2016 ripe ramble fruits, inky pencil shavings, violets, mintiness, spice and savouriness. Excellent underpinnings. Fresh and balanced with perfectly ripe, firm-fine tannins.

Will age.

Very Good.

Match with roasts.

Purchased in Auchan Calais for a few Euros.

Co-op Irresistible Explorers Sauvignon Blanc

A good value kiwi Sauvignon from The Co-op

Are we at peak kiwi Sauvignon? It feels like we might be; zippy, aromatic Marlborough Sauvignon has been synonymous with "a glass of white" for many people for decades now. It has gone from upstart, to establishment to middle of the road; so in, it's out.

What you make of all this depends rather on how you view life - hipster early adopters are all into funky (in every sense) natural wines now while the late majority can continue to enjoy something more mainstream.

Set aside personal characteristics for a moment and we can address the central question of whether this is a good wine or not. Here the answer is easy - it is good and good value; a well-made, typical, easily available kiwi Sauvignon with a cool-climate restraint and European food-friendliness.

If you need any further proof, the winemaker behind it is Saint Clair Family Estate, a regular medal winner.

Co-op Irresistible Explorers Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (£7.50, The Co-op) aromatic and fresh with some cool climate steeliness; zippy lime, white stone fruit, white pepper, honeysuckle, cut grass and saline minerality with good underpinnings. Well-made.

Good.

Drink as an aperitif or match with goat's cheese or white fish dishes, such as cod with a herb broth.

Everyday Bordeaux - Two Reds

Two Everyday Bordeaux reds from Waitrose and Lea & Sandeman

Bordeaux is primarily about place, secondarily about time. Other considerations, such as grape variety or winemaker, are deemed trivialities and demoted to the back label; you buy a Pauillac 2015 or a Saint-Émilion 2010.

Here, the grape is merely an expression of the soil and ripening conditions of the year, the winemaker's role more technical director than visionary.

They say in a good year you buy the second wine and in a bad year the first wine; that is exactly what we have here - in a sense; a lesser appellation from a better year vs a better appellation from a weaker vintage.

As to which is better, the market and / or accolades can often tell you what you need to know; the Medoc is a Cru Bourgeois priced at almost double that of the Blaye.

If, like Richard Bampfield MW, you drink pretty much exclusively reds, the juicy, Merlot-dominated Blaye could be your aperitif / starter wine, with the textured, Cab-dominated Medoc  accompanying main and cheese.

Château Les Martins 2014, Côtes de Bordeaux, Blaye (£9.49, Waitrose) fresh with bramble and cherry fruit, liquorice, spice, pencil shavings and fine, gentle tannins.

Adept and will age further.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

We matched this with toasted ciabatta, rubbed with garlic and tomato topped with basil, tomatoes and olive oil.

Château Poitevin 2012, Médoc Cru Bourgeois (£17.95, Lea and Sandeman) minty-herbaceous with dark bramble fruit, leather and complex oaky spice; fresh and inky with a dense muscular core. Supple with firm, fine tannins.

Still very youthful and primary; will repay cellaring.

Good.

We matched this with aged, Aberdeen Angus rib steak (rare, of course).

The Belgian Beer-Off

Three Belgian beers

The Belgians seem to combine a Gallic love of gastronomy and religion with a Germanic affinity for beer and  Byzantine complexity.

Too northerly a climate for wine, Belgium produces a vast array of beers, often made in abbeys by  Trappist monks, of different styles, colours, alcohol levels and sweetness each with its own, impenetrable code of dubbel, trippel and quadrupel (see guide here) and often their own bespoke glasses.

Belgians also seem to share a Teutonic love of eating and drinking out as a competitive sport; it is hard to pin this down precisely but for Italians eating and drinking well is part of a general lifestyle statement; for the French, it is an innate raison d'etre while for Germans, and quasi-Germans, it is a status symbol and public announcement of general success in life.

Returning from a family holiday in Bruges last year, we decided to being back some of the local stuff.

Brugse Zot from local brewery De Halve Maan, rich, malty and complex golden ale.

Thoroughly pleasant.

Westmalle Tripel bigger, stronger, sweeter and more bitter. Citrussy and floral, too. More of everything.

Good.

Trappistes Rochefort 8 sweetish dark ale, complex with fruitcake, bitter, roasted nuts and spices Good.

Paul Schneider Pinot Noir 2017

An Alsatian Pinot Noir

I've said it before, I'm a bit "meh" about Pinot. I actually want to like it but sitting next to an MW at a Burgundy tasting, I struggled to find it anything other than ... well, thoroughly pleasant.

So decent, inexpensive Pinot is probably best for me. Anything better is wasted on my non-Pinotphile palate.

Does good inexpensive Pinot exist, you may ask.

Indeed it does; if you happen to be in Alsace on holiday and able to pick up a bottle of the local stuff from the cellar door.

Domaine Paul Schneider is based in the ridiculously pretty (even by Alsace standards) village of Eguisheim at the southern end of the Vosges where the hills are higher and the climate correspondingly drier and milder.

This Gold Medal Pinot is indistinguishable from a light Burgundy that would have cost quite a bit more - to my palate at least.

Paul Schneider Pinot Noir 2017 farmyardy with juicy red and black cherry fruit, spice and leesiness; elegant with fine tannins; savoury, fresh and supple

Good.

Drink as an aperitif if you have some Big Reds to follow or match with picnic foods, salmon or other game.