Irresistible Eight Acres Sparkling Rosé - The Co-op

A classy English barely-pink fizz from the Co-op

Hush Heath is a Kent-based vineyard making excellent English fizz.

I have to confess to finding the shiny purple packaging for this sparkler a little garish; it brings to mind more a basic Prosecco than a traditional-method fizz

It is a pink fizz, but only just a rosé - on colour alone you could argue either way for it being a dark standard issue or a rosé. However, on the palate there is lots of red fruit which makes it a rosé by flavour if not colour.

It is also reasonable value within its category; priced in the high teens, it is certainly not "everyday cheap", but the contents are excellent and worth every penny.

And being home grown, you can enjoy being patriotic in a more progressive way than, say, putting a brick through someone's window.

Irresistible Eight Acres Sparkling Rosé (£18) traditional Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier blend; very pale pink in colour, with brioche and autolysis; clean, fresh and vibrant with orchard fruits, wild strawberry, lime and redcurrant. Textured, minerally and well-structured with a fine mousse.

Good.

Drink as an aperitif or match with canapes such as seafood vol-au-vents.

Tenuta Olim Bauda Gavi di Gavi 2018

A complex and elegant Italian white from Virgin wines

Piemonte, in North West Italy, is that country's answer to Burgundy - a place of forested hills, truffles, game and complex wines, most notably Barolo and Barbaresco, both made from Nebbiolo.

This makes Gavi, a white wine from the Cortese grape, Italy's equivalent of a white Burgundy - a serious, versatile white wine.

For me, good Gavi is hedonistic and autumnal, evoking creamy pasta dishes with mushrooms or lighter game such as guinea fowl.

That said, you can drink it any time of the year; fresh enough for a summer salad, it would also go perfectly well with a Christmas turkey.

Tenuta Olim Bauda Gavi di Gavi 2018 (£15.99, Virgin Wines) citrus, orchard and melon fruit; floral and musky yet fresh with sweet spices and saline minerality. Assertive, complex and concentrated. Harmonious and well-made with good underpinnings. Drinking nicely now and will improve with age.

Good

 A versatile food wine, match with pasta, lighter game, scallops or meaty white fish.

Viña Tarapacá Malbec Shiraz

A chewy Chilean Big Red from Laithwaites

To be fair, this wine has warning signs written all over it - Laithwaites, Chile, Malbec and Shiraz all tell you this is going to be a Big Wine, probably with a chewy, over-extracted style to it.

Why so?

Firstly, that's pretty much Laithwaites' house style; secondly, it has become Chile's house style (albeit not universally and some more interesting producers are doing the elegance thing rather well these days). Finally, Malbec and Shiraz are unlikely ever to give you a delicate wine, albeit elegance is eminently achievable.

It need not be this way; I've had good wines from Chile and I've had excellent Malbecs and Shirazes - just not from Laithwaites.

It only gets 3.1 / 5 on Laithwaites own website, so even their own customers seem rather underwhelmed.

Viña Tarapacá Malbec Shiraz 2018 (£10.49, Laithwaites) sweet, ripe dark fruits with herbs and spice, rather jammy and overcooked; heavily-stewed, over-extracted texture. Not pleasant.

One to avoid.

Ch'ti Blonde

A sophisticated northern French beer from Castelain

Driving holidays in France are an opportunity to bring back a few bottles of wine; this summer we mixed it up a bit with cider and beer as well.

North East France is too cold for grape cultivation, but as in neighbouring Belgium and Germany,  the French make an art form of producing beers with a strength and complexity beyond mere quaffers.

Ch'ti, by the way, is slang for this part of France - as evidenced by the comedy film, Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (translated as "Welcome to the Sticks") about a man who is moved by his firm from the south of France to the North where it is very cold, rainy, and "they talk funny".

This beer is marked as a "biere de garde", a beer that will also improve with aging - even if this one did not get the chance.

Ch'ti Blonde (around €2 for 75cl, Intermarché) 6.4% alcohol; a strong, malty blonde ale, rich with some balanced sweetness and gently hopped for aromatic bitterness; fresh, supple and yeasty with mixed fruit and some sweet spice. Adept and complex.

Good.

Match with sausages, tarte flambee or picnic food such as pork pies and cold cuts.

English Fizz and South African Pinotage from The Co-op

Two wines from the Co-op - for British Food Fortnight and International Pinotage Day

Naming your range "Irresistible" is quite the statement of intent; the good news here is that the Co-op's buyers reliably source a collection of well-made, easy-drinking yet sophisticated wines.

If you have marked your diary for British Food Fortnight (21 September - 6 October) and International Pinotage Day (12 October), then you could do a lot worse than these two:

Irresistible Eight Acres Sparkling Rosé (£18) a fresh and elegant English classic-blend pink fizz from Hush Heath Estate in Kent.

Co-op Irresistible Pinotage (£7) a good value and well-made juicy saffer with dark fruit, spice and herbs.

At any other time, you can serve the fizz with canapé starters and the red with a main of darker game.

Robert Oatley Signature Series G-18 McLaren Vale Grenache

A genre-defying juicy Grenache from Australia's Robert Oatley

Grenache is a warm-climate grape typically producing high-alcohol wines; think Big Southern Rhônes or chunky Spanish reds.

This G-18 from Australia's Robert Oatley, however, is something rather different; more Beaujolais than Barossa, it is cool-fermented with no oak for a light and juicy wine.

It scores highly for elegance and finesse, a late-summery red that can be slightly chilled.

If you need an Old World reference point beyond Beaujolais, think of pale, fruited Pinots from Alsace and the lighter reds of the Loire, Switzerland or Germany.

Robert Oatley Signature Series G-18 McLaren Vale Grenache (£13.95, The Old Bridge, Bon Coeur Fine Wines, Cambridge Wine Merchants) red plums, raspberries, spice, raspberry leaf and dried green herbs; supple texture with low tannins and a juicy freshness. Elegant and easy-drinking.

Good.

Drink chilled as an aperitif; match with a plate of shellfish or rare tuna steak.

My Four (plus) Wine Cellar

My fantasy 4-wine cellar - with a few additions

As a regular wine reviewer, I don't actually have many wines stashed away under the stairs; most wines need to be tasted, assessed and written up fairly quickly. There might be the remnants of a summer holiday's haul from a driving holiday in France and Spain plus a few special bottles that will really benefit from being laid down for a while, but not a cellar of any significance.

However, when Fiona Beckett pulled together a four-wine cellar recommendation of everyday staples, as a bit of twitter banter I suggested that four wines is not even a moderately expansive meal.

That's not four bottles per head, by the way, just four different wines served in appropriate measures; for tasting event, the rule of thumb is 15 - 20 servings per bottle and 8 - 12 wines, giving around 2/3rds of a bottle per person, which is not excessive by most people's standards. I make no comment on those who think that is actually rather mean.

So, assuming we have friends coming round for dinner, what would be the four (and more) wines I would need in my cellar?

Here is a very personal, stylistic guide to how I would do it and, since an editor once told me "I think people like recommendations", I've linked to some suggested wines - just click through to anything that looks interesting.

On Arrival

It pretty much has to be fizz on arrival - nothing else quite makes the same welcoming, joyous statement and peps up palates whilst your various guests arrive.

For fizz, you need a good reason not to serve Champagne; so it is either that (to show you know what you are doing) or an appropriate alternative (to show you've put some thought into it).

Other French fizz includes Crémants from Loire, Bourgogne and Jura. There's also English fizz, and elegant, chalky Franciacorta from Italy. Really good Prosecco and Cava are harder to find, but possible.

Aperitif

For an aperitif with an amuse-bouche, I would serve fino or manzanilla sherry with roasted almonds, olives and bread dipped in olive oil.

If you want to stay in Spain but head north, there's crisp, tangy Txakoli with pintxos or stay with France and go for a Petit Chablis with a oysters or other light seafood.

With Starters

Starters need something a little fuller than the aperitif wine, but not too big, so think midweight white with plenty of acidity to match fish, soft cheese, creamy pasta or lighter game. A gently-oaked white, such as Chardonnay, a mature Chablis Grand Cru or aged Mosel Riesling would be perfect here. For something more off-the-beaten track, Austrian Gruener is one of my favourites.

This would also be a good point to bring in a midweight rosé  - either old world or new - if you are having seafood, such as a plate of langoustines, smoked salmon or gravadlax.

With Mains

The main is where, I believe, you should pull all the stops out - for the wine. This means keeping the food simple and some sort of darker game with a sauce is my go-to main. Venison or game stew is easy to serve; mature Bordeaux, Rioja or Barolo / Nebbiolo are absolute classic matches.

Cheese course

Every meal needs a cheese course in my opinion and as few as three good-quality cheeses is fine. Cheese and wine matching is a whole topic in itself, but mature hard yellow cheese (Cheddar, Ossau Iraty, Manchego) and a good value Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux works fine.

If you want to make the cheese course a bridge between main and dessert, serve a blue cheese with a sweet wine (Roquefort and Sauternes is another classic here).

Dessert

My favourite dessert wine is Barsac, but Sauternes (of which Barsac is a sub-region) comes a close second.

With a wine this nuanced and complex, you don't want to overwhelm it, so keep the food classic with crème brûlée or panna cotta.

Port

Vintage port or a sweet Madeira is almost a dessert in itself; when in season, both work well with mince pies and Christmas pudding.

Digestif

Finally, a sip of something to round the evening off - a good 12yo single malt.