Out & About Spring 2019

Meanwhile spring is Sprung – and here are some excellent wines to try, while you’re waiting for the others to mature:

Loureiro Vinho Verde, AB Valley, Portugal The Naked Grape, Hungerford £13.49 About as far away from tired old Vinho Verde as you can get – astonishing clarity and dancing elegance, this is the wine to be drinking this spring. A favourite white wine.

Ma Maison Blanquette de Limoux, Sparkling, France The Naked Grape, Hungerford £16.99 Sublime freshness and complexity with a fine bubble coming from extended bottle age. Limoux in the south of France has been making sparkling wine longer than Champagne and the quality and elegance shows in this excellent quality Crémant.

A Grower’s Touch Durif, SE Australia The Naked Grape, Hungerford £10

Meaty full on red, black in colour and black in flavour. The Durif grape is a grape created by those who wanted something more powerful than Shiraz. However, they have actually created red that is so rounded and appealing that it is building a very loyal following.

Château Blaignan Cru Bourgeois 2013 Laithwaites, Theale £16.99

A medal-winning wine with some nice bottle age. Silky cassis and blueberry with firm structural tannins below. Great wine for a nice Sunday lunch.

Winding Wood, Classic Cuvée, English Sparkling wine Grapesmith, Hungerford (Price tbc) Winding Wood Classic Cuvée 2015 A top class wine that’s local to West Berkshire. In 2013, local farmer Christopher Cooke decided to convert some of his sheep-grazing paddocks into a vineyard. A moment of madness you may think, but our green and pleasant Berkshire land shares many similarities with France’s Champagne region and the chalk and flint soil is perfect for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. Fast forward six years and the Cooke family’s hard work and dedication to nurturing their vineyards has borne fruit, with the first vintage of Winding Wood just released to great acclaim. Made in the traditional Champagne method, it shows astonishing poise and complexity for a first wine. It’s perfect as an aperitif – dry and refreshing, full flavoured yet effortlessly elegant. It earns its place on the fine wine shelf, matching Champagne in both quality and complexity, yet still managing to reflect the unique terroir and character of this small Berkshire vineyard.

55