Christine Austin's wines of the week from Sainsbury's, Tesco, Aldi and Booths
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Wines of the Week
Porcupine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2023, South Africa, 12.5%, Sainsbury’s, down from £8.50 to £7 with a Nectar card until December 10: Pour some South African sunshine into your glass with these fresh, lively citrus and passionfruit flavours.
English Finest Sparkling Wine Brut NV, 12%, Tesco, down from £21 to £18.50 with a Tesco Clubcard until December 2: From the Balfour winery, this is a quality English fizz, with a creamy mousse, crunchy apple flavours, citrus and a hint of toasted hazelnuts.
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Pierre Jaurant Bordeaux Rouge 2022, France, 13%, £4.99, Aldi: Bordeaux is awash with decent drinking wine at great value prices. This is packed with juicy black fruits, with savoury notes and supple tannins.
Domaine Jones Fitou 2022, Languedoc, France, Booths, 14%, down from £14.75 to £12.75 until December 1: A chunky flavoursome wine, with damsons, herbs and a structure that will happily accompany a venison stew and last through to the cheese.
Obsession 2025
Just over the border into Lancashire, the Michelin-starred restaurant, Northcote, whiles away the dark nights of January and February by inviting other Michelin-starred chefs to take over their kitchens.
This year the line-up of chefs includes Jonny Lake from Trivet, Hélène Darroze and Marco Zampese from Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Ivor Jones from Chef’s Warehouse in Cape Town and Paul Cunningham from Henne Kirkby Kro in Copenhagen.
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Hide AdHeading the list is Northcote’s own Executive Chef, Lisa Goodwin-Allen who has led her team of chefs for over 20 years and who has maintained Northcote’s Michelin star for all that time.
In all, there are 17 dinners, with exceptional food, and best of all, the wines are all supplied by The Wright Wine Company in Skipton with Managing Director Julian Kaye, working with the chefs and Craig Bancroft, Managing Director at Northcote to perfectly match the key flavours of each dish.
Places for these dinners get snapped up very quickly with many people travelling huge distances to experience this fine cuisine. Contact Northcote via their website www.northcote.com if you are interested.
Taste Today
There are just a few tickets left for the lunchtime session of the Ake and Humphris Christmas Wine Fair at Hotel du Vin in Harrogate today. There will be over 60 wines on show, half of them new to the range. Today’s tickets are for the session that runs from 12 – 2pm and they cost £25 each. Ring Ake and Humphris on 01423 566009.
Quaggas and Wine
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Hide AdIf you are part of the Yorkshire contingent who head to South Africa in winter, you might be interested in a new attraction at one of the wine estates. The glorious property that is Vergelegen has a vast private nature reserve where they have a fabulous collection of animals, including a family of Quaggas. No, I hadn’t heard of Quaggas before I saw them on a tour of the Reserve last year.
Quaggas were hunted to extinction in the 1800’s but there is now a programme to bring them back by selective breeding. Part zebra but darker, with some stripes, it was a privilege to see this species re-emerge. If you are interested in booking a tour, email [email protected] Naturally, after your tour, you can taste the fabulous Vergelegen wines too.
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