It's wine time

Wine, wine, wine, welcome to the, hopefully weekly, guest appearance by me at On The Menu Today. I’ve known VG for ages, and have recently started working in a wine shop. Free samples, drinking at work, a healthy interest and words to say. I talk about wine all day and already have a bunch of stories about customers, unusual wines and events to share. I’ll be recommending and drinking wines from supermarkets to small scale producers, wines I like and wines I don’t. It’s an anything goes situation, so strap in.

First up, The Aldeburgh Food Festival, last weekend 26th/27th September. It was overcast, the merchandising people had placed our stock trailer about a mile from the stall and the till wasn’t working. My job for the day was chatting up festival goers and getting them to try wine and hopefully, buy wine. We had a red and a white planned for opening, the sun was trying its best at 12am, so we had plenty of take up on 2010 The Beach House White, Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon, by Douglas Green from South Africa, available for £7 from Adnams Wines. It tastes like a biting into watermelon that’s been stuffed with an apple that’s been filled with gooseberries, if you’ve ever done that. A “wappleberrie” or a “watergoople”, anyone?”. Crisp, fruity and fresh.

Once the rain set in, I needed a jumper and my uniform is only made in sizes XL or M, both generous, so I spent the afternoon drowned in a pale blue XL crew jersey, and partially drowned by the downpour. So we all went for a beer and some food to warm up. Lunch came in the form of free samples (sausages, hams, breads, cakes, fudge, vegetables, crisps, chillies, chocolate, and more ... all excellent) and a vegetarian cous cous dish, which was far too spicy for my taste. I even got in a little time for ‘C-list Celebrity Spotting’, the highlights being Valentine Warner and Matthew Fort (Google them, I did). We were pitched between the Aspall Cyder tent and the Paddy and Scotts Coffee tent, which got me through the rest of the day.

We had a Spanish red open all afternoon, 2007 The Adnams Selection, Monte Acuro Rioja Crianza, available for £8 also from Adnams wines. In Spain they have regulations and special words to define wine ageing as well as region, and Crianza means 2 years ageing with at least 6 months in oak barrels. This Rioja has had 14 months ageing in American oak barrels. American oak imparts a more subtle flavour than French oak and it gives the wine a smooth mellow finish with bit more depth than a younger Rioja. Crianza has been my favourite Rioja for ages, not over oaked but retaining that Spanish style. Everyone, including me liked it. Standing in the rain the people on the smoked fish stall polished off two bottles, theirs was the only outside stall without a cover, the company owner was frantically trying to boost staff morale by plying them with red wine, good for our business, bad for theirs.

The afternoon dragged on and I was pretty glad not to be working on the Sunday as it rained and rained, not a ray of sun. Apparently over the weekend 10,000 people visited the festival which is more than last year and better than anticipated. There are so many excellent local producers in all areas of our country, I urge you to go find them, give them your money in exchange for great produce and ditch the supermarkets.

However, this week at Tesco, my favourite wine at the moment, 2008 Piccini Chianti is £2.50! Yep, I said it. Tesco, £2.50, I bought 6. Not a good start for a high brow wine blog, but this isn’t, so there. This gloriously smooth and fruity red wine hints at cherries and has just enough spice. The reason Piccini is my current favourite it that comes in a smaller size 50cl (2 large glasses), bright orange bottle. Unusual and unmistakeable, apparently the idea is to get better quality wine for less money, simple. A 50cl bottle of an excellent wine for the same price as an inferior 75cl bottle really appeals to me and is something I’d like more independent producers to look into. The other great reason is that it’s a perfect amount of wine, if I open a bottle I tend to accidentally finish the damn thing, which can be nice, but unhelpful on some occasions, so smaller amounts means I drink less.

That’s it for now, you can follow me on twitter @danprobert and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.