Every wine is a winner today!

Tipplers, for one week only I’ve decided to suspend my prestigious, much sought after Wine of the Week award.
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Nil desperandum, it shall return. I’m doing this partly because I am in dreadfully morose form due to the continuing absence of my beloved wife, the illustrious Madame G., who is still away in her home country attending to important business affairs. As such, I just don’t feel minded today to doling out my treasured gongs.

Secondly, the Olympics have begun and I get the sense that my humble awards might find themselves playing second fiddle in the public consciousness to the achievements of our athletes in Tokyo. Which would be most unfair to everyone.

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However, the main reason is that the 3 superb bottles featured this week meet such different needs that one might as well be comparing a boxer to a pole-vaulter to a long distance runner.

An Occasional Tipple With Raymond GleugAn Occasional Tipple With Raymond Gleug
An Occasional Tipple With Raymond Gleug

During our recent heatwave- alas, now over, but rumoured to be returning soon- I found myself longing for simple, upbeat whites rather than the more complex, nuanced wines to which I am normally drawn. And so today’s first recommendation is the zesty, lively and vibrantly aromatic 2020 Tierra Y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc (£7, M&S). Lean, lemony and satisfyingly savoury, this crisp Chilean white has a floral, herbaceous bouquet before a citrussy palate which leads to a brief, tingly and gloriously refreshing finish. Enjoy with seafood or salads on a balmy Summer evening.

I often wonder if the term plonk (which to me means cheap, cheerful and white) derives from rhyming slang for ‘vin blanc’. If so, this is a superior plonk indeed. Which I can’t say about today’s second and much more refined and sophisticated selection. From the excellent Wine Society (visit thewinesociety.com or telephone 01438-741177) comes the fresh, fragrant and extravagantly flavoursome 2018 Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine sur Lie (£8.25). Full of ripe, rounded orchard fruit and sharper citrus fruit flavours alongside mineral notes with just a hint of yeastiness, this has the kind of prickly acidity that will almost certainly encourage you to go into your kitchen and fry a fish. If you’re anything like me.

Speaking of me (a subject of limited interest to the masses but the only one I really know), I’ve been feeling a bit Major Tom recently. Especially the part where he finds himself hurtling through space, abandoned, alone in the universe and he cries out: Tell my wife I love her very much. “She knows!” comes the plaintive reply. And she does know. She’ll be home soon. She assures me...

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Lovers of reds, like me you have not been entirely forgotten. If we consider our first selection to be a classy featherweight like Frampton, our second to be a brilliant middleweight like Canelo Alvarez, then today’s final selection is legendary heavyweight Muhammad Ali From Lidl, comes the sumptuously smooth, supple and superbly balanced 2015 Finca del Lebrel Rioja (£10.99). This intensely fruity and peppery Spanish red has a deftly spiced, exuberantly juicy palate that is full of black fruit, plums and cherry before a magnificently lengthy finish which- thanks to being aged in oak barrels- delivers very generous amounts of cinnamon and vanilla flavours. One for a fillet steak and garlic fries.

No fillet steaks at my lovely home, Rose Cottage, this weekend. Soft-boiled eggs and soldiers if I can muster up the energy. But don’t let my misery stop you from having your fun. Where’s that Sauvignon? Till next week, tipplers, sante!

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