Wine Reviews

Cheerful and inexpensive, we used to buy Cava when we could not afford Champagne. That was before Prosecco arrived with a bang and squeezed modest Cava out into the third place. The style is still classic, produced exactly like Champagne, the quality is fast improving with many top producers now competing with Champagne including with their prices.

In 2006, when Sacha Lichine bought the run-down Chateau d’Esclans near St Tropez, there were only two good quality wine rosés on the market, both by Domaine Ott.

It’s hot, green and sunny and it’s asking for some fizz. Or should that be spritz? Surely that sounds much better. Quite a few spritzy wines are available on the market but if you want something different, or new, why not head to the Basque Country and try the wine called Txakoli? It may have been produced there since the beginning of the 17th Century because vino chacolin was already documented in 1616. It’s had its own ups and downs and it’s now definitely on the up.

Glorified by Francois Rablais in the first half of the 16th Century, the modest Cabernet Franc grape, which most of us know as a minor constituent in the Bordeaux blend, is an important ancient grape variety that is not only responsible for the creation of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenere and others, but is also the core of a whole range of Loire Valley reds.