I am always slightly nervous about the whole process of recommending wines. The taste of something and the sensitivity of an individual palate are so variable and personal that it can be a risky business. One person's wonderfully subtle and aromatic red is anothers' thin and uninspiring vinegar substitute. There are some wines I love simply for their unpretentious nature and their appropriateness for time and place that would have many other wine writers recoiling with disgust. I've had people round to sample some wines where everyone agrees consistently on their merits or otherwise - apart from the one person who always takes the contrary view. Sometimes, you don't 'get' a wine until the second or third glass or when you are eating it with just the right food. I remember a particular South African Chenin Blanc, which I thought had probably spent too long in the bottle and was past its best. Then, by accident, I used it to wash down some grilled fish with a particularly strong aoili. It was a revelation - the almost oily wine perfectly marrying the garlic. Similarly, a dark Spanish red, dismissed by a group of us as rather flat and lifeless was revealed in a more thoughtfully drunk glass the next day to be something of stunning complexity and depth.
So it's nice to think you might have got it right when you find a wine that you really like and hope that others will feel the same. Therefore it was with some joy that when I walked into the front room of the house of my old friends Sheila and Gerry last Saturday night and saw everyone enjoying a bottle of La Vieille Ferme, a wine from the Cotes Du Ventoux which, by a nice co-incidence, I was recommending in the Independent on Sunday the following morning. Everyone there expressed their enjoyment of the wine - brought by another guest - and which accompanied Sheila's robust vegetarian cooking extremely well. I felt somewhat smug, it has to be said.
It is a wine I first came across in the on board shop of a ferry from northern Spain a few years ago. I bought a speculative box of six for about £30 and thought it a terrific wine for the price - medium bodied, well made, spicy and fruity at the same time, a perfect accompaniment to Mediterranean foods. I quickly discovered that it was made by Perrins et Fils, one of the great names in Rhone wine, who have been making wines for almost a hundred years and whose Chateau de Beaucastel, an organic Chateauneuf du Pape with great ageing potential, can cost around £80 a bottle. If you can find it. La Vieille Ferme is made using the same love and care but from grapes (a familiar southern French mix of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault) grown close to the main estate. It is therefore, a fantastic bargain, but also sometimes difficult to find. The couple who bought it to the dinner party found it in Waitrose, although it is listed as 'out of stock' on the Waitrose wine website. Unless you want to take a trip on a Brittany ferry, the only other place I could find it is in Majestic - where you have to buy six, but it is a steal at £7.49. The same has to be said for another Majestic wine I'm recommending in the Independent on Sunday this week, the Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel, which is possibly an even better deal at just £4.99. Although a single varietal from America's native grape, the Zinfandel, it is in many ways a similar wine - well structured, spicy, fruit driven, with a satisfying finish - and from a producer with real longevity and experience. Waitrose, it should be noted, are selling it for about £9.50. Majestic told me they are able to offer it at such a price because 'our buyer got a great deal on a few hundred cases.' Good for him and for us. Both these wines are excellent value for midweek meals and, as I said, neither would (or did) disgrace the dinner table. Go and buy...
Here is last weeks' column: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-coyam-emiliana-2007-la-vieille-ferme-ctes-du-ventoux-2009-st-hallett-poachers-blend-2008-2196344.html
And here are this weeks' wines: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-chteau-de-ciffre-faugres-terroirs-daltitude-2008-montgravet-chardonnay-2009-ravenswood-vintners-blend-zinfandel-2007-2202431.html
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