Yahoo News These punchy red wines are perfect for late summer
‘August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.’ This is what Sylvia Plath had to say about the month we are about to enter. Dahlias and sunflowers bloom, we holiday and we harvest; we hope for days that are hot and languid and sometimes we get cold rain and wind instead.
I want to suggest some hedonistic red wines to open during this last piece of summer. These are reds that are forged in heat and taste of intense sunshine and parched herbs. They will warm you up if the day is cold and add to the intoxicating sensuality of a warm dusk if it is not.
Let’s start with an aglianico from Basilicata, the mountainous region that sits between Puglia and Calabria, in the instep of Italy’s boot: Basilisco Teodosio Aglianico del Vulture 2019 (The Wine Society, £12.50). Aglianico can be monstrously unyielding. This one, which was grown on volcanic soil, has intensity and density, but it also has a slightly softer face, a warmth and fruitiness that lets you in. Think dark cherries, a gentle glower, and a fierce energy.
Where next? Over to the hills of Macedonia in northern Greece, for a red made from xinomavro. Thymiopoulos Xinomavro Alta Naoussa 2019 (The Wine Society, £16.50) tastes of balsamic, dried thyme, red cherries and wild strawberries, like a Barbaresco with more red berries and cedar instead of incense.
Next we’ll go down under, all the way to the Hunter Valley in Australia where Brokenwood Hunter Valley Shiraz 2018 (masterofmalt.com, £26) offers a mulberry-ish warmth that saturates you with its flavour like large, warm drops of tropical rain. There’s a glorious, peppery spice to this wine, which would be a spectacular bottle to open if you were, say, barbecuing a rib of beef rubbed with coriander, chilli and soy.
Also from Australia, d’Arenberg The Shepherd’s Clock GSM 2019 (M&S, £10) offers a gorgeous fragrant pom-pom of red berry flavours dusted with white pepper and cinnamon. The GSM stands for grenache-shiraz-mourvèdre – this is a southern Rhône-style blend. Of course you could go to the actual Southern Rhône and try a Châteauneuf du Pape like Morrisons The Best Châteauneuf du Pape 2017 (£19), which is 80 per cent grenache with 15 per cent syrah and a touch of mourvèdre, and has the feel of red fruit compote and dry white stones and licking flames.
Over in Swartland in South Africa, Adi Badenhorst makes his own take on a Rhône blend. AA Badenhorst Secateurs Red 2021 (swig.co.uk, £14.50) is grenache, shiraz and cinsault, full-flavoured, but not at all heavy, with notes of cranberry among the richer fruit. It’s one of my brother’s favourite reds. I love it too, but lean heavily towards Mediterranean reds that are even more herbal.
I recently tried a set of wines from the Sardinian producer Sella & Mosca of which my favourite was the Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva 2019. Cannonau is the Sardinian name for grenache but Sardinian cannonau is very distinct in flavour from either the garnacha of Priorat or the grenache of the southern Rhône. Less plush, and more on the tinder-dry herbs, almost with a hint of sangiovese about it, this really satisfies my craving for a late-summer red wine. Of course, it’s almost impossible to get hold of, I could only find it on Amazon (£125.69 for six bottles).
My wines of the week are a little easier to come by as single bottles.
Wines of the week
Specially Selected Douro Mimo Moutinho 2019
Portugal 13.5%; Aldi, £6.79
There’s an edge of earth and dust amidst the bramble and damson-scented fruit in this red from the steep-sided Douro Valley.
Domaine Richeaume Tradition 2018 IGP Méditerranée
France 14.5%; Yapp, £19.50
A gorgeous blend of syrah and grenache with a bit of cabernet sauvignon. Rich with a scent of dried herbs.
La Bastide Blanche Organic Bandol 2018
France 14.5%; Waitrose, £14.79
Bandol is Provence’s gloriously feral red. It’s never cheap but this is a good (and good value) example – beautiful with aubergine or lamb.
