Chateau Tour du Haut Moulin 1999: a classy old claret

I've been ignoring the title of this blog lately which is, of course, Food AND Wine Finds. Trouble is most of my wine reviews go elsewhere. The bargain bottles into Credit Crunch Drinking. The stellar wine matches into Matching Food & Wine and natural wines into my new blog Wine Naturally.

So this blog mops up the rest - bottles like Chateau Tour du Haut Moulin 1999 which are neither cheap, natural or particularly amazing with some dish I've just eaten. But brilliant value for money.

I speak as someone who (somewhat embarrassingly for a wine writer) doesn't have a big thing about Bordeaux. So maybe Bordeaux aficionados won't rate it but I think it's remarkable for the price. The fruit is still vivid, the texture beautifully velvety. When I tasted it at a chef friend's the other day I thought it was at least twice the retail price which is a surprisingly modest £15.99 from Averys of Bristol.

Absolutely worth a try.

A well-priced Rioja

We spotted this bargain in our local Co-op today and if you get in quick you can snap some up too. It's the Corte Mayor Rioja from the very decent Baron de Ley. We bought the 2005 vintage though my recent press release says it's the 2006 that's on offer - at £5.99 rather than the usual £8.99.

For those of you who are not familiar with Rioja classifications it's a crianza which means that it has to be aged in oak barrels for a year (as opposed to a reserva which must be aged for a total of 3 years with a minimum 1 year in barrel) So it's slightly fruitier and less oaky than an older Rioja but still very smooth and mellow. According to the importer, Bottle Green it's a 'confident wine' - whatever that means. It's also, apparently, fermented with natural yeasts.

I wouldn't say it was the ideal match with our roast chicken tonight but it would have been cracking with a joint of roast lamb or some lamb chops. Or a shepherds pie. Or a Spanish-style dish of pork and beans. Or some sheeps' cheese. In other words a very good all-rounder.

You've got until Tuesday night (17th) to buy it at this price.

My new passion for Chilean Carignan

This is a real Damascene conversion. I've spent most of my life disliking Carignan - the workhorse grape of the Languedoc - and now I find myself bewitched by its Chilean incarnation. I'm told the grape is the same but I can't believe it. Chilean Carignan is much finer with a subtler, more complex flavour and balancing acidity - more like a Syrah or a Cabernet, depending on the producer and whether it's a 100% Carignan or a blend.

I tasted a range at the London Wine Trade Fair this week which I'll be writing up on my website matchingfoodandwine.com but here's one that's reasonably easy to get hold of - if you're a member of the Wine Society (which I have to say is enormously worthwhile). It's the T.H. - standing for Terroir Hunter - Carignan from Undurraga sourced from fruit from Maule, the area that was most badly affected by the recent Chilean earthquake.

It's a big, vibrant wine, the sort you would imagine drinking with a steak but fresh enough to enjoy - as we did tonight - with a relatively light supper of cold roast chicken and chips and a cucumber salad.

Incidentally if you want to donate something to victims of the earthquake which include many of the winery workers in the region you can do it through Levantando Chile, the approved charity of Wines of Chile.

The curious craze for ‘coffee’ Pinotage

Let me ask you straight out - would you fancy a red wine that tasted of coffee? No? Me neither but could be we’re in a minority. As I discovered on my recent trip to South Africa there’s a huge following for what has become known as ‘coffee’ Pinotage.

The craze actually started nine years ago at the Diemersfontein winery who were after a new style of Pinotage that would appeal to younger wine drinkers. (Pinotage is the country’s indigenous grape, a robust, rustic and occasionally rubbery blend of Pinot Noir and Cinsault)

Its creator Bertus 'Starbucks' Fourie then went on to create a similar wine at KWV (the Cafe Culture Pinotage) then moved to Val de Vie where he set up his own venture called Barista.

The flavour apparently comes from the way the oak staves the wine is aged in are toasted to bring out chocolate and coffee flavours rather than the traditional vanilla ones.

Fourie says his favourite pairing is “a blue cheese filled brandy snap with Belgian chocolate and roasted coffee beans” but claims that it goes with “most controversial desserts”. Whatever that means.

I tasted the original Diemersfontein one and have to say it wasn’t bad - not that different from the kind of flavours you’d get on a full-bodied Pinotage or Shiraz. I’m not sure I’d go down the chocolate route though - it seems to me it would go better with something that doesn’t have chocolatey flavours of its own like a chargrilled steak or South African game. (It went quite well with the Moroccan spiced quail I was eating.) You can buy it in Waitrose if you want to give it a try.

Does the idea of coffee-flavoured wine appeal to you?