Muscadet: the perfect seafood white

Muscadet was one of the first serious wines I tasted. Well, perhaps not exactly 'serious' but 'authentic'. I was introduced to it by a Labour peeress, no less, who took me to her favourite wine merchant, The Old Chelsea Wine Stores in Lamb's Conduit Street. I was young and very impressionable and thought it was utterly amazing to buy wine that way.

Since then I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie which is generally held to be the best of the Muscadet appellations although, like many French wines, it's not that fashionable these days. But it has many virtues, not least of which is that it's a terrific seafood wine, particularly with oysters and the classic plateau de fruits de mer. And it's very good with sushi.

This is one I picked up the other day in Oddbins, a 2009 from Domaine de la Foliette. It's fabulously crisp and clean - just a perfect bracing drink for the dog days of summer. The Domaine is a member of the Terra Vitis association which means that the wine is produced sustainably with respect for the environment. It's also just 12% ABV, an alcohol level you all too rarely see these days.

It sells in Oddbins for £8.99 a bottle or £7.19 if you buy a case. I'm not sure I'd want that many but it's good to have a bottle or two in your wine rack.

Denman Hunter Valley Semillon

I had my first wine of the 2010 vintage this week - a Denman Hunter Valley Semillon from Tesco. One of their better wines, from the ‘Finest’ range. They seem to have a schizophrenic attitude to our local (Clifton, Bristol) Metro which has a mainly student clientele but is also quite posh. In fact many of the students are posh too but they’re on holiday at the moment so I guess this gives them a chance to focus on some slightly more expensive bottles.

Not that it’s a bad price at £8.31 but it’s fascinating to see that they’re currently offering it on their website for £5.99 a bottle and for even less through their Wine Club where a case of six is selling for £34.14 or £5.69 a bottle

Turns out that it’s the 2006 vintage which normally would be a no-no in the case of white wine but Hunter Valley semillon, which comes from just north of Sydney, is one of those rare whites that ages really well, acquiring the slightly limey, petrolly notes you get with old riesling. (An acquired taste but one I like.)

The 2010 is still a babe in arms by comparison and you may well find it uncomfortably sharp at this stage but it’ll taste pretty good with seafood, salads - and sushi, according to the back label. We had it the other day with some smoked salmon paté with which it went brilliantly

Its other virtue is that it’s just 11% which makes it a good midweek pour.

A more than drinkable party wine

One of the downsides of going to big events is the quality of the wine they generally serve. That's not being snobby, just realistic about the economics of catering for large numbers. Coupled with the fact that you - or at any rate, I - almost always end up drinking more than you intend to it's an almost inevitable recipe for a significant dip in productivity the following day.

But not yesterday. Because the night before at the Guild of Food Writers' awards they served a wine called Nerola from the very decent Spanish producer Torres which was not only delicious but, being organic, presumably had far fewer nasties in it than most commercial wines. I remember drinking it once in Barcelona with Asian food (can't remember why) and it certainly sailed through the assorted, mainly salmon-based canapés at the event. (It's a blend of Xarel-lo, the grape variety that is used to make Cava and Garnacha Blanca but actually tastes much more characterful than you'd expect from those grapes: more like an oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc or Sauvignon-Semillon)

Needless to say it must have been heavily subsidised (Torres was one of the sponsors of the event) as it's not what most people would consider a party wine price. The lowest retail price I could find was £8.99 from Bennetts Wine Warehouse while everywine.co.uk was charging £84.78 a six bottle case - or £14.13 a bottle which seems more than a little cheeky for a by-the-case rate. You'd need to check the vintage from Bennetts though as they might be trying to clear old stock. If I track down any other stockists I'll let you know. (And I finally have! Apparently a website called vintagemarque.co.uk will be selling the 2008 vintage from July 1st at £9.49)

Incidentally if you are thinking of buying booze for an event or to stock up for summer entertaining I'd do it this weekend. Chances are there will be a heavy hike on duty in Tuesday's emergency budget. (Well, wrong there for once!)

You can read about the GFW award-winners here.

A wine called Darling

You remember that running gag in Blackadder Goes Forth about Captain Darling who Stephen Fry, who plays the general, keeps calling 'Darling'? Well there seem to me to be plenty of similar possibilities with this wine, a South African Sauvignon Blanc named after one of the new up and coming wine regions. In fact it's a shame we have another 11 months until Valentine's Day: let's hope Tesco keeps it on the shelves till then.

It's a crisp, fresh Sauvignon with plenty of gooseberry fruit but without the overt asparagus and green bean character that I personally find over the top. I enjoyed it last night with some Thai crab cakes and noodles but you could drink it with almost any kind of seafood or salads. You can buy it for £39.84 a case (£6.64 a bottle) which not excessive for a wine of this quality though it's a shame that it's not included in the '2 for £10' offer that Tesco has on some of the other wines in its Finest range (The Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc should be good value though take care - it is the 2006/7 vintage. Chenin ages well so that shouldn't be a problem but don't buy a shedload before you taste it).

Talking of wine bargains, Majestic has 25% off their South African range until next Monday - which enables you to buy wines like Springfield Estate, Klein Constantia and Groot Constantia Sauvignon Blanc at a significant discount. Not as significant as the 25% might suggest - their prices tend to be pitched higher than the supermarkets but they do have wines that supermarkets don't stock. And you can now buy six bottles from Majestic if you pick them up yourself.