Pazo Serantellos Albarino 2008

Galicia is wonderful, it's as pretty as Wales but with warmer weather and better food and drink. Albarino is one of those benefits. The coolness and rain suit it well. If I see a new example I'll pick it up.

Pazo Serantellos smells good, theres a peachy-apricot juiciness that is really inviting. It's dry with a crisp acidity and a medium body. A medium intensity of flavour includes that apricot flavour with extra melon and some sweet honey. It's good, it's not a great albarino, but it is a good one. The flavour lasts well although it does make you want to have another glass rather quickly.

This Albarino comes in at a bargain price of £6, great value and a great alternative to another sauvignon blanc or chardonnay if you want to try something different but reliable.

Parrot Valley Chenin Blanc 2009

I'm not a big Chenin Blanc fan, or a big South African wines fan for than matter, so this bottle was placed on risotto rotation. A good glug went into a particularly good seafood risotto but on trying a smidge we decided to drink the rest rather than make it part of tomorrow's shrimp linguine.

It smelled good, fresh sliced apples and pears. It was ever so slightly just off dry with a medium high acidity which added some lemony zing to the fruit. A little bit of fruit blossom added itself to the mix too. It was medium bodied and easy drinking. Perfect for a midweek wine. It was about £6 which was fine. I'd drink it again, and it had perked up my interest in South African Chenin Blancs, but not so much that I'm going on a buying spree.

Castillo de Tafalla Garnacha Rosado 2008

The weather perked up above freezing. I was so excited by the sudden warmth I cracked open a bottle of pink wine. OK so we sat huddled under a blanket drinking it, but sometimes a need a glass of rose to cheer me up and remind me that warmer days do exist.

This was from Navarra, home to some of my favourite pinks. Cycling through the area I found it refereshing to drink and refreshing to see rough, tough farm and factory workers popping into bars for a cold glass of pink before hheading home.

This wine put me in that frame of mind. It smelled of non-specific summer berries, and tasted fruitily sweet whilst remaining dry with a medium high acidity. It had a medium light body and a pleasantly light 12% alcohol. At about a fiver a bottle it was a good way to grab a glimpse of summer in January.

Mistral Merlot 2008

I pulled Mistral Merlot from the wine rack for a weekend warmer. Fresh out of the bottle it was fruity with lots of plum and just a little spice to balance it. It needed a little rest by the fire whilst I watched the first half of the football.

An hour later when the second half kicked off I tried again. It had warmed up a bit, which seemed to do it good. It was still plummy, and those plums were soft and velvety without much firmness in the tannins. Despite a fairly hefty 14% alcohol, the wine had a medium body at best, it was light drinking, but not in a totally negative way, more of a fruity pop style.

This wasn't my favourite Merlot, but it was perfectly nice, I found nothing to take offence at, so a good choice to serve to people who don't normally drink wine but can be tempted by a glass in a wine drinkers house. At about £5-7 a bottle depending on deals the price is kina OK but uninspiring too.

Columbia-Crest Two Vines Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

United States wines here in the old world seem to fall into either bulk or billionaire categories with little in between. It's not easy to get anything from outside California, and the good stuff is pricy. So now and again it's nice to try something a little different.

I had a bottle of Columbia-Crest from Washington which I'd picked up with amusement as I mistook it for Falcon Crest, the Dallas/Dynasty style TV show with a vineyard. I then left it unattended for a few years.

I think it enjoyed that period of solitude, I think Washington State is a bit like that, up there in the rain. It looked deep garnet with a bit of mahogany creeping in. It smelled chocolatey with some fruit, but perhaps a bit more volatile acidity than I expected. It was dry with rather tasty balsalmic-y acid and more chocolate with sour cherries. It was different but good.

I'd love to see more Washington and Oregon wines in Europe, although I guess people from the Pacific Northwest would like a wider, cheaper range of European wines. If these are the problems that worry us, then life must be pretty good.

The Old Telegraph Malbec Shiraz Reserve 2007

Back in February it was snowing and cold so we stayed in and played Le Havre with a bottle of The Old Telegraph Malbec Shiraz Reserve 2007 for warmth. It was good, but nothing special.

Last night it was cold and snowy so we did the same thing, I still had a bottle that we'd left sitting for a year in the hope it would get better. It did. The extra year gave it a smoothness of maturity. There was still plenty of juicy plum and bramble, but the oak had settled into more of a silky chocolateyness that made it ver moreish. I think we have one more bottle, I'll save it for the next snowfall and see if it improves further or falls over the edge.

Plunkett Blackwood Unwooded Chardonnay 2008

Risotto night is white wine night and as risotto is quick and warming we've been enjoying quite a bit in the cold weather. Plunkett Unwooded Chardonnay was one of those choices.

It's pale and looks rather weedy, but it smells distinctly fruity with just a hint of herb. It's dry and they didn't lie about the lack of oak. It has a medium acidity and despite the dryness the fruit adds a sweet zing. It has typical melon but with some pineapple juiciness and just enough citrussy zip.

It has a medium high alcohol level, but edging more towards medium for a New World offer. At £10 this is a bit over priced, but with assorted offers and deals it usually works out at about £7, and it that level it's great value.

The Stanley Vineyard Shiraz 2008

It's been mighty cold out, with freezing temperatures and burst pipes adding to the festive fun. At ties like these only big fat red wines will do. Australians tend to go bold on red and Shiraz tends to have a warming hint of festive spice so we tried a Stanley Vineyard Shiraz from Padthaway.

It was a deep thick purple, as you can probably see from the label spillage. It had thick colourful legs and smelled of crushed blackberries with licorice and alcohol. It had an intense flavour with a warming wallop of alcohol. The combination of intense fruit and alcohol gave it a full body, one that slams into you and knocks you over. It was all just a bit too much. If there's another one in the kitchen I'll probably put it in the cellar for a year or two to grow up. I don't expect it to turn into a fine and delicate wine, but it should calm down and feel a little more integrated after a little cooling off time.

Dr. Loosen Dr. L Riesling 2008

Dr Loosen is good at making wine. Very good. Great Rieslings are truly great and come with the truly great price tags to match. Dr L is the friendly, approachable entry level offer from the brand. Entry level Riesling often means nasty.

This wine came in a cheply moulded bottle with a screw cap, it's designed to be drunk with the weeks' groceries it's bought with, like all supermarket wines. It's very pale and smells positively lively with tropical fruits and a mineral zing but no petrol. That makes it far more widely acceptable to less adventurous drinker, but seems weird in a Riesling.

It tasted just off dry with a mineral acidity and more tropical mango fruitiness with lemon and lime. It was light in body and alcohol but with quite a flavour punch. At £7-8 this is great value as a different, lighter choice. At this time of year it would work well as a lunch or afternoon glass when you want to keep the alcohol level low (8%), although it really comes into its own as a summer sipper.

Delirium Chardonnay 2008

Nice name, nice label. So far so good, both cool but not cheesy or cute. A screw top, always a plus on wines designed for drinking early, particularly those that might want to go on a picnic in better weather.

This Australian Chardonnay is pale lemon-gold with an unmistakeably chardonnay aroma of melons and apples, but unlike many new world offerings, there isn't an overwhelming oakiness.

It's dry with some light oak and a medium crisp acidity softened by sweet fruit although some mineral tang keeps it from being too sweet-shop like.

This wine has an almost New Zealand like restraint for an Australian Chardonnay making it worthe the extra couple of quid you'd pay over a standard example.

Ironstone Vineyards Zinfandel 2000

We had a bottle of Ironstone Vieyards Californian Zinfandel. It had been bought from Meijers in Detroit in 2001, when terrorism was a European problem and the world had banks that people didn't worry about. It had rested quietly in a basement that had flooded a couple of times, before travelling south for a warmer life in the Carolinas, finally crossing the Atlantic to its ultimate destination in my glass.

It looked surprisingly well on it, with a deep mahogany colour and some brick around the edge. It still smelled of red and black fruits with some yeastiness. It tasted dry with a medium high acidity. The tannins were soft and slightly chewy. There was still quite an intensity of fruit, red currants and blackberries, balanced against a positively marmitey yeast character and old wood.

I really enjoyed it, but with the current vintage for sale being the 2008, I'm not sure I can recreate the aging process exactly.

Canepa Novisimo Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Some wines taste great with a delicious seafood risotto. Some wines are better suited to being in the risotto.

It's not worth paying £9-11 for the latter.