We're called Purple Teeth for a reason. We love red wine. (We love white wine too, but that's beside the point, and we covered them yesterday). So here are some reds we've enjoyed lately.
The last few reds we've sampled here at Purple Teeth HQ have covered the spectrum of countries, grapes, flavours and prices ranges, and all have been great. I also opened a French Corbières, which seemed to have a fault, but that probably saved me from myself that night. Even if it wasn't faulty, no-one wants a drink that smells of burning rubber unless they've already reached the gutter, so that's not on the "buy again" list!
£6.99 from M&S 13% abv GSM was the first "Wine of the Week" trial on Purple Teeth. Our Facebook fans and Twitter followers who chose to buy the wine and play along are much appreciated! Why did I choose this wine? At our recent Purple Teeth Tasting there were 2 Monastrells (Mourvèdre) and a Priorat (mainly Garnacha). Plus I love Syrah! Marks and Spencer are marketing this Spanish wine with a very French feel - the GSM blend label uses the French rather than Spanish grape names, as this blend is common in Southern Rhone. At some point we can do a compare and contrast with a French one. At £6.99 it's worth a try.
So what did we think?
Quotes from friends of Purple Teeth:
"Quite full bodied, fruity, very peppery and spicy with a good dose of tannins". "Went very well with the spicy pasta we had this evening."
"I had a couple of glasses and loved it. Would buy again"
"Thanks for suggesting this one."
We enjoyed it too and were surprised just how much. It's in danger of ousting the Tesco Finest Nero D'Avola as our regular "tomato/spicy pasta" wine at the same price point. Valencia wines are proving a hit based on recent tastings and this one has deep flavours of plum, some smokiness or a hint of liquorice along with some redcurrant to give it vibrancy. It proved very quaffable and we'll definitely buy it again.
Wine of the Week needs development and perhaps Google+ hangouts are the way forward. Meantime, we'd love your suggestions on what to feature in future weeks. Ideally, I want to keep the wines under £8 and ensure they are widely available. If you want join in next week's fun, we're featuring a 2010 Cahors that's £7.99 from Watirose called Malbec du Clos. Feel free to submit your photos, comments and ideas via comments here or on our Facebook fan page.
So what did we think?
Quotes from friends of Purple Teeth:
"Quite full bodied, fruity, very peppery and spicy with a good dose of tannins". "Went very well with the spicy pasta we had this evening."
"I had a couple of glasses and loved it. Would buy again"
"Thanks for suggesting this one."
We enjoyed it too and were surprised just how much. It's in danger of ousting the Tesco Finest Nero D'Avola as our regular "tomato/spicy pasta" wine at the same price point. Valencia wines are proving a hit based on recent tastings and this one has deep flavours of plum, some smokiness or a hint of liquorice along with some redcurrant to give it vibrancy. It proved very quaffable and we'll definitely buy it again.
Wine of the Week needs development and perhaps Google+ hangouts are the way forward. Meantime, we'd love your suggestions on what to feature in future weeks. Ideally, I want to keep the wines under £8 and ensure they are widely available. If you want join in next week's fun, we're featuring a 2010 Cahors that's £7.99 from Watirose called Malbec du Clos. Feel free to submit your photos, comments and ideas via comments here or on our Facebook fan page.
£20.99 Waitrose Wine 14% abv Petaluma Shiraz: rich, dark, powerful yet elegant as Coco Chanel... It's £20.99 so definitely well out of the Tuesday night price range. It's up to you to decide if it's worth 3 bottles of GSM but for me it was love at first sip.
For once, we were having a Friday night at home and it felt right to open this bottle. It had patiently sat on the wine rack screaming "open me" for some months (since I bought it on a special offer price at Waitrose).
There's 4% aromatic Viognier in the blend (a northern Rhone technique, this time) and the Shiraz grapes from Australia's Adelaide Hills bring an inky black colour which is almost misleading. Although it's powerful, this is smooth. As it slips down your throat you know it loves you back and the layers of sophistication underneath the blackberry, plum, spice and smoky leather tell you this wine, if human, would never be without a date!
I will definitely buy this again next time it's on special offer, and not just the one bottle. It made a rather ordinary Friday into a wonderful occasion.
For once, we were having a Friday night at home and it felt right to open this bottle. It had patiently sat on the wine rack screaming "open me" for some months (since I bought it on a special offer price at Waitrose).
There's 4% aromatic Viognier in the blend (a northern Rhone technique, this time) and the Shiraz grapes from Australia's Adelaide Hills bring an inky black colour which is almost misleading. Although it's powerful, this is smooth. As it slips down your throat you know it loves you back and the layers of sophistication underneath the blackberry, plum, spice and smoky leather tell you this wine, if human, would never be without a date!
I will definitely buy this again next time it's on special offer, and not just the one bottle. It made a rather ordinary Friday into a wonderful occasion.
£10.99 Angel Price 13% abv Small and Small Marlborough Pinot Noir from Naked Wines could not be more different. The colour as you'll see from the photo is pale and transparent, much as you'd expect from a Pinot Noir and it's from the much cooler Marlborough region of New Zealand, an area more famous for Sauvignon Blanc.
Pinot Noir is how I first came to red wine. Not an obvious route as it's sometimes quite austere, unaccessible and needs to be very high quality to be worth drinking. But it was Switzerland, and it's what would grow there.
Despite being a million miles away, this reminded me of that first taste of Pinot some 20 years ago. It's light in colour, reasonably light in body, full of acidity and full of strawberry but not jammy like some Californian Pinots I've had recently. I've been going for much heavier bodied wines of late, as Mr Purple Teeth isn't a massive fan of Pinot or anything that doesn't scream "I'm here". So I'll be saving this for when he's out and enjoy it all to myself.
If you're going to give it a go, I'd recommend decanting or aerating it. Not because it wasn't lovely as it was, but when I returned to the remains of the bottle on the second night, it was even nicer, with a lovely balance of fruit, acidity and alcohol. This wine could also be served slightly chilled, making it a pleasant summer drink with a light salad.
Thanks for reading and enjoy your wines while I'm off in the States. Cheers!
Pinot Noir is how I first came to red wine. Not an obvious route as it's sometimes quite austere, unaccessible and needs to be very high quality to be worth drinking. But it was Switzerland, and it's what would grow there.
Despite being a million miles away, this reminded me of that first taste of Pinot some 20 years ago. It's light in colour, reasonably light in body, full of acidity and full of strawberry but not jammy like some Californian Pinots I've had recently. I've been going for much heavier bodied wines of late, as Mr Purple Teeth isn't a massive fan of Pinot or anything that doesn't scream "I'm here". So I'll be saving this for when he's out and enjoy it all to myself.
If you're going to give it a go, I'd recommend decanting or aerating it. Not because it wasn't lovely as it was, but when I returned to the remains of the bottle on the second night, it was even nicer, with a lovely balance of fruit, acidity and alcohol. This wine could also be served slightly chilled, making it a pleasant summer drink with a light salad.
Thanks for reading and enjoy your wines while I'm off in the States. Cheers!
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