Between the World Cup and the Olympics, a good deal of Brazilian wine is presumably being drunk. But where to buy it? Unlike Chile and Argentina, it has not yet quite established itself as a safe and widespread best-seller. Search a British supermarket and you could still have hard work tracking it down. But Waitrose, in its wisdom, is stocking a pair of wines that smartly complement one another other - a red Merlot and a white Chardonnay - at an inviting enough price, £8.79 - to lure you into buying a bottle of each.
It is a risk worth taking, even by people who are so colour-conscious that they would generally prefer one to the other. Drink them both, for the simple reason that the one is as good as the other. The red should be sampled as a gutsy winter tipple - though it will taste just as characterful, I feel sure, in the summer - robust but not hard-edged, and well suited to spicy stews at any time of year. The white - bold but not too in your face - measures up well to more familiar South American Chardonnays, and goes as nicely with savoury meat as with salmon or shellfish.
Buying a bottle of each therefore has much to be said for it. Each works as an aperitif, and it is as simple to pass from the red to the white as the other way around. Nor is either of them too strong, though another Waitrose wine wins my prize this week for its combination of flavour and low alcohol content.
Surprisingly it comes from New Zealand and is a Sauvignon whose alcohol level is no higher than nine per cent - something you might expect from Germany but not the Southern Hemisphere.
Having been deterred by the sheer weight of many New Zealand sauvignons, excellent though they often are, I have found The Doctor’s Sauvignon Blanc at £8.99 delightfully fresh and fruity, with a tang all its own that contradicts, or seems to, its nine per cent alcohol tag.
Whether as an aperitif or with seafood, it is a captivating white, and I can confidently recommend it.
20 January 2016
It is a risk worth taking, even by people who are so colour-conscious that they would generally prefer one to the other. Drink them both, for the simple reason that the one is as good as the other. The red should be sampled as a gutsy winter tipple - though it will taste just as characterful, I feel sure, in the summer - robust but not hard-edged, and well suited to spicy stews at any time of year. The white - bold but not too in your face - measures up well to more familiar South American Chardonnays, and goes as nicely with savoury meat as with salmon or shellfish.
Buying a bottle of each therefore has much to be said for it. Each works as an aperitif, and it is as simple to pass from the red to the white as the other way around. Nor is either of them too strong, though another Waitrose wine wins my prize this week for its combination of flavour and low alcohol content.
Surprisingly it comes from New Zealand and is a Sauvignon whose alcohol level is no higher than nine per cent - something you might expect from Germany but not the Southern Hemisphere.
Having been deterred by the sheer weight of many New Zealand sauvignons, excellent though they often are, I have found The Doctor’s Sauvignon Blanc at £8.99 delightfully fresh and fruity, with a tang all its own that contradicts, or seems to, its nine per cent alcohol tag.
Whether as an aperitif or with seafood, it is a captivating white, and I can confidently recommend it.
20 January 2016
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