Wine

My Favourite Wines

People that know me well, know that I like my wine. Not in an English kind of way, where you drink it simply to get intoxicated. Not interested in that at all. I like it in the same way that the Italians and French like it. Growing up, I was always taught to respect alcohol by my parents. We used to get to try things like sherry on special occasions etc. and wine, although back in the 70’s and 80’s wine wasn’t exactly something people bought very often. But I spent time with a French family in my early teens on school exchanges, then during my late teens early 20’s I spent a lot of time living with Italian families and learning how to have wine with your meal is just a part of life on the continent. You drink it as an accompaniment or simply for the flavour of something different. You never drink wine to simply get pissed.

So in our house, there is always white wine in the fridge, normally sitting alongside some Prosecco or Champagne and red wine on the wine rack (which holds 96 bottles). The Champagne/Prosecco isn’t opened on special occasions, it gets opened whenever we actually feel like drinking some. On a lovely summers evening for instance. Or just when you feel like something different to a gin and tonic pre-dinner.

Therefore, friends are often asking me what wines I recommend. So here’s a list of some of my favourites to be updated as and when I find new bottles I like. All the wines listed here, are ones I’ve bought many, many times. They are consistently excellent. They are also all under £10 a bottle at time of purchase. I’m not into expensive wine, I can’t afford to drink bottles every day if they cost £15 upwards. That doesn’t mean I recommend cheap wine either – bottles that cost £6 and under are normally not going to be very nice at all. What I look for are £8-15 bottles, that are on offer – when something is 25% off and brings it into my price range, then I’ll buy in bulk. I’d never buy one bottle. Six is an absolute minimum (5% off if buying 6 at Waitrose). But more likely I’d be buying 12-48 bottles at a time. Depending on the offer in question and how hard that wine is to get.