Red Wine

Asti is the next place along from Alba. This cheeky red is all Barbera should be: vital, cherry-red, bright, lifted, cool and crunchy. Shouts Piedmont loud and clear. Lovely chilled, with salads, with tomato sauces, and tomatoes, herbs, pepper steak. Truly epic value from this super grower.

Expert winemaking from Guy Vanlancker produces this fantastic Tempranillo from the the exceptional terroir of his L'Infer vineyard in Minervois. Full bodied, rounded red fruits and subtle savoury nuances.

A blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre with a light touch of oak from ageing in older barriques. The Mourvedre is noticeable in the aroma of leather.Full mouth, velvety soft, aromatic purity of fruit, flowers and wood. 75% Syrah, 13% Mourvèdre, 12% Grenache on clay-limestone soils. Yields 25 hl/ha. Hand-picked, traditional fermentation. Aged for 12 month in tanks and old oak. TA 3.3 g/l, pH 3.76, RS <0.4 g/l. Total SO2 43 mg/l. Unfined but very loosely filtered. Big purple nose, some boudin noir and iron underlying the fruit. You can taste the iron (should be a tonic for the anaemic!) but the fruit tastes redder and sharper and with much more tang than on the nose. Tamarind, membrillo, roasted morels and woodland humus. Mouth-watering freshness. Dry tannins that feel like well-brewed tea leaves. So whole, so substantial without heaviness that it feels like you should have a glass of this a day for the sake of your health. GV. 16.5/20 jancisrobinson.com

This is simply outstanding wine for the money, soft super-juicy ripe plummy fruit and a long full-flavoured finish.This easy-drinking wine comes from Chile's renowned Valle Central Region, where long hot days are followed by cool nights. This temperature difference ensures the grapes ripen slowly, so they develop maximum flavour.

Jonathan Livingstone Learmonth "this is solid Value: has a shiny, bright dark red, jolie robe. The nose is sweet-noted, a good pile of cherries in the frame, with salt clarity, licorice, good life overall. This is direct, off we go: solo drinking right on the agenda here, thanks to a burst of live black fruits, some good, fresh lift. It is quite flashy, suited to a crowded bar and noise. The fruit is exuberant"

We've shipped this wonderful 'declassified Brunello' from Il Palazzone for over a decade now. Alway a treat, and an utterly delightful bargain. The wine is 100% Sangiovese Grosso, known in Montalcino as Brunello - all from the estates own Brunello di Montalcino vineyards.

Red and black fruits, intense and ethereal bouquet of vanilla, full, firm but velvety flavours with a fine lingering aftertaste of liquorice and ripe red fruits.

Intense sense of terroir on this, from the gnarly old Grenache bush vines - 65 years old plus and not irrigated. Wafts of hot earth and cigar, ripe but bruised fruit, evolved, no new oak apparent An affordable classic from this epic estate.

Made from a Sangiovese-led blend of 2015, 2016 and 2018 wines, it slips down slightly more easily, with a beautiful fragrance and charm, with the faintest waft of herbs and old wood. We could drink it all night long. It's one of our favourite wines for sharing with friends. We cannot recommend this highly enough. "Succulent, polished fruit in beautiful balance. This is enough to inspire a rash of multi-vintage blends, no? Walter may disapprove of the incursion of those Bordeaux grapes but it's a really lovely drink, grown, presumably, not that far from Tenuta del Trinoro. Very long and nuanced. Beautiful texture and freshness. Lip smacking! How wonderful to find this under £20 a bottle. No prizes for label design but I'd much rather all the effort went into making a lovely (and ready) drink. Not a wine for long keeping. Just drink it. VGV" 17.5/20 Jancis Robinson MW Date tasted 2020-06-25 Drink 2018 - 2025

An intense ruby red colour. Vinous and clean aromas with hints of red berry fruits. Round in the mouth and medium bodied. A well-rounded finish with mellow tannin.

Bright ruby, showing youthful fruit aromatics and light floral notes. Esporao winemakers David Baverstock and Luis Patrao have created a charmingly rustic, tasty, top value red.

A delicious Puglian Primitivo, bursting with aromas of ripe berries and spice. This wine is ruby red in colour with a violet hue. It has intense aromas of red cherries, blackberries and hints of spice and leather. These aromas follow through on to the palate which is rich and velvety with generous tannins and great length.

Vibrant and juicy nose of fresh blackberry with a hint of dark chocolate. The palate is rich and juicy.

Opens with bold aromas of boysenberry, black cherry and a bevy of vanilla nuances. On the palate, this wine is fruit-driven with flavours of pomegranate, black cherry, fresh cranberry and nutmeg.

A stunning wine this vintage from this world-renowned producer. Cuvée “Les Racines” showcases the vineyard parcels surrounding the winery—the origin of the domaine with the oldest vines—with the emphasis on freshness and extravagant cornucopian fruit.

The 2007 Leoville-Barton is more vigorous and fruit-driven than the Langoa, with gorgeous dark berry fruit, wilted rose petals and orange blossom scents that really blossom in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with a sensual, quite rounded opening that belies the structure of this Leoville Barton, armed with black pepper and cedar towards the long finish

Price check Berry Bros £75 One of the finest estates in Burgundy. This is from a single 1.5-hectare plot in the lieu-dit Le Bas de Combe whose location next to Vosne-Romanée is borne out by this wine’s open, lifted bouquet which would be more Vosne than Nuits but for that engaging hint of spice. The oak (50 percent new) is well-integrated and there’s a pleasing roundness to the palate - indeed, this is remarkably complete for such a young wine

The 2009 has the highest percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon (90%) ever included in a Calon-Segur (the rest is Merlot and Petit Verdot). Completely different from its St.-Estephe brethren, it is more backward and structured with a dense purple color, lots of black cherry, black currant, loamy earth, forest floor and spice notes, excruciatingly high levels of tannin, and a wonderful inner core of sweetness and concentration

With its solid tannins, and chunky texture, this is a well-balanced wine. The fruit is ripe, full of freshness, big on generous structure

Reminiscent of a Provençal street market (which I always get from classic Gigondas), it has ultra-fine tannin, excellent concentration and a rocking finish. Drink this beauty through 2029

Freisa is a red grape variety peculiar to Piedmont and in the hands of genius Fabio Alessandria it is deeply coloured, violet and raspberry scented and exquisitely pleasurable.

Only after four years of aging the Barbaresco obtains the title "Riserva". Garnet-coloured wine, in the mouth it reveals its aging in a harmonious and velvety way. It lends itself to a long aging in bottle. Serve at 16-18 ° C It can be tasted with traditional Piedmontese dishes, game, mushrooms and aged cheeses.

Halliday 93/100 "combines heft with restraint and that's its key. Black coal, redcurrant, blackberry, clove... a hearty red wine to sit down and settle in with."

Ever faithful to its roots, Monte Velho is the Alentejo in a glass, coming to represent a benchmark of the region in Portugal and the world over the years. Made by Sandra Alves and chief winemaker David Baverstock, it's fragrant, fruity and deliciously smooth.