Downham Market wine expert Giles Luckett on ‘left-field’ reds

Wine expert Giles Luckett from Downham shares his recommendations for ‘left-field’ reds…

One of the things I love about wine is that there is always something new on offer. No matter how well you think you know a region or a grape variety, or an unusual way of producing a wine, there’s always something out there to surprise and delight. Over the last couple of months, I’ve stumbled (literally in the case of the Esporão, must tidy up the cellar…) on several left-field reds, the best of which I’m recommending this week.

First up, a red (they’re all red this week Giles, Ed), the Santa Tresa Insieme Nero d’Avola (Vintage Roots £12.99). Certified organic, with no added sulphur this was love at first sip. Victoria plum in colour, it has a nose of stewed plums, cherries, almonds, and cherry sherbet. Full, rustic, with loads of black fruits, roasted almonds, cherries, balsamic, and a lift of lavender, it’s a rich, ripe, soft and easy-going belter of a wine that shows Sicilian wine’s ample charms.

I was taught that Carignan was a workhorse grape. A donkey of vine that laboured in the vineyards of the South of France producing earthy, zesty, unlovely wines that helped soil the region’s reputation in the 60s and 70s. While that may have been the case back then, Carignan, like its neighbour Grenache, has seen its reputation revived. In the right hands and in the right place, Carignan can shine as the Miguel Torres Vigno Carignan (Waitrose £13.99) shows. Blue-black, with a bright, berry-scented nose, there’s freshness and weight in equal measure, with the bright, earthy blueberry and strawberry fruit being offset by notes of bay and nuts. Just the thing for a mid-week plate of pasta or hearty sausage casserole.

Argentina has become a hotbed of wine innovation and Zuccardi is at the vanguard. Some of their high-altitude wines such as the Concreto Malbec (Laithwaites £29) are masterpieces of wine unorthodoxy. Sensationally stylish, pure wines that are a class apart. What caught my palate’s attention was their Appellations Cabernet Franc, Uco Valley 2020 (Oxford Wine Company £19.75). I’m not usually a fan Cabernet Franc, too much of the French iteration tastes like underripe Cabernet Sauvignon, but this was joyous. Deeply coloured with a nose of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries, on the palate it offers plenty of red and blackberry fruit, but the ‘green’ notes are suppressed, and there’s just a lovely, rounded finish of spicy, herb-tinted cassis.

Last but by no means least, is a Portuguese wine, the Esporão Reserva 2021 (Vinum £20.15). If you’re looking for affordable wine brilliance, then Portugal is the country you should look to. The Esporão Reserva offers black fruit jam, spicy black pepper, and cloves combined with notes of coffee, berries and cigars with plums, blackberries, spices and bitter chocolate rounded off with smoke and cherry liqueur. Enjoy this with feisty cheeses or a steak and kidney pudding.

Next time out I’ll be jingling all the way as I roll out my Christmas wine recommendations.