Sarah Ahmed – The Wine Detective

Of late, I’ve been focused on some fabulous fine and rare Portuguese wines.  But coming back down to earth, here’s a heads up on three everyday quaffers which, on Asda’s price rollback, are mighty hard to beat at £4.50.

• Tagus Creek Chardonnay & Fernão Pires 2012
• Tagus Creek Shiraz & Touriga Nacional Rosé 2012
  
• Tagus Creek Shiraz and Trincadeira 2011

Produced at João Portugal Ramos‘ state of the art Tejo winery, Falua, these are very well made modern wines which skilfully combine native Portuguese varieties with French ones.

My panel at Decanter World Wine Awards gave the previous vintage of the Shiraz Trincadeira a gold medal and trophy for best southern red under £10.  It then stormed the international competition to win the International Trophy for a Red blend under £10.  Given it’s from Ramos’ Alentejo base (click here for a report of a recent visit) and, he says, “the best harvest ever,” it’s my pick of the bunch.

The Asda Roll Back runs from 14th March – 5th June.  And for fellow Portuguese specialist Charles Metcalfe’s recipe suggestions, check out these You Tube vidoes:

Salmon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QPpLlRBYlQ

Venison - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOev5ri_PsA

Thai curry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDdyuJUnvuM