Rioja Reserva - Baron De Ley 2010

If you are looking for the mellow mood changer to ease into Autumn then this well priced Rioja has to be it. Attractive fragrant vanilla and strawberry cherry nose with a layer of spiciness to keep you musing.

It has a good bit of age to round off the tannins, making it a perfect choice easy pleasurable drinking. This is a perfect pairing for seasonal meats like venison, pigeon, roasted or stewed vegetables.

Definitely a wine to have on stand by for a range of scenarios from quiet nights in curling your toes by the fire, catching up with old mates or mingling at parties.

Currently on offer at Waitrose, this is a bargain at under £10. The real tip is not to buy a bottle but buy a 6 or 12 bottle case and be done with it!

Buy in store or online by clicking here.

 

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Last week a picture was posted on Twitter of vines in Shabo, a large estate that lies to the west of Odesa on southern Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline. The image seemed benign at face value but the reality, of course, is that the city of Odesa has been bracing itself for attack by Russian forces. 

 

As COVID-19 conspires with the grimmest of winds and rain to force a societal retreat behind our own front doors, the word ennui springs to mind. The muddle of displeasure is pierced when Natalia hands me a large bulbous glass of a liquid I do not recognise.

 

 

Britain’s lamentable exit

On the eve of Britain’s official departure from the EU, my partner and I decided to explore a small town on the Italian Riviera where thewintry cold doesn’t feel so much like cold war bite.

I had warned my significant other that I would be having an inverse departure party, a release of the sanity valve if you like!

 

Sitting inside the ancient castle walls inside the town of Soave, a short drive from Verona in northern Italy, the unique slightly almond aroma of the indigenous grape, Garganega, rises gently from my glass. The castle sprawls up the side of an extinct volcano that gives the region its variant soil structures that mark out the better quality of Soave wines.

 

Tanisha Townsend decided to move to Paris 4 years ago after regularly passing through the city en route to the world’s most famous vineyards. In fact, it was about 2 years ago at the Printemps de Champagne Bouzy Rouge tasting in Reims that I saw (who we shall now refer to as) GirlMeetsGlass chirpily speaking to her web followers on Snapchat.

 

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the final resting place of Saint James, rises out of the landscape, infested with antiquity. The rambling steep streets give way to shafts of dramatic light, emblazoned chapels, and tightly packed tapas bars, dusty, as old novels pressed together in antiquarian bookshops.

 

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