Zesty Whites
Let’s extend the summer by sipping bright white wine and imagining we’re poolside at a Provençal pleasure palace. For under a tenner, these zingers are all mood-lifting day-brighteners. I love Italian whites for their gleaming refreshment and unbeatable value, Spain’s Atlantic coast delivers deliciously invigorating Albariño or try whites from the Mediterranean coast for a change. My Wine Society pick from Valencia is a unique blend of rare grapes including Verdil and Mersguera and a cracker for the money. Elsewhere, Austrian whites gleam with mountain purity, but Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand beams with the sunniest tropical tinge of all.
OLLY’S PICK OF THE BUNCH
Orvieto 2020 (12%), £6, Marks & Spencer. The peak of Mount Pristine covered in lemon sherbet! Splendid value.
The Best Grüner Veltliner 2020 (12.5%), £8.25, Morrisons. Soaring as a nectarine fired from a cannon, this is bright, uplifting and excellent.
Finest Viñas del Rey Albariño 2020 (12.5%), £9, Tesco. Piercing white with beautiful zing: pinnacles of fresh pineapple and breezy grapefruit.
Celler del Roure Cullerot Blanco 2020 (13%), £9.95, The Wine Society. Stunning with shellfish, this unique zinger is an orange spliced with a peach. Try it!
WINE OF THE WEEK
Vavasour Sauvignon Blanc 2020 (13%), £10, Co-Op. Punchy as passionfruit, this New Zealand white is tantalising, tropical, scrumptious and delicious.
This article was originally published in YOU Magazine, Mail on Sunday, 19th September 2021 – Prices, stockists and vintages correct at time of publication.
