Tbilvino Mukuzani 2004

I was out and about for the tourist view of Leicester. I'm doing my best to visit all the tourist attractions in Leicester, today's trip included the fabulous charch of St Mary de Castro at which Chaucer got married and King Henry VI was knighted. this wasn't the highlight according to my guide though, excitement built for the visit to Newarke Houses where Daniel Lambert's trousers are the most famous exhibit. Strange as it seems the people of Leicester are immensely proud of having been home to the fattest man in history, their jovial jailer Daniel.

Distressingly the trousers were on tour, so I only got to see his chair, stockings and shirt alongside a photo of two Blue Peter presenters, one in each trouser leg.

I cheered myself up with a stop off at Evington Wines, a wine shop that punches above its weight. I picked up a bottle of Georgian wine as although archaeological evidence suggests that Georgia is the home of wine production, I'd never tried any.

The store owner councilled against buying the sweet red favoured in Georgia, and we chose a dry style instead. It was interesting as an experiment, but not a great revelation. Maybe as Georgia's economy picks up their wine making technology will improve too. I hope so.

Berry Bros & Rudd Good Ordinary Claret

Good Ordinary Claret is a fabulous name for a wine, there's no 'Old Fat Bastard' or 'Penguin Pride' type marketing ploy here, it has a no-nosense air about it. You want a Claret? A good ordinary one? Here you go!

It's a medium garnet colour with good legs. It smells of blackcurrants and plums with a little woody veg. The tannins are ripe and there's a medium full body, with a smooth velvety texture. The blackcurrant flavour is rich, and there's smooth plumminess. There's a neat depth of leathery wood too. The alcohol level is medium, which compares well with New World alternatives. The flavour lingers and yet is more-ish.

Berry Bros & Rudd are masters of understatement. Their Good Ordinary Claret is very good, and at under £8 a bottle, it's much better value than most Clarets and many of the Bordeaux blends from the New World.

Split Rock Sauvignon Blanc 2008

The summer is gradually coming to an end despite some unseasonably warm September weather. I've been making the most of warm evenings with a glass or two of cold white wine.

Split Rock Sauvignon Blanc 2008 is a cheery summer number, pale, dry, pleasantly acidic, smelling of fruit rather than grass and tasting zingily limey with some squishy sweet gooseberry, but a just a little unripeness that's neither grassy or nettle-like, just green, like an unripe tomato.

One weird factoid I'm constantly amazed by is that the first Sauvignon Blanc was planted in New Zealand in the early 1970's. The country has certainly established a great reputation really quickly. The good people producing this wine planted their first Sauvignon Blanc in 1973, so they've certainly put some time in, although they've gone with the good quality affordable production route rather than stellar quality at stellar prices. I'm quite glad.

Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel 2005

We had a bottle of Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel 2005. It had travelled about a bit in cars and planes and had been subjected to a few changes in climate, none of which tend to improve a wine. It was dark garnet with just a hint of brick emerging on the edge. It smelled smoky with tobacco and morello cherries.

It tasted dry with a medium acidity. The tanins seemed confused, or at least they confused me. They had softened but there was still some firmness, the effect was blocky rather than smooth. The tobacco carried thrugh along with the cherries and some vanilla, but the wood was more cedar than oak.

I liked it, I doubt whether the exact conditions which created the wine I had could be recreated. I'd like to give a less traumatised bottle a try, who knows whether it will be better or worse. This was certainly better than the $7.99 price tag siuggested, particularly as the exchange rate at the date of purchase would have made it around £4.

Brown Brothers Tarrango 2008

I went to Tesco in search of large pasta shells to stuff and at the end of the pasta aisle there was a river end full of wine oddities at knock down prices. I picked up some obscurities which I'll try out over the next few weeks including a Welsh wine and some crazy looking Australian blends. Of the more mainstream choices they had a couple of bottles of Tarrango. It's a curious sell for a supermarket - not quite a red, not quite a rose.

It's a recently invented varietal, created in the 60's to stand up to some of Australia's more extreme climates. This one was a cheery fuscia and smelled of freshly squished bright red fruit with redcurrants and raspberries taking the lead. Not fully dry it had a fresh zing of acidity and lots and lots of raspberries and some red cherry.

We had it cold, not quite as cold as a rose, but close, it held up well, and was good value for £6, great at £4.49.

Marks and Spencer Favorita 2007

Wandering aimlessly in M&S I spotted a couple of wines I'd never heard of, let alone tried, so I added them to my basket, making my trip out sandwich lunch an expensive adventure.

Favorita is from the Langhe area of Piedmont in Italy, home to some great reds. This wine was a pale lemon colour with an aroma of fresh pear and lemons. It was dry with a medium high acidity and plenty of citrussy zing balanced by pears and some peachiness. The flavour lingered on well, developing an almost nutty sweetness.

I was pleasantly surprised by this find, I'll look out for it again. It's worth noting that M&S have 25% off some wines at the moment, so it's worth checking back to see when this one is on sale.

The Crusher Cabernet Sauvignon Wilson Vineyard 2007

The nice people at Don & Sons sent me a bottle of their Crusher Cabernet Sauvignon. Having listened to the last few balls of The Ashes it seemed sensible to drink The Crusher to celebrate crushing the Aussies!

Cabernet Sauvignon is not my favourite wine, having rather over-done it in the 90's when varietals were the thing. This one looked interesting though, noting that it was made from the Wilson Family Vineyards rather than anonymous Californian grapes.

It was a garnet colour with reasonable legs, it had a medium light aroma, with vanilla and black fruits. Sweeter than your average European Cabernet it wasn't unpleasantly sweet, and it had ripe soft tannins with a medium acidity. The flavour tended towards Merlot, with black fruits, but less blackcurrant than I expected. The was some mild mintiness, but it was dominated by the soft black fruit and vanilla oak.

This was a smooth and different wine, I enjoyed it and would pay the $12 it retails at.

The Crusher Petite Sirah 2008

The nice people at Don & Sons sent me a bottle of their 2008 The Crusher Petite Sirah. I tend to drink a lot more Old rather than New World wines, and generally expect Zinfandel or Bordeaux varietals from California, so Petite Sirah was intriguing.

The bottle was sealed with a Neocork bearing a fancy design, which came out easily enough. It was a dark, thick purple with positively muscular legs. It smelled of equally thick fresh crushed fruit with caramel. It was just dry, with ripe, soft tannins and a medium acidity. It felt rich and rounded in the mouth and tasted of fresh blackcurrants and blueberries and loganberries with just enough vanilla fudge. 13.5% alcohol fitted comfortably into the mix making it a well balanced wine that would hold up well against a range of well flavoured foods.

It retails at around $13 which seems about right for a chunky red.

Berliner Weisse Mit Rot

Summer holidays this year included a trip to Berlin, a fabulous city with a rich and varied history, and a vibrant present. We didn't get to any local vineyards, but I did try the local speciality beer - Berliner Weisse.

It's a low alcohol (3%) wheat beer, and it's served with syrup - either red or green. I'd been assured that the green syrup tasted like cough mixture so opted for 'mit rot'. It came in a bowl shaped glass with a straw. It looked rather like a dessert and smelled a bit like one too.

It tasted - bad. Imagine eating a huge bowl of raspberries and a sherbert fountain then dancing. Imagine you now feel a little unwell, you burp. Berliner Weisse mit rot tastes like that burp. I was not a fan.

Our under-age team liked it though (and they weren't under age for drinking it in Germany). I suspect that is its market, alcohol for people who don't much care for alcoholic drinks, rather like the alcopop market.

I'm glad I tried it. I won't repeat the experience.

La Vendimia Rioja 2006

So Contador is in yellow and all is well. I can drink Spanish wine and call it necessary for blogging purposes. I'm so excited about how Bradley Wiggins is doing that I may have to stock up on English wine anyway just to be supportive.

We had a La Vendimia Rioja which I'd picked up from Berry Bros Outlet store. The salesman nodded appreciatively as he rang it up and told me he'd bought a few for himself. The great thing about BBR sales people is they are all very nice, all absolute wine lovers and all completely incapable of lying to make a sale. I asked about a Californian Albarino I was buying and he smiled, said, 'yes, it's interesting', and moved the conversation on. He was right, it was interesting if you are interested in overpriced, under flavoured, characterless tosh.

Back to the Rioja. It was a dream. It came in layers with spicy oak and caramel and blackberries and strawberries and brambles and hedgerow. I felt like Violet Beauregarde chewing my way through flavour after flavour but I didn't swell up like a blackberry.

This was a good value wine at £8 retail, an absolute steal at £5.50 Outlet.

Bellevue Hill Chardonnay 2007

So the Tour de France is hotting up. The Isle of Man has failed to become a major wine producing region and whilst I'm happy to keep toasting Cavendish with beer from his home island, I can't write up every bottle.

Cancellara is in yellow, but I only have one Swiss wine in the house and that has more of a novelty than taste appeal. Astana won the Team Time Trial today in quite some style, but again I have failed to stock up on wines from Khasakistan (but if you know where I can get some let me know).

I settled instead for an Australian wine. I don't think I'll be needing to save a bottle for the Champs Elysses. It was a good value example of a full on Australian wine, lots of peachy-melon fruit sitting comfortably under a warm layer of butter toffee. This wine isn't hugely complex or sophisticated, but it tastes good and it's easy to drink.

Dirler Riesling 2005

Germany took on England in the final of the European Under 21 Championship last night and I had neither English nor German wine in the house. A sad state of affairs. I opted for a wine from Alsace, the best I could do in the circumstances.

It was a good choice for a hot day. The Dirler Riesling was very dry with an almost savoury herbiness. The citrus was more grapefruit than lime and there was a petro-chemical element which became more obvious as the wine warmed up.

The wine was better than the game. I gave up at 4-0 and watched the tennis instead. Pass me a Pimms.