CVNE Rioja Rosado 2007 - Spanish Winner

Spain finally threw off their 'perennial underachiever' tag and won Euro 2008. We settled down to the final with a bottle of rose - the Germans play in white, the Spanish in red, it seemed like a reasonable compromise, or at least it might have been if it wasn't from Rioja. Like most of Europe I wanted Spain to win. They play nicer football and frankly, it was their turn!

A truth I hold to be self evident is that all Rioja is good, particularly CUNE, regardless of colour. Their 2007 Rosado doesn't disappoint. It's a beautiful shade of pink and it tastes of raspberries and strawberries with a zip of lemon and just a hint of grassiness. It's a whole summer picnic in a glass!

Majestic currently offer ��2 off if you buy two bottles making it a ��5.50 bargain. Stock up now and enjoy your summer.

Celebrating With Turkey - Turkish Wine

The European Championships have been a joy to watch. With no home teams to get excited or disappointed about I've been able to relax and really enjoy the football.

Turkey has been a big surprise this year. They haven't gone out to win, but they seem to have done so consistently with almost comedic last minute heroics. I certainly didn't think at the start of the Championships that I'd be rooting for a Turkey v Russia final.

The Turks have been making wine for an awful long time, probably longer than upstarts like Spain and Italy (who meet in a quarter final tonight), but despite producing most of Europe's table grapes, they haven't really exported their wine with any great success. If the controversial plan for Turkey to join the EU goes ahead it will be interesting to see how the wine market develops, but in a country that's strugging between wanting a secular European future, and an Islamist state, wine could go either way.

I tried some Turkish wine at the LIWSF this year. They had quite a showing with many wineries looking for representation in the UK. It seems that whilst Turkish wine is available in Turkish restaurants and some specialist food stores, it's largely imported on a personal level with no distribution deal in place.

My favourite out of a quick guided tasting tour of the stand was Buyulubag winery's Adakaras�� - Cabernet Sauvignon Rose. It was a vibrant pink and oozed summery flavours of cherry blossom and raspberries, with a palate clearing zing of redcurrants.

I'd buy it tpo celebrate with Turkey if I could, but until there is a distribution deal in place I'll just have to look out for licenced Turkish restaurants.

Vina Sol - Sunny days for Valverde

This weekend Alejandro Valverde won the Dauphine Libere, in what could be a warm up for the Tour de France. What better way to celbrate than with a Torres Vina Sol 2007, Torres most successful wine in the UK.

It smelled fresh and fruity with green apple and a little spiciness. It was dry with a high yet balanced acidity. The alcohol level of 11.5% is afternoon-friendly. It tastes fruity with crisp green apple softened a little by ripe pears, melons and something just a little like cooked spicy pineapple.

It's a remarkably refreshing yet quaffable wine, reliably delivering year after year. It's generally priced between ��5.50 and ��7, and you can usually pick up a bottle (or more) at Thresher's, Tesco, Sainsbury, Majestic or any chain retailer.

Biddenden Gribble Bridge Ortega Dry 2007

This weekend we headed out for a picnic in the grounds of a minor stately home, whilst listening to an entertaining and talented steel drum band followed by a fabulous Salvation Army band who put on a 'Last Night Of The Proms' selection followed bythe 1812 Overture with a mesmerising fireworks display. The whole event had been arranged by the Wigston Lions to raise funds for the local air ambulance.

We'd taken a picnic and wine to share sitting on plastic backed blankets and picnic chairs. Some people had dressed for dinner and had dining tables and chairs, complete with candelabras. We may have been underdressed and may have failed to bring flags to wave, but we had English wine, a Biddenden Gribble Bridge Ortega Dry 2007.

I've been to Biddenden in Kent, and went last summer so saw these grapes as mere buds. It was nice that I got to see them all grown up. A picnic may not have been the perfect outing, this is a wine best served quite chilled. It's light and fruity with a touch of sweetness, much more German than French in character. At ��7-8 a bottle it's over-priced based on purely objective grounds of quality, but worth the extra to try English wine on a lovely English summer evening.

Angove's White Grenache

I was surprised to find that Angove's White Grenache 2007 is, in fact, white. Ordinarily I would expect a 'White Grenache' to be a candy pink, semi-sweet concoction from California. The only other time I've tried a white grenache has been as part of a Rhone blend with at least half a dozen other grapes mixed in.

This was just off dry but with kiwis and peaches and lemons. If I was asked to guess what it was I would probably have plumped for soemthing from Alsace, probably a gewurztraminer, not a great one, but a tasty affordable one.

It seems the Angove family like making off beat wines, and started out growing Grenache in Australia 25 years ago. Their efforts have paid off with an interesting and different wine that's worth looking out for.

Sierra Grande Sauvignon Blanc 2007

I had a random weekday off work recently, there's something delightfully naughty about not going to work when everyone else is. I took advantage by planning in a leisurely lunch, booking a table for three at The Gallery before setting off for a trip arount the Herbert Art Gallery.

The Herbert is undergoing some major improvements with a beautiful new extension and a striking set of ironworks outside connecting the city with its pre-blitz history. The Gallery however wasn't undergoing renovations but had closed its restaurant without mentioning it at booking. We ate in the 'Bistro' - that's the bar - with a restricted pub menu. Having looked forward to a slap-up lunch I was disappointed.

I needn't have been, the food was good - freshly made with good ingredients - and reasonably priced. We had a bottle of Chilean Sierra Grande Sauvignon Blanc 2007 to go with it. It was crisp and fresh, with a smell of grapefruit and grass. One flavour proved difficult to identify, some sort of vegetable, maybe tinned, or boiled. We settled on asparagus, but perhaps with some residual yeast. The wine was good, the company was good, the weather was good. A perfect day off.

Dassen View Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc is another favourite further up the Loire, with Vouvray offering great wines. South Africa produces plenty of Chenin Blanc and some of it is really good.

We had a bottle of Dassen View Chenin Blanc 2007, from a winemaker who produced his first bottle at home at the age of twelve. Some kids are more useful than others.

This wine was probably a lot better than the first example in his parents fridge. It was pale and bright with an aroma of apples and pears. Dry, with a crisp acidity the fresh crunchy fruit flavour carried on to the palate with a softening touch of honey. Medium bodied with medium alcohol the focus is on the fruit.

This wine comes in at around ��5-6, and whilst the Loire produces better Chenins it doesn't supply many this good at this price to the UK. It's a shame.

Beaujolais Nouveau 2007

This weekend we opened our bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau 2007 which arrived Friday - we were concerned it might go off if we left it another week.

Explaining the concept to wine-curious teens wasn't easy. It's tough to explain why you'd rush to buy a wine that's fresh off the vines when they're used to seeing older bottles working their way through the kitchen.

The French have always summed up the Nouveau sales to English speaking countries as "Made early, drunk early, pissed early - paid early", hardly a glowing guarantee of quality, but an honest reflection of the financial realities of wine production. Beaujolais wines aren't all rushed out for the pre-Thanksgiving Thursday. There's plenty of good ones released after a winter of relaxation.

Our bottle was cheerfully bluey-purple with a boiled sweet aroma. Dry, with a medium acidity and little tannin the boiled sweet flavour was enhanced with some raspberries and strawberries as well as a strange confectionery blend which got better with each slurp. 12% alcohol may have helped it get better. Our teen-tester described it as being like wine, just watered down a bit - quite an accurrate description really.

Served cool with the intention of having just one bottle a year, Beaujolais Nouveau is a fun, gluggable, sociable wine. It's fun to try wine from this summer's grapes, you just shouldn't pay a lot for it. This bottle came in at under ��3 so I have no complaints.

My guest photographer considered it important to picture the bottle on the diary page of consumption. Look out for more artistically constructed images in future.