Palacio de Valdeinfante 1997 - Spanish Classic!

Hurrah for Carlos Sastre who won the Tour today after a heroic team effort got him there. It was pretty much sewn up last night at the time trial when Cadel Evans failed to pull off the outstanding time he'd relied on so we had a Spanish classic to celebrate.

It was a Palacio de Valdeinfante 1997 Tempranillo from Laithwaites. It's wrapped in a faux wire cage which is kinda silly, but the wine is good. It's thick, rich and oaky without tasting of fresh shavings. There's plenty of black fruit too, along with a touch of spice. It's worth the ��8 it's on sale for.

Enough typing for now, I have a cold glass of pink Cava waiting to celebrate properly. Maybe it will help me over the guilt I'm feeling at being secretely smug that there's lots of new world wine in the kitchen I haven't had a need to drink for the last three weeks.

Go Cav - Go Go Go and er ... Go!

Not bored of it yet!

Marvellous Mark Cavendish

Cavendish took another stage yesterday - hurrah! I'm low on English wines, but had one bottle of red that I'd picked up at the vineyard gate on my travels around the country. It was from a winery I'd been to before and I'd enjoyed good wine.

We cracked it open, we poured, we prepared it toast 'Cannonball Cavendish'. An odour filled our noses. It was odd. It was unpleasant. It wasn't cardboard, it wasn't barnyard. It was identified by the wine-curious teens as hot dog. Not the roadside snack but an actual dog that was hot. Not just any dog. It smelled like Patsy the Jack Russell after she'd been running around on a hot day.

I tried a taste. I've never eaten dog, so I can't tell you how it compared, but it tasted nast. Some fruit was there but so was a barrel-load of acid and a little creosote. I'll keep the producer quiet to protect their blushes. You'll have to settle for the photo of Cavendish winning a stage of the tour of Britain again. I'm not bored of it yet!

Gavi La Lancellotta 2007 - Celebrating with Ricco

Ricardo Ricco of Italy took the sixth stage of the Tour in an exciting last kilometre climb which saw the yellow jersey splatted into the road with a silly wheel clip mistake.

We celebrated for him with a Gavi La Lancellotta 2007. It's very pale with a zippy scent of grapefruits and peaches. Bone dry it had a zingy acidity, medium body and alcohol level. The flavour was intensely fruity with lots of fresh grapefruit backed by a little sweeter apricot. The flavour lasted well, and it was delightfully more-ish.

Not your standard forgetable bianco, this wine was a 'buy again' at ��7.50, but it's currently on sale at Majestic for ��6 in an Italian multibuy offer. If you're a fan of Sauvignon Blanc, but want to try something different that will still make your steely tastebuds smile give this a go.

Toasting with Ridgeview Merret Grosvenor 2004

Hurrah for Mark Cavendish who sprinted across the line to take the longest stage in the Tour de France today. A bit harsh on the breakaway who he sprinted past, but hurrah none the less.

Time for an English (yes I know he's Manx but you try growing grapes there) sparkling wine. A Ridgeview Merret Grosvenor 2004 which I bought last year when I drove through the Sussex countryside and saw a 'vineyard' sign. They gave me a few glasses of wine and let me wander around the vines taking nerdy photos.

It's a very good wine with a smooth mousse and distinct yeastiness which it's a cliche to call brioche. There's citrus too, but more grapefruit than lemon. It's one of England's more widely available sparklers as Waitrose do stock it when they can. The quality is unfortunately reflected in the price, expect to pay about ��22, more than your average grande marque Champagne in a supermarket, but it's worth a try to dismiss any thoughts about English wines being inferior.

Oh, and it's an excuse to post the picture I took of Cavendish winning a Tour of Britain stage again.

Sainsbury's Lustau Fino Sherry

Le Tour est arriv��! Let the fun begin. The Tour de France kicked off (pedalled off?) yesterday with a new format encouraging a tighter, more assertive race.

Spain's Alejandro Valverde took the first stage, and my 'guest photographer' and chief Sherry pourer is a bit of a fan having seen him years ago cycling around Spain in the Vuelta years ago. I'm a big Sherry fan having gained a taste for it cycling across Spain.

Lustau is a big hitter in the Sherry world, and they've struck a deal with Sainsbury's to provide their 'Taste The Difference' range of Sherries. Not only does that mean great Sherry is available in the supermarket, but they also use 50cl bottles which are so much better for Sherry as the smaller bottle size means greater turnover in the fridge so fresher sherry. Hurrah.

This Fino is big and beefy, almost literally, it have that kind of Marmite style meatiness as well as a 'salt' level of Manzanilla proportions. There's bottle olive juice too, all in all a strong contender.

Look out for Valverde's bike today, he's brought along one to go with his new yellow jersey (that's confidence!), even the brake calipers are yellow.

Amarillo!

Alberto Contador made it safely across the line with the peloton to win the Tour de France. Along with his yellow jersey, he's also entitled to the white one. He's a team winner too with Discovery. Go Alberto! The last guy to achieve that feat was Jan Ullrich. I hope Contador doesn't have to explain away bagged blood in ten years time. I hope this Tour finally makes the point that cycling is clean and if you're not you shouldn't turn up. I hope other sports take the same tough line.

None of the drug worries should detract from Contador's achievement, so I found the nicest amarillo/blanco Spanish wine in the house, a Marqu��s de Murrieta Rioja Blanco Capellania 1998. It's a yellow-gold colour with strong legs. It smells of warm, rich American oak - toasty, nutty, vanilla.

It's dry, with a surprising tang of wood tannins and a crisp acidity. It's pretty full bodied for a white wine, making it a good choice for people who claim they don't like whites (along with Vernaccia) . The flavour lingers wonderfully.

1998 was a good vintage in Rioja, with plenty of sun. Alberto Contador was fifteen when these grapes were harvested. I hope he was having fun on his bike then. I wonder if he was dreaming of today.

Hats off to Levi

Levi Leipheimer put in a sterling performance to take the time trial yesterday and, barring disaster, put himself on the podium in Paris. Discovery Channel are having a great Tour, but it may be the lovely Tom Boonen who gets to decide who wins the Tour.

To celebrate Levi's win here's a Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Chardonnay 2005. It's a favourite wine of some friends, so it has happy associations of drinking far more than is wise whilst having fun. It's a sunny yellow gold and smells of rich vanilla, sweet coconut and ripe peach, melon and pineapple.

It's dry with a crisp lemon and apple acidity. Medium bodied, with a hearty 13.5%. It has oodles of toasty oak and plenty of ripe sweet fruit, with just a hint of gingery spice. There's lots and lots going on and it's almost too easy to drink.

At around ��6-7, available pretty much everywhere this is a reliable, crowd pleasing wine, a good example of affordable Californian Chardonnay. Stock up when you see special offers.

Boycotting wine

Another Belgian victory, another chance to admire Tom Boonen, another struggle with wine choices.

I'm following the lead of German national broadcasters who have decided to pull coverage of this year's Tour because one of the German riders might have taken performance enhancing drugs. Seems a bit mean of German sports fans, who like me tend to stick to performance impairing drugs, but they said they wouldn't show the Tour if it was drug-addled so they won't.

My protest is the lack of people from major wine producing countries winning stages. I got very excited last night as Julian Dean was mentioned in the last few seconds of the sprint, but to no avail. I boycotted wine last night as a result. I opted for beer, Belgian beer of course in honour of Tom - Peeterman Artois. It was good, lighter and zippier than Stella.

Kloden is favourite for today's time trial. Fortunately for German fans, the Tour is back on TV through the power of advertising revenue.

British Tour Victory!

Hurrah! Barloworld won another stage. I'm stretching reality a little far claiming a British victory, but the team is registered in the UK. Barloworld are doing absurdly well, and you have to ove them for that, it's like Coventry winning the FA Cup 10 years ago, so improbable that you have to be happy for them.

Robbie Hunter is the first South African to win a Tour stage, and in an unforgiveable oversight, given how few people from major wine producing countries have been winning lately, I don't have a South African wine in the queue. Stretching my rules again I'm opting for a Hunter Valley wine in his honour, a McGuigan Signature Reserve Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2006.

It's lemon-gold and has plenty of melony fruit and toasty oak on the nose. Maybe it's the suggestion of wild yeast but it does have a biscuity yeast aroma too. It's dry and crisp with citrus and peach adding to the mix. 13% alcohol s very civilised for an Australian Chardonnay. It's not cheap, but at £7 from Majestic, it's good value and offers something slightly different in the world of Chardonnay.

Finalement!

The French have finally done the decent thing and won a stage of the Tour. Cedric Vasseur crossed the line in Marseille to take the win by the width of a tyre. Based on his website page, he can lick his own toes, which may be a useful skill.

That merits a claret, a Château Meaume, Bordeaux Supérieur, 2000 from Majestic at a reasonable £7. It's deeply velvety ruby coloured. It smells of plums and blackberries and fruits of the forest. The velvety feeling continues in the mouth with soft ripe tannins. The fruity flavours are starting to fade away a little and it needs drinking up, but I'll be buying more recent vintages from this English producer of 100% merlot in Bordeaux.

European commentators were amused today by Brit David Millar cycling in 100 degree heat in a long sleeved jersey. That may seem insane, but this is what happens to English people who leave body parts uncovered when cycling in southern France.

Plan B

It looks like the Tour is conspiring against me - a Columbian stage winner. I have never tried or even heard of Columbian wine. A quick search turned up ice wines from British Columbia, but nothing from Columbian Columbia. I'd been rooting for Mayo and Valverde (even though I lost a tenner on him in the National) as I have something of a backlog of Rioja's.

I missed the highlights as I was out chatting about The Talented Mr Ripley. Reading it had me pining for Italy. A recent visit from a friend who had been on a half hearted house hunting trip to Le Marche gave me an excuse to try a few Verdicchios.

We had a Monte Schiavo Ruviano Verdicchio Dei Castelli Di Jesi 2005. It was bright and fresh with plenty of clean and refreshing grapefruit and just a little green plum. At about a fiver it was good value, and went wonderfully with the seafood pasta it washed down.

Climbing Towers

The second day in the mountains and a just plain scary one with three category one climbs, but just two descents. If I had the choice I���d prefer that ratio. I don���t understand why they don���t stop at each hairpin, looking terrified, squirting water on their rims to cool them down after constant braking and mustering their courage to descend another 500 yards.

Michael Rasmussen had no such fears and kicked some serious bottom. Unfortunately for me he���s Danish. Denmark is not known for it���s wines, though there are some Danish wines out there, you have to go to Denmark to get them. The closest I could find was Carlsberg.

Yesterday Linus Gerdemann took the stage in style, and being German, gave me a few more options. The Enemy were playing the Godiva Festival in Coventry, and people needed cheap picnic sized drink options. Black Tower now produce wines in handy snack sizes. You may recall Black Tower from decades such as the 1970���s. The bottle is a mini version of the iconic candle-friendly bottle of the past. The wine itself is medium sweet, with soft acidity and a vaguely floral, slightly grapey flavour. It���s perfect for serving as cold as possible out of plastic cups.

The Enemy were a hit, with their first album hitting number one today. Look out for Kaliedafoxx, the next great Coventry band, best accompanied by beer.

Go Bradley Go!

Bradley Wiggins had a fabulous day in the Tour today as it travelled through Burgundy. Breaking away after 2km and holding a heroically bonkers solo lead with help from his aerodynamic nose until the last 7km, he did a fabulous job for Cofidis.

As they were pedalling through Burgundy I opted for a Blason de Bourgogne Saint Veran 2005. It was a lemon gold colour and smelled of apples and pears (teehee, I just noticed a little rhyming slang for Londoner Bradley). It was very dry with a crisp acidity. The pears continued with ripe melon flavours adding richness to an element of oiliness. This is a good wine, and under-priced for Burgundy.

Tesco's list price of ��9 is probably a little high for this wine if it came from any other patch of land in the world, but I picked this up in store on offer for ��6 - at that price t was a real steal.

Vino!

Wow! The Tour de France had a fabulous day today, with Filippo Pozzato taking a stage which saw the yellow jersey crash and recover and David Millar take a temporary lead (OK for about three minutes, but it made me happy).

The big story was the Astana team. Big hitters Kloden and Vinokourov both crashed in style. Kloden may not get back, having broken his bottom, which is a major problem on a bike! Vino staged a fabulous comeback with help from six of his team-mates and absolutely no-one else. An oddity in bike racing, which has a bizarre code of good manners which would normally see the peloton letting a faller make his way back after an accident or mechanical mis-hap 20km out. He managed to get back all but 80 seconds, a fabulous achievement but a massive handicap.



I'd love to toast him with a glass of Kazakh wine. Yes, it exists, and it is made from grapes, despite what you may have heard from Borat. Unfortunately there's no immediate plans to export it to Europe, but quality is said to be returning to the pre-Soviet level.

All that and they cycled through Chablis. I had a Caves de Chablis 2005 from Majestic ready to watch it with this evening. It was a good value example, fresh, minerally and medium in alcohol. Zippy apples and nectarines with a sherbet edge. At £8 it's good value, but couldn't rip my attention away from the lycra!

On a completely random side note I saw two, count them, two Barloworld trucks on the motorway today. I've never seen any before in my life, but they must have been out there. Advertising works.

Weird Wine Tour

The Tour de France isn't making wine drinking easy for me. Fabian Cancellara is still in the yellow jersey. Whilst I have drunk Swiss wine, it's not easy to get hold of and I've only ever tried it at specialist tastings. Based on that limited sampling it's good, and who can blame the Swiss for keeping it to themselves. They need plenty with a yellow jersey, a 5th Wimbledon win and an Americas Cup - Go Switzerland!

Today's stage winner was the fabulous Thor Hushovd, who made it across the line without any PMU big green hand injuries. Unfortunately for me he's from Norway. I certainly haven't tried any wine from Norway, and until today I didn't know they produced any - they do, at the most northerly commercial vineyard in the world.

Tomorrow's stage starts in Chablis, so I've popped a bottle in the fridge, next to the bottle of English sparkling that's likely to sit there for all three weeks.

In search of Belgian wine

Today's Tour de France presents me with a bit of a problem. It was in Belgium, the stage was won by a Belgian, Gert Steegmans, followed across the line by Tom Boonen who is, as you've probably guessed by now, a Belgian. So a fabulous day for Belgians everywhere, but unhelpful in choosing wine.

I looked back over my notes and I've never knowingly tried a Belgian wine. It's not a big country, even if they did produce wine in reasonable quantities I imagine they'd probably drink it all, as we do here in England. My search led me to Clos d���Opleeuw Chardonnay which Jancis Robinson recommends, but you have to order direct from the producer. Andreea recommends this 'very Belgian' choice, again available only in Belgium, and to be served only with asparagus!

If you know of any Belgian wine available in the UK, let me know, otherwise I'll stick to chocolate, beer and moules et frites.

Bold Australian

Against the odds Robbie McEwen came from the back of the peloton with grazed knees and elbows to win the bunch sprint and the stage in Canterbury today. Go Robbie. So time for a bottle of Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay 2006.

It's in a sensible screw top bottle. It smells toasty and oaky with melon and ginger underneath coconut and cream. It's dry with a balanced acidity and quite full bodied. The toasty flavour brings more spiciness on the palate with a little ginger as well as pineapples and peaches. At 13.5%, with a really easy drinking smoothness it does pack quite a punch.

Like Robbie, Bin 65 is a reliable choice, good value, approachable, likeable and very Australian. I suspect I'll need to shop for more Aussie wines over the next 21 days.

Fortunately I wasn't in charge of the section in which Mark Cavendish crashed into a spectator, I've added a gratuitous shot of a Briton leading the Tour to celebrate.

Le Grand Depart

The Tour de France has come to England - hurrah! Last night we had some English cheese and French wine to celebrate.

We had a Sainsbury's Classic Selection Sauternes 2002. It was a beautiful honey colour and smelled of orange and lime marmalade. It was deliciously sweet with a crisp acidity keeping it balanced. It tasted of more marmalede with honey and nectarines. Not much in the way of cabbage, but yummy nonetheless and for under £9 a half bottle it was reasonably priced. The Blue Vinney was lovely, but pastuerised and lead-free - damned progress!

I'm off down to Kent now to act as a marshal for the first stage of the Tour de France. I'm so excited there's a more than theoretical chance that I'll throw up on the peloton!