May Day, it’s raining again and with forecasters predicting yet another wet month ahead of us, surely this must already the wettest drought on record? It certainly feels like it.
At this time of year, while we expect to hear of the odd devastating hail storm ravaging vineyards in the south of France, we have normally already turned our attention to drinking RosĂ© in the spring sunshine, and sales of our MIP* Made In Provence outstrip every other wine in our stores. But not this year, and who can blame anybody except the weatherman (or ‘global warming’ if you must).
Still, there are plenty of great value, fruit driven and warming reds to consider for a wet May ahead of us, including two of which I have recently been enjoying on a daily basis, being Peter Bright’s brilliant value ‘Alfrocheiro’ from Portugal’s Alentejo, and Jean Royer’s fabulous declassified Châteauneuf du Pape ‘Le Petit Roy’.
I am still drinking my way round many of the delicious red burgundies that have suddenly become available, the latest being Domaine Huguenot’s 2009 Marsannay, which offers a lot of wine under ÂŁ20 bottle, although the biggest treat of the week-end was a stunning ‘accidental’Â bottle of Perrot-Minot’s 2009 Morey Saint Denis La Rue de Vergy, which I saved from being entirely poured into the gravy by my darling daughter who opened it by mistake!
The long range forecasters predict a ‘sizzling June’, (when our rosĂ© sales will go through the roof?), but we have heard all that before, and in the meantime I’m sticking firmly to red. In fact I’m even heading off to taste Australian red wines today.