Brazin Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel 2018 Californian red

 We bought this wine from the local supermarket with a 25% discount £12.25 instead of £15. It was simply superb and one of the best Californian wines I have ever tasted. We drank it with steak as recommended. Usually, we only drink half a bottle of wine with our meal but we savoured this wine over the course of a whole evening.

The wine was full of fruit flavour but so well balanced for tannin, acidity, sweetness and alcohol at 14.5 % not 15%. It was full-bodied and concentrated and the flavour rested on the palette. The wine was distinctive and showed Zinfandel produced wine at its best. At this price it competes with the best in the world. I highly recommend this wine and it is still on offer. Despite the lockdown British wine lovers can go down to Waitrose buy this wine and a steak and find some relief from the wretched virus.

It is not often that I agree with  a supermarket's hype about  a wine. In this case if you take away the hype  you are left with a description of an exceptionally good wine at great value for money. You can probably buy it from their website. American readers can probably find this wine easily  so it is really worth searching out as the value for money will be even greater than in the UK.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/brazin-old-vine-zinfandel/712311-101235-101236

My wife is a member of the  Wine Society and this is what their wine lovers have got to say about it, and I couldn't agree more.

https://www.thewinesociety.com/shop/productdetail.aspx?section=pd&pl=&pc=&prl=&pd=US9321

Waitrose Own Brand Albariňo 2109

 I don't buy "own-brand" supermarket wines very often, but I fancied a bottle of Albarino to go with the evening's supper: the supermarket, Waitrose, did not have any recognisable domaine produced wine so I settled for  Waitrose Own Brand Albariňo 2109. I was not disappointed this wine had all the flavour and character of a domaine produced wine, it was nutty with apple and citrus fruit flavours. It was dry and well balanced for acidity and sweetness. It goes perfectly with fish such as Sea Bass, Sea Bream, Hake, and of course Sardines. It was concentrated on the palate. It was typical of a Spanish  Albariňo produced in the Rías Baixas region of Galicia on the Spanish border with Portugal. The wine is made of Albariňo grapes so it is varietally labelled - I can forgive the Galicians for this, just like I can forgive the Alsaciennes. Albariňo cannot be made by anyone else or anywhere else and it has its own unique taste. Riesling from Alsace deserves the same accolade.

However, it is not just Spain that makes "Albariňo" it is made on the other side of the Minho, Miňo -in Spanish, river in Portugal but it is called Alvarhino. The Spanish claim their wine is best and the Portuguese claim theirs is, but I think they are both equally superb. They are both classics of the Iberian peninsula and are very closely related.

 After writing this I am going to Waitrose supermarket to buy some more Albariňo and some Alvarinho if I can find it. The Supermarket has got a 25% discount on six bottles. The wine will go well with tonight's chicken broth.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-vina-taboexa-albarino-spanish-white-wine/713697-350237-350238

https://vinepair.com/articles/albarino-and-alvarinho-theyre-the-same-thing/