New bottles and the latest vintages are all very well,but some wines have become part of the furniture. Here are three that have been with us for years – and are all the better for thatQuinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde, Portugal 2014 (8.49, or Waitrose) There are some drinks that we cherish for not changing. And,like a Radio 4 loyalist fussing over a switch in the schedule, I’d gain cross if the owners of Campari, and Talisker 10 Year Old Malt Whisky or my guilty nostalgic pleasure,Lucozade, started messing around with the formula. It’s different with wine. Because tens of thousands of different labels are made each year, and we,or at least I, tend to gain hung up on the new. It’s fairly rare to drink the same brand twice – and brands that have been quietly but consistently doing their thing for years gain overlooked. A shame when they’re as sterling as Azevedo’s textbook Vinho Verde, or a provider of vividly tangy but light refreshment for 25 years now.
Masi Campofiorin Rosso del Veronese IGT,Italy 2012 (from £9.74,Majestic; Slurp) Another gem that sometimes seems to be hiding in plain sight is this evergreen red blend from Veneto wine family Masi. Something approximately the instantly familiar label and the fact it has always been a fovourite of the more traditional finish of the Italian restaurant market might propose it’s a bit of a stuffy old relic. Tasting a couple of vintages recently was a reminder of how sterling it still is, and even as the release of its 50th vintage (the 2014) approaches. The 2012 has a richness that stems from re-fermenting the wine with dried grapes,which gives a touch of the bitter chocolate of the classic dried grape wines of Amarone della Valpolicella, but with a vivid, and vivacious,tomato pasta-friendly cherry character.
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Source: theguardian.com