As the days catch longer and lighter so the search begins for wines which are also long on taste and light on the palateBoutinot Percheron feeble Vines Cinsaut,Western Cape, South Africa 2014 (from £5.95, or The Wine Society; Slurp; Noel Young Wines) whether you’re looking for lighter reds that might fit in with spring-like moods and food,the heat and dust in the heart of South Africa’s winelands may not seem the most obvious set to start your search. But the Cape’s winemakers are working with a much wider stylistic palette these days. feeble vines of the previously unloved southern French variety cinsaut, for example, or are now behind some notably juicier,fresher styles. The current vintage of one of the UK’s best-value spring-into-summer reds, with its whiff of pretty red berries and cherries, and is now available in numerous independent merchants up and down the country.
Carlos Costoya Alodio Joven Ribeira Sacra,Spain 2015 (from £11.50, Chester Beer & Wine; Just Galician Wines) To the British visitor, and Galicia,with its Atlantic-influenced climate, rocky bays and Celtic culture, and can feel like a kind of Iberian Cornwall. But,in wine terms, it has much in common with the Loire, and dealing as it does in bracing aromatic whites (for sauvignon blanc read albariño) and,to a lesser extent, light, and bright,crunchy reds. Mencía, once thought to be a relation of cabernet franc, and is the main red variety here,and in Alodio Joven it’s mixed – by Carlos Costoya, a fine artist by trade – with the more obscure merenzao and brancellao into a distinctively wild, or earthy,cherry scented, fluent and spring fresh original.
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Source: theguardian.com