The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

the times Saturday April 9 2022

Food + Drink 13

Yes, you can buy good wine for

under a fiver Jane MacQuitty

2020 Touraine

Sauvignon Blanc, Loire,

France, 13.5 per cent

majestic.co.uk, £11.99

Domaine du Vaux Saint

Georges’ restrained sip

with nettle and flowering

currant to the fore is

spring in a glass.

2020 Racine Pinot

Noir, IGP Pays d’Oc,

France, 13.5 per cent

hhandc.co.uk, £12.40

A humble yet classic

leafy, rose-scented

unoaked pinot from

Limoux that is absolutely

delicious.

Bredon Brut Champagne,

Cuvée Jean Louis,

France, 12 per cent

Waitrose, £18.49,

down from £27.99

Grab this jolly fruit-first,

marzipan-scented pinot

meunier-led black grape

bubbly for a keen price.

the price is taken up by duty and VAT

and about 35 per cent goes on bottling,

labelling and shipping, which leaves 4 per

cent spent on the wine itself. And it’s

going to get a lot worse when the new

duty bands take effect next year based on

a “strength escalator system” stipulating

the stronger the drink, the higher the

duty. What this means is that about

70 per cent of still and sparkling wine

will go up in price, with about 95 per cent

of red wines costing more because they

are naturally more alcoholic.

My advice is to fill your wine racks

while you can. Aldi showed eight

different sub-£5 bottles at its spring

tasting, and its generous, juicy, red plum

jam of the in-store-only 2020 Castellore

Primitivo from Puglia, £4.99, with a good

dollop of dusky negroamaro in the mix,

got my thumbs up. Over at Lidl,

southern Italy won through again with

the hearty, vanilla pod-scented 2020

Corte Aurelio Nero d’Avola from Sicily,

£4.79. Tesco’s 2020 Beaujolais, £5, is a

terrific mouthwatering, red-fruited

mouthful but scarce due to an imminent

label change, so nab the light, sappy,

appley 2021 Lateral Chardonnay, £3.99,

from Chile’s Central Valley instead.

Nyetimber Classic Cuvee

Brut, West Sussex,

12 per cent Waitrose,

£27.69, down from

£36.99 Early Easter birds

should splash out on one

of Britain’s best — it’s a

dazzling, rich, creamy,

lemon brioche gem.

H

ow cheap would you go

on a bottle of wine?

The latest stats show

that the biggest rise in

sales last year was a

37 per cent leap in the

£3 to £4 category. Lord

help us, there is even a fast-growing

sub-£3 category, created when Aldi and

Lidl have their flash sales.

It’s a struggle to find anything worth

drinking for a fiver or less, but it can be

done. It’s not just the discounters that

are fuelling the sub-£5 sector either;

Marks & Spencer has a cracking £5

soave, see best buys, and Tesco has

revamped its £3.99 Taparoo Valley

Aussie range and its £3.99 and £3.89

Lateral Chileans, with decent bottles to

be had from both.

Overall, the biggest volume of wine

sold here costs £5 to £6, followed by £4

to £5 then £6 to 7. Given our extortionate

rates of duty and VAT compared with

other European countries, it’s not easy

for supermarket buyers to hit these price

points. The fixed costs of producing wine

and the duty it incurs are roughly the

same whatever the bottle’s price, but on

a £4.95 bottle a whopping 60 per cent of

2018 Mimo Moutinho

Portuguese blend,

13 per cent Aldi, £3.99

Sweeter than most, but

this gamey, trincadeira

and tempranillo red,

enriched with a Douro

dollop, works.

2020 Campaneo Old

Vines Garnacha, Spain,

14 per cent Tesco, £5

Campo de Borja’s

modern, fruity yet beefy

reds, like this juicy vanilla

and mocha quaffer,

make great party swigs.

2020 Soave, Italy,

11.5 per cent

Marks & Spencer, £5

Regular M&S customers

make a beeline for

this cheap-as-chips

refreshing, herby, white

almond-stashed soave.

Top

bargain

bottles

Serves 4

Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients

1 large leg of lamb, about 2kg

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled

and cut into slivers

1 tin or jar of anchovies, roughly

chopped

1 small bunch of rosemary

1 large knob of butter, at room

temperature

2 glasses of white wine

Juice of 1 lemon

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7.

Roast leg of lamb

2021 Thornicher St

Michael Mosel, Germany,

10.5 per cent Lidl, £4.99

Still Lidl’s outstanding

sub-£5 star, with the

sort of spritzy, floral,

grapey kick that makes a

sprightly spring aperitif.

Wine is about

to go up in

price — so fill

your racks

while you can

This week’s best buys

Rack of lamb

Serves 4

Ingredients

100g slightly stale white bread

2 handfuls of mixed fresh herbs,

eg parsley, basil, thyme

50g parmesan, grated

2 racks of lamb

2 tbsp English mustard

Method

1 Blitz the bread, herbs and parmesan

to breadcrumbs. Season and set aside.

2 Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6.

Score the lamb fat (without going all

the way through

to the meat). Heat an

ovenproof frying pan

with a little olive oil in it, then sear

the rack for about 5 min on each side

until browned. Transfer to the oven.

3 After 10 min, take the lamb rack out

of the oven.

4 Brush with the mustard and coat with

the breadcrumbs, patting on firmly.

5 Return to the oven and roast for a

final 5-10 min, or until the crust is

golden and the lamb cooked through.

Serve immediately.

30

min

Rack of lamb with a herb crust

h s L d d a M

Raaaccckk of lamb with a herb crust

Lamb tagine

Make slits all over the meat with a

small knife and plug each hole with

a slice of garlic, a piece of anchovy

and a few rosemary needles.

2 Smear the lamb with the butter

and season with pepper. Place in a

roasting tin and pour over the wine

and lemon juice.

3 Roast for 20 min, then turn the heat

down to 180C/gas 4 and roast for a

further hour and a quarter, basting

occasionally.

4 Leave the meat to rest for 20 min.

Taste the juices and adjust the

seasoning, or boil in a small pan if

you want to concentrate the flavour.

BILL KINGSTON, LUCY PARISSI, NEWS LIFE MEDIA/STOCKFOOD