Spain: Cava

Perelada Reserva
castilloperelada.com

A trio of tasty 'fizzes of the moment' have also inspired a timely update to my Cava mini-guide kick-started back in 2006, which I’ve now teleported across from ‘old’ WineWriting.com and carefully stored in a new ‘Spain page’ nestling among the ‘wine words’ archive. Click here to check it out, which will soon be plumped up with other hot Spanish tasting and touring features such as: tripping, sampling and eating in dreamy Castilla - León wine country (experienced first hand and penned in 2009); cutting-edge tasting reports such as ‘new wave’ Spain, Monastrell from Jumilla and ‘Rioja-free zone’; various winemaker snapshots and wine reviews from across the country and more besides…

Belfast Wine Festival, 29 August

This apparently new wine gig is taking place on Bank Holiday Monday 29th August at the well-known St. Georges Market on the edge of Belfast city centre and sounds like a nice, and educational of course, winey day-out. TV wine taster presenter Olly Smith, and others, will be "live" doing a few tasting workshops throughout the day; and there'll be plenty of walk-around stands featuring local wine merchants and food outlets. Tickets cost £16.50: check out their website for more info belfastwinefestival.co.uk. See you there...

"Wines of the moment" - South Africa & Portugal

I've been a fan of Chenin Blanc for a long time and the sometimes stimulating white wines the South African climate, vineyards and their winemakers manage to mould from it. Here's a rather good-value one too, on offer at least at Sainsbury's for a Fiver: 2010 "Taste the Difference" Fairtrade Chenin Blanc from Wellington region (13.5% alc.). It earns its "white of the mo" status thanks to enticing and quite rich honey and melon fruit, juicy zesty vs rounded and towards weighty texture finishing with nice crisp dry bite. Try with fishcakes, fish and chips, prawn risotto and might even stand up to mackerel or goats' cheese, maybe...

And my coveted "rosé of the mo" award goes to... drum roll... another wine on offer, inevitably perhaps (was £4.50 in Asda stores, usually £5.98): Portugal's Tagus Creek 2010 rosé made from Shiraz and Touriga Nacional by the Falua winery (Tejo region, 13% alc.). This one is definitely in the deep-coloured and quite chunky rosé school with lush berry fruits, boiled sweet tones and rounded almost oily mouth-feel with off-dry finish. Good all-rounder on the food front. taguscreek.com