When out with the family for dinner last night at one of our local restaurants (Saffy's) we choose a Shiraz by Jordan Cellars of South Africa. On the nose it had bags of fruit without being too jammy and dark berry aromas predominated. On the palate there was bags of fruit again, full bodied it even coped with the spicy cajun chicken that Jane had and didn't overpower my baked brie either!

At £14.95 per bottle at restaurant prices this wasn't at all bad so we order an extra glass each!

With the continuing fine weather we joined our dear friends John and Lala for dinner, as we were having Italian food it was only proper to take some Italian wine with us. I struggle with British wines retailers who always seem to fall short in providing decent wines from Italy so I went to one of our local and fine established wine merchants to see what they had to offer. Greg, the manage was happy to recommend Montepergoli Bilgheri 2003 by Enrico Santini, a Supertuscan. It was really interesting on the nose with a hint of almost overripe fruits and blackberries. On the palate it was velvety, smooth with silky tannins and a long finish. this wine is ready to drink and was very nice with the Timpani we were eating. We followed this with a Chianti Superiore from Fattoria la Vialla 2008. This wine had great burst of red fruit, cherries,raspberries and strawberries. on the palate there was tons of flavour wit lovely light spiced fruit with an almost chewy, silky tannin structure, really tasty and just what you would want from a chianti, it really did work well with food. On balance I think I would go for the chianti, I just feel the Monteperboli was trying just a little too hard!

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