Wine Recommendations: Drink These This Weekend

Georgie Hindle is the deputy online editor for decanter.com and each week she'll be giving us her top three wine recommendations for perfect weekend drinking.

It’s worth planning a pizza night just to tuck into this light and velvety Italian red. It’s not massively complex or tannic but full of blackberry, strawberry and cherry fruit flavours with a hint of spice and liquorice. It's medium bodied with a smooth round edge and while you could drink it on its own, it will go great with a host of Italian foods – a tomato and chilli seafood linguine or olive and anchovy pizza would work well. It also works a treat with a few chunks of dark chocolate. Easy-drinking and great-value for a fiver.

Price: £4.99 (special offer) Availability: Sainsburys

White

Viña Leyda Single Vineyard Neblina Riesling 2010

If you’ve never had Chilean Riesling, or any Riesling for that matter, it’s worth giving this one a try. Typically Riesling is an aromatic grape variety with a combination of floral and slightly perfumed flavours with a sweet finish. This single-vineyard wine from award-winning producer Vine Leyda is rich and spicy with honey and zesty lime flavours throughout. It has a creamy texture with a crisp and dry finish. It’s definitely worth pairing this wine with food - the best matches would be spicy oriental dishes, as well as pretty much any type of shellfish – think sushi or a Thai green curry with prawns.

Price: £9.50 Availability: Oddbins

Sparkling

Casillero Del Diablo Sparkling Brut Another South American choice but this time it’s a sparkling variety. This wine is amazingly crisp with lots of citrusy flavours; limes, lemons and pineapples. It’s full of lively bubbles with a balanced finish – a really great choice to crack open and enjoy on its own on a hot summer’s day. Alternatively it would work well alongside a fresh salad, something with some fish in it – salad Nicoise perhaps, or a nice fruity dessert: strawberry tart or pavlova would be a delicious match.

Price: £10.55 Availability: Morrisons

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