weekly wine buys II
Cos Frapatto IGP, Vittoria , South-East Sicily, Italy
This little sexy Italian isn’t massively cheap, but wow, it does all the right things you want it to do. Light—extremely light—and bursting with juice and fresh acidity. Flavours of raspberry and red currant, all rounded out with subtle earthy notes . Think of mushroom and leather. Sicily’s answer to our beloved Pinot Noir. Less tannic, more ripe, but, definitely plays a similar role. No oak is involved in the vinification, only concrete tanks, which leaves you with all of that freshness. My friend picked out orange peel and herbal spices. It’s just such a lovely thing to have in the glass.
This wine is made with very low-intervention methods, featuring spontaneous whole-bunch fermentation, wild yeasts and organic farming. Yes, you’ll pay a little more, but for a relatively unknown grape, it’s the best example I’ve found. You can find this grape from other wineries knocking about in supermarkets from time to time at around half the price of this one. If you see one, grab it, as you’ll get to know the grape a little and can better appreciate this wine when you one day come to buy it.
I’d have this with fish, or a seafood and tomato pasta. Orzo with prawns would be as fine as anything. Simple pomodoro mixed in with the orzo, topped with pan-roasted prawns, skin and head on. Garnish with parsley and lemon zest.
Price: £22.50
Shop: Vinvm (Online)
Discount: None found. Sorry!
Fox and Fox, Tradition, Brut Blanc de Noirs, 2014, East Sussex, UK
This British beauty is not the kind of sparkling wine you stumble upon every day, and while it might not come with a bargain tag, it’s worth every penny. Hailing from the rolling hills of East Sussex, this Blanc de Noirs has all the finesse and complexity you’d expect from a top-tier English sparkling. Lean and focused, with a brilliant backbone of acidity that keeps you coming back for more. It’s why I keep banging on about English sparkling. Wines like these blow me away. Champagne of this quality is going to cost you triple, easy. With 10 years and 4 on the lees, its had all the help it needed to become something very special
On the nose, there’s a lovely interplay of red apple skin and fresh brioche, alongside hints of almonds and a whisper of something floral—perhaps elderflower. The palate is where this wine truly sings: crisp green apple and ripe pear dance alongside very subtle red fruit notes, think wild strawberries and cranberries, with a streak of minerality that’s straight chalky goodness. The extended time on the lees adds rich, yeasty, brioche notes that’s beautifully balanced by a zesty lemon-lime edge.
No oak interferes with the purity of the fruit here; this wine is all about elegance and precision. Fox & Fox uses minimal intervention, allowing the grapes to express their terroir fully. It’s a sparkling wine that proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best grower Champagnes around, but with that unmistakable English charm.
Yes, it’s a splurge, but for a wine that delivers this much depth and character, it’s a treat well worth indulging in. If you’re just dipping your toes into English sparkling, you might want to start with something a little less demanding, but once you’re ready to explore the heights of what this region can offer, this bottle will show you what all the noise is about.
Pair it with something equally refined—a dozen fresh oysters, or if you’re feeling indulgent, a butter-poached lobster tail with lemon and a sprinkling of sea salt. Simple, elegant, delicious.
Price:£38
Shop: Amathus
Discout: n/a
Porta 6 reserva, 2020, Lisbon, Portugal
This heavy Portuguese isn’t shy about making an impression, and while it won’t break the bank, it certainly delivers more than its price tag suggests. Porta 6 Reserva from Lisbon is the kind of wine that warms you from inside out. Rich and full-bodied, it’s bursting with ripe fruit flavours, yet manages to keep things fresh and lively.
On the nose, you’re hit with a blend of dark cherries, plums, and blackberries, mingled with hints of vanilla, baking spices, and just a touch of smoky oak. It’s like walking into a pub with the fire lit on a winters evening. The palate doesn’t disappoint either—lush black fruit dominates, with layers of chocolate, coffee, and a subtle earthiness that adds depth and complexity. Tannins are firm but well-integrated, giving the wine structure without being overpowering.
There’s a lovely balance here, with just enough acidity to keep everything in check, making this a wine that can easily pair with a variety of dishes. While the oak influence is present, it’s not overbearing, allowing the vibrant fruit to shine through.
Compared to its massively famous non-reserva counterpart, Porta 6, Porta 6 Reserva steps things up a notch in terms of depth and complexity. While the original Porta 6 is a charming, easy-drinking red with plenty of bright red fruit and a soft, approachable style, the Reserva version brings more intensity and structure to the table. The extra aging and oak influence gives the Reserva a richer, more layered profile, with darker fruit, more pronounced spice notes, and a firmer tannic grip. If you enjoy the original Porta 6 for its casual, everyday appeal, the Reserva offers a more sophisticated experience that's perfect for when you want something a bit more robust and full-bodied.
For a reserva, this wine offers incredible value. It’s the kind of bottle you’ll want to keep on hand for those evenings when you need something reliable but still a little special. If you’re new to Portuguese reds, Porta 6 Reserva is a fantastic starting point, offering a great introduction to the richness and diversity of wines from this region.
Pair it with something hearty—think grilled meats, a slow-cooked lamb stew, or a rich tomato-based pasta. A dish like pappardelle with wild boar ragu would be the perfect match, with the wine’s robust flavours complementing the savoury, meaty sauce beautifully. Simple, satisfying, and just the thing to warm you up from the inside out.
Price: £14.99
Shop:Majestic
Discount: £12.99 mix 6
BIG TIP: If you’re going to buy a few and don’t mind waiting a few days head to vinha.co.uk, a Portuguese wine specialist who ship directly from Portugal. They charge €7.49 (£6.31 at todays rate) per bottle and they are currently doing free shipping over €50. You can stock up on these from here for a really really good price.
Left to right, Cos Frapatto, Porta 6 Reserva and Fox and Fox Tradition.
weekly wine buys
This is the inaugural weekly wine recommendation! Throughout each week I taste a lot of wine. From these tastings I will find the wines that stand out for me, give my notes and opinion on quality as well as where to buy and price. Every now and then ill throw in something different, like a whisky or a sake. I have to keep my pallete on its toes!
Mount Impey, Sauvignon blanc, 2023, Marlborough, New Zealand
This is a classic New Zealand Sauvignon blanc at a really nice price point. Its vibrant, fruity and herbaceous. Notes of pear, fresh cut grass, gooseberry and grapefruit. It is relatively full bodied with 13% abv and a silky mouthfeel, however, with fresh and light flavours, its got the best of both worlds. This is for a hot summers day having a little al fresco dining, you can’t beat that for a just over a tenner.
I would serve this with a fishcake and hollandaise. Maybe some asparagus prepped simply. Salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. You could also take it down the classic seafood route with a fillet of fish or some prawns, but with is lively acidity I like to put it against a creamy sauce. Think carbonara, Caesar salad or a tuscan chicken with some rice.
Price: £14
Shop: Tesco
Discount: £11 with a club card.
Chateau Tanunda, Grand Barossa Shiraz, 2021, Barossa, Australia
This wine is heavy. It’s a classic full bodied spicy and sweet Barossa valley shiraz. Shiraz is the same grape as our European Syrah, but tends to be much more ripe and fruit forward. The name is identifying the style of wine somewhat in this instance. Even though its the same grape, a Syrah will be more savoury and peppery. Back to this beast. This winery has been kept in the same family, the Gerbers, for three generations and they use traditional along with new winemaking techniques to get to what’s in the bottle. ‘Lifted aromas of blackberry, plum and black pepper are accompanied by spicy, dark berry fruits on the palate.’ That comes directly from the family and you can’t really argue with it. 18 months on oak has given this wine all the associated flavour. Pepper, wood, tobacco, leather, smoke, vanilla, chocolate and my personal favourite note from this wine, lots of baking spices. It has a luxurious mouth feel, medium tannins and is very easy to drink. My close friend described it as a “TV wine”. One where you whack on a long film and have a few glasses. Although this is drinking well now this wine may be cellared for up to ten years from its bottled vintage.
I’d pair this with a charcuterie board. One with lots of herbaceous meats like Finocchiona. Pop some great cheeses on there and you have yourself a winner. This would also be sensational just as I had it, with some steak and bbq’ed sausages. Classic. 14.5% abv.
Price: £16
Shop: Sainsburys
Discount: None available, however, Sainsbury’s often do 25% off when you buy six bottles. So keep an eye out.
Craggy Range Pinot Noir, Te Muna road Vineyard, 2022, Martinborough, New Zealand
This wine isn’t for the everyday. Its a gift or a special occasion wine. Its up there in price, almost clipping thirty of our Great British pounds. I start with that because I believe it punches way beyond that price. If you had a wine of the same quality from Burgundy, I think you would be looking comfortably at £80. Deep burgundy colour, lots and lots of red fruit. Plums, cherry, raspberry alongside a subtle earthiness. Some mushrooms perhaps. Super velvety mouthfeel. Very soft and fine tannins. This wine makes you feel quite special. The oak is integrated very well. Having spent a year in French oak, 27% of which is new, it has lovely hints of smoke, leather and liquorice. Really, a top class wine. Vivino puts it in the top 4% of wines in the world. I wouldn’t be complaining if I always had one of these around. Great expression of what a New Zealand Pinot Noir can be at a fair, entry level price point for the grape.
Id say this pinot could get away with being served with something like duck or roast pork, but at the same time, a heavier fish like salmon or turbot would be killer also. I don’t often say this, but, i’d go simple on the food to let the wine shine here. Roast turbot with lemon and anchovies. A pan fried salmon with new potatoes or a roasted pork chop with a lemon and white wine sauce.
Price: £29.99
Shop: Majestic wine
Discount: Mix six bottles and the price on this one drops to £25.99
smoked pork belly.
Discovery: Smoked Pork Belly
Ive been trying to figure out something new and exciting for my menus. Im bored of the same proteins cooked in the same few ways. Smoking meat has always been something I love to do but its just so time consuming. A brisket last year took me and my humble weber kettle almost 17 hours to get right. It was insanely good but wow that’s a long time to tend to a fire.
I was wondering if I could use the same method on another cut of meat. Something different. I had never seen a Lamb brisket before. Brisket being the breast of the cow and lamb breast being readily available I thought this would be a fantastic spin on a classic. After some research and work with smaller cuts it seems the full on flavour of lamb accompanied with the heavy smoke just leads to a mess of flavour. Too intense and too sickly, even with short smoke exposure of a light wood like cherry.
So as many people before me have done in times of distress, I turn to the pig. Pork belly surely would work? It is a under worked muscle compared to brisket, so is a more tender cut but the lack of connective tissue can lead it can dry out fast. Will it work? Lets see.
I went to Costco to pick up a pork belly. The quality is okay but there no reason to get a rare bread belly that will cost a fortune if I don’t know the outcome. Im going to marinade overnight in a Cola and Jack Daniels base. Ill add salt by % of weight and some other aromatics. The reason for the marinade is I made a jack and coke rub when I last did a beef brisket. It was delicious. Sticky and complex, but not for beef. The sweetness was a miss. For pork I think it will be perfect.
Ill smoke over a heavier wood, probably oak as I have it to hand. The flavour profile of the pork and whisky will go well with a heaver smoke. Pork belly + smoke = bacon and whisky + smoke = peated Scotch. Two of my favourite things.
The next thing to work out is to use the Texas crutch or not. The crutch is a method of cooking a brisket. It was reportedly first implemented by Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin. To understand what it is, the science of a brisket cook needs to be explained first.
When smoking a brisket, the chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars at elevated temperatures causes the formation of what’s called the bark. Its a very dark crust that can be almost black. The colour comes from smoke absorption, Maillard reaction and dehydration. Its a crispy and tasty crust that protects the meat and creates a sensational texture juxtaposition against the gelatinous inside.
The stall in brisket cooking is a phenomenon where the internal temperature of the meat plateaus, typically between 150°F and 170°F (65°C to 77°C), and this period can last anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. The stall is primarily caused by evaporative cooling and energy balance. As the brisket cooks, moisture from the meat’s surface evaporates, and this change from liquid water to vapour absorbs a significant amount of heat from the meat, cooling it down in a process similar to sweating. The latent heat of vaporisation, which is the energy required to convert water from a liquid to vapour offsets the heat input from the smoker and causes the temperature to plateau. During the stall, the rate at which heat is added to the meat equals the rate at which heat is lost through evaporation, resulting in no rise of internal temperature despite the smoker maintaining a constant temperature. As long as there is enough moisture on the meat's surface to evaporate, the stall can persist, preventing the internal temperature of the brisket from rising for hours.
So, The Texas Crutch. This is a technique to overcome the stall by wrapping the meat in aluminium foil or butcher paper once it reaches the plateau stage. By wrapping the brisket, the moisture released from the meat is trapped inside the wrapping, preventing further evaporation. This minimises evaporative cooling and allows the internal temperature to rise steadily, helping the brisket to push through the stall more quickly. The trapped moisture and steam inside the wrap increase the cooking speed by reducing heat loss and increasing the internal humidity (similar to a braise), resulting in a shorter cooking time and a way more predictable timeline of the cook.
However, while the Texas Crutch is effective at breaking the stall, it can also ruin the bark on the exterior of the brisket that takes hours and hours to set on the meat. We don’t want to lose that. The increased humidity within the wrapping can prevent the bark from fully forming or cause it to lose its texture, leading to a softer, less desirable crust. To avoid this, some pit masters choose to unwrap the brisket towards the end of the cooking process to allow the bark to firm up, balancing the benefits of the Texas Crutch with the desired texture of the bark.
Although this isn’t a beef brisket I expect to similarly run into a stall. The question is, as its a smaller cut of 5KG as opposed to 7/8KG (also much thinner), will this stall last hours upon hours like the brisket or cruise though no problem. Im leaning towards no Texas crutch and hoping for the best as I prioritise that bark but ill only be able to make the decision as the cook is ongoing and I can see the developments and temperature changes.
Annoyingly I woke up much later than anticipated and managed to get the fire settled at 11:45am and the belly on at 12. I seasoned it with the rub and used sweet baby ray BBQ sauce as the binder. The first hour was chaotic. I couldn’t stabilise the smoker temperature and realised I only had two medium chunks of oak. I think it got enough smoke off those two chunks but we will see later. The temperature swung from 150f to 400f. Really not ideal. Its now 4pm and it has been on for just over 4 hours and the temperature for the last three hours has been relatively stable, albeit slightly low for my liking. I was aiming at a cook of 300f but were sitting 225-265f currently. As mentioned before its a forgiving cut so I’m not too worried. I need to think about what to serve with this thing.
For now I think I’m going to serve it just on some white bead with pickles, Texas style. When I come to refine this I think a cube of it on top of a bed of polenta would be lovely. I would most likely change the rub if that was the case to a more savoury base. Perhaps salt, pepper, garlic. For now the sweetness with the pickles will go down a treat.
Its now 6 hours in and the internal is sitting at around 175-180f. We are in the stall. Its been a couple of hours I hope not too much longer as I’m cooking this for dinner and I have to rest it for an hour at least. If we come out the stall soon it will get to the desired magic number of 205f quickly. 205 is the magic number in BBQ smoking as its the temperature collagen breaks down into gelatine. This is when the meat becomes luxurious, soft and unctuous. Ive been sporadically spraying it with a mixture of vinegar, water and baby rays to create a glaze while stopping the tips of the corners from drying out too much. Its just gone 6 o’clock. Hopefully I won’t be another 4am brisket fiasco. If its continues for another hour, I will wrap it as mentioned before.
Around 7:30pm it was reading 195-210f throughout depending on the varying thickness. I pulled it before the whole thing hit 205f as it would have dried out a large portion of the cut. Resting was done for 45 minutes wrapped in foil. I could have rested for linger but I had hungry guests. I don’t think it was detrimental, however, it would have been easer to slice with another 45 minutes on the clock.
It was tough to slice with a regular knife as the blade wouldn’t catch the bark. With a serrated knife I managed to get beautiful slices. Put on top of a plain slice of farmhouse white bread, served with coleslaw and pickles. Super simple. It was fantastic. The sweet and stick rub complimented the fatty meat like a dream and it was superbly tender. It didn’t need Amy extra time on the smoker. There wasn’t a huge amount of smoke flavour which I was worried about but it was enough for now.
My points to take forward are, more smoke, the internal number for pork belly is around 198f and I need to improve my fire management skills as my poor airflow inputs on my weber kettle basically added another hour and a half to the cook.
Overall a success, and some valuable lessons. Although I definitely will be trying it again soon to put a more refined spin on the dish, pork belly isn’t exactly something you should eat every day! So with that, see you next post.