I was recently chatting to a friend’s new boyfriend when he told me he was eager to get into wine. What should he buy to get started, he wondered. And was it possible to put together a “capsule cellar” for less than £100?
The obvious way to tackle this challenge would be to buy a selection based on occasion – something for everyday drinking, something a bit more interesting for the weekend, plus a couple of special-occasion bottles – but that risked leaving him in his comfort zone. After giving the matter more thought, I decided that what he was after was a case that would enable him to explore different styles of wine, and to try them out with food.
He hasn’t time – and nor, I’m sure, have many of us – to shop around, picking up odd bottles here and there, so I’m advising him to go to one shop to start with. I’m tempted to recommend the Wine Society, but that would be cheating, because it costs £40 to join, so a supermarket it will have to be. I’ve gone for Tesco, not least because he has a branch nearby, but he – and you – could of course find similar styles elsewhere.
With that £100 budget, he should easily be able to run to a full case. I’d pick one bottle of inexpensive fizz – Tesco’s Finest Vintage Cava (£7; 12% abv) punches well above its weight – then a bottle each of four whites: a crisp, dry white such as a picpoul de pinet, a sauvignon blanc (which I’d urge him to try with goat’s cheese), a decent chardonnay (Tesco’s Finest Piwen 2014 at £5.50 and 13% abv is a good start) and a riesling (the 12% abv Finest Tingletip, from Western Australia, is particularly delicious, and £8).
Next, add a light red such as a beaujolais, a fruity pinot noir, a full-bodied red (the £6, 14% abv Las Lomas Merlot 2015, from Chile’s Colchagua valley, would fit that bill) and a more traditional oak-aged red such as Viña del Cura Rioja Reserva 2011 (£8; 13.5% abv), from Baron de Ley. Throw in a sweet wine such as Concha y Toro’s Late-Harvest Sauvignon Blanc (£7 a half-bottle; 12% abv), and that should leave enough left over for an everyday white such as the Finest Saint Mont (£5.50; 12.5% abv) and a hearty red, such as a corbières, which would double as a cooking wine.
You could argue – and I’m sure many of you will – that it would be better for my friend’s boyfriend to go to a wine merchant, but I don’t think he’s quite at that stage yet. Far better, I reckon, to identify what it is he likes or dislikes about certain wines before even thinking about upping his budget. That way, he’ll feel much more confident about expressing his preferences, too.
