Brazin Old Vine Zinfandel Lodi 2011

From - Manteca, California, USA
Grape - Zinfandel, Petit Syrah
Alcohol - 15%
From - Waitrose, thewinesociety.com, ocado.com
Price - £12.99

Appearance - Clear, deep, ruby.  Legs observed

Nose - clean, medium+ intensity; dark fruit (bramble, cherry), sweet spice (vanilla).

Palate - Dry, medium+ acid; medium+ tannin; high alcohol; full body; pronounced intensity; black fruit (cherry, bramble), pungent spice (black pepper), sweet spice (vanilla, nutmeg).  Long in length.

I know a few people through work who absolutely adore this wine.  You can see why.  If you like your wines to be intense and full-flavoured, full bodied and uncompromising, then this is for you.  It requires a good bit of time decanted to allow the intensity of the tannins to relax, and if you do this you are rewarded with an intensely flavoured, smooth and delicious, fruity wine which lingers.  Big alcohol levels demand respect, but with the intense fruit and surprisingly decent acid level I can see this working with all kinds of food, I would imagine even breaking the much-emphasised rule of matching high alcohol with a curry.

If you try this, don't forget the decanting time, and keep a few salty snacks to hand and experiment with the effect of this combination.

If this description intrigues you, do not hesitate to try it because it is great.

First Press Napa Chardonnay 2010

From - First Press Wine Cellars, Manteca, Ca. USA
Grape - Chardonnay
Alcohol 13.5%
Available from - Waitrose
Price - £16.99 (although 20% off as I write)

Appearance - Clear; lemon-green; medium intensity

Nose - clean; medium- intensity; lime, apples and pears.

Palate - dry to off-dry; medium+ acid, medium+ alcohol; medium+ length; full body, medium intensity; apples and pears, melon.

Balance - 9 Length - 8 Intensity - 6 Complexity - 6

I have been looking forward to doing a proper review of this since May, my partner Jojo and I went to Haarlem and drank some great wine whilst there, but this one was our favourite.  Although this is described as dry, it is not, quite.  It has great mellow fruit flavours, and has a great, kind of buttery, creamy mouthfeel - a truly delightful palate, and a really great wine, I think.

Apparently there are people whom, due to a character on some stupid TV programme (Footballer's Wives, I think - I've never seen it), won't drink a Chardonnay due to there being a character with that as her name.  Those people are clearly of questionable judgement if they allow such nonsense to influence their wine choices, and as a result of this will miss out on a real treat with this one.  Still, that leaves more for the rest of us who think with our taste buds and noses and make our own minds up!