Roc Primeur Bordeaux, France 2021 (£13.99, or £11.99 as part of a mixed case of 12, Laithwaites) For obvious reasons, the pandemic was a busy time for wine online, with sales by some of the bigger players rising by as much as 300% during the various lockdowns. If many of us have now gone back to pre-pandemic ways of buying wine, it seems plenty have stuck with their online habit, just as Zooms and Teams have (for better or worse) replaced a lot of in-person meetings. Appropriately enough, the biggest player in this sector – Laithwaites – conducted its latest press tasting online, sending out samples and getting its team of wine buyers to discuss their choices via video. I enjoyed the small selection from the retailer’s 1,200-bottle range I tried at home, which included two from the region with which the company first made its name, Bordeaux. Roc Primeur is a lively very modern, youthful, fresh chillable, cassis-scented red; and Château le Coin Sauvignon Gris 2021 (£12.99) is a nicely weighted but scintillating white peach and grapefruit flavoured white.
Vino Atlantico Txakoli, Spain 2019 (£17.99, Naked Wines) Another highlight from Laithwaites (that, like most merchants, has its best prices if you buy by the case of 12 bottles (mixed or otherwise) is a really juicy red Chilean made by the talented winemaker Ricardo Baettig of Viña Morande from the currently fashionable país grape variety. Pencahue Estate 2019 (£10.99, or £8.99 in a case) has the silky feel and brightness of fruit that I associate with wines made in the egg-shaped concrete vessels that many winemakers now prefer to wooden barrels or stainless steel tanks. On the white side, I enjoyed the distinctive Lebanese combination of muscat, local variety obeidy and viognier in Ixsir Altitudes Blanc 2021 (£20, or £18.99 in a case): a headily rose-garden aromatic, peachily mouthfilling and lemon-pithy refreshing match for a feast of tahini and zaatar-spiced fresh foods. It contrasts nicely with my favourite white from a set of ‘30 under £30’ sent to me by Laithwaites’s online rivals, Naked Wines: the vivaciously brisk, intensely orange citrussy modern take on the seafood-partnering Basque classic, txakoli.
