3 new exciting wines to try that you might not have heard of

Go off piste and try these wines from New Zealand, Sussex and Turkey, says our wine columnist Tom Forrest
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Tom Forrest10 November 2015

People often ask me to recommend new and exciting wines for them to try. That’s the great thing about wine.

Every year, every vintage brings up something new about all wines. How has the weather affected the flavour of the grapes and therefore the wine in the bottle?

Sometimes the most exciting thing to try is the new vintage of one of your favourite wines. Is it, as you probably hope, as good as or even better than you remember? Or has Mother Nature literally rained on your parade?

This time of the year is when a number of new releases begin to hit the shelves, especially from the New World. One such release comes from New Zealand. The Field of Stones Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 (£12.99) is made by a (very) distant relative, Dr. John Forrest from a one acre site of purest Greywacke. Pronounced ‘greywaccy’ these are dirty grey coloured sandstone pebbles that cover areas of Marlborough. They provide extra warmth in the soil and help ripening. John’s plot backs onto the Cloudy Bay vineyards where there are also large beds of greywacke. I happened to be tasting this wine last week with John, who was up to watch the Rugby World Cup final and so was in a very good mood, and he told me that his aim with this particular plot was to express the influence of the greywacke and boy, does he do that. This is a crisp, mineral and citrus driven wine with a socking dose of fresh lemon and lime acidity on the finish. John modestly describes it as the Sancerre of the South. Me? I reckon that it’s a cracking Sauvignon Blanc that will compliment any shellfish dish or even fish and chips.

Exciting wines to try

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Another new release from a lot nearer home - the Sussex Downs to be precise - is the 2013 Ridgeview South Ridge English Sparkling Rosé (£24.99 on offer at £19.99). This wine from one of the pioneers of English Sparkling wines just shows how important the weather is to a wine's quality. Apart from during the Olympics, 2012 was a pretty damp and miserable year and this reflected in the quality of the wine. On the other hand, 2013 had a warmer than average summer and this Rosé wine (made with a slug of red Pinot Noir wine to give the colour) reflects that. Warm aromas of ripe strawberries and raspberries jump out of the glass and run all over your palate - these are balanced out with a creamy fizz, toasty brioche notes and a lemon and raspberry sherbet twist to the finish. In short, it's summer in a glass. Try it with some lightly smoked salmon or some very thinly sliced smoked venison.

Finally a wine from what many consider to be a newcomer to the wine scene, Turkey’s first commercial winery was only opened in 1925, even though wine had been made there for thousands of years. This year I have been tasting quite a few Turkish wines and I have got to say, when they stick to their indigenous varieties, they make some great wines. One that has stuck in my mind was the Diren Collection Kalicik Karasai 2013 from Central Anatolia (about £9.50). This wine adds a splash of Syrah to the local Kalicik Karasai grape to produce a floral, rose and violet aroma and ripe juicy, dark fruit flavours with a drying edge of bright tannins. A softly flavoured wine that has enough backbone to stand up to some flavourful dishes. Lamb Shish kebab (not a doner) comes to mind as a great accompaniment.

Tom Forrest is the Head Sommelier at Vinopolis. Follow him on Twitter @VinopolisTom

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