The Wine Society, £12.50). Aglianico can be monstrously unyielding. This one, which was grown on volcanic soil, has intensity and density, but it also has a slightly softer face, a warmth and fruitiness that lets you in.
Think dark cherries, a gentle glower, and a fierce energy.Where next? Over to the hills of Macedonia in northern Greece, for a red made from xinomavro.
Thymiopoulos Xinomavro Alta Naoussa 2019 (The Wine Society, £16.50) tastes of balsamic, dried thyme, red cherries and wild strawberries, like a Barbaresco with more red berries and cedar instead of incense.Next we’ll go down under, all the way to the Hunter Valley in Australia where Brokenwood Hunter Valley Shiraz 2018 (masterofmalt.com, £26) offers a mulberry-ish warmth that saturates you with its flavour like large, warm drops of tropical rain.
There’s a glorious, peppery spice to this wine, which would be a spectacular bottle to open if you were, say, barbecuing a rib of beef rubbed with coriander, chilli and soy.Also from Australia, d’Arenberg The Shepherd’s Clock GSM 2019 (M&S, £10) offers a gorgeous fragrant pom-pom of red berry flavours dusted with white pepper and cinnamon.
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