So you know you like red wine but how do you choose a bottle that will give the flavours you'll enjoy. The answer lies in a cup of tea.
How do you take your tea?
Tea contains tannin and so does red wine. Tannin is the stuff that makes your mouth feel dry and, in large amounts, can make your mouth pucker. To soften this effect we often add milk and sugar to tea. But in red wines it’s not that simple.
So to choose the right red wine you’ll need to know whether you like your red wines light and easy drinking with lower levels of tannin, full on with higher levels of tannic astringency, or somewhere in-between with red wines that taste smooth and fruity but with a bit of cinnamon spiciness in the flavour too.
To do this we can compare our taste preferences by how we like our cup of tea.
With or without?
So how do you like your tea?
- With milk – milk smoothes out the tannins in tea and so if you like your tea this way then that suggests you’ll also like red wines that have their tannins smoothed out. Look for words like smooth, silky, velvety, easy drinking on the label. Try a Merlot.
- With sugar – this means you prefer your drinks slightly sweet. This doesn’t mean you should only buy sweet tasting dessert wines. Look for ripe fruity flavours descriptions. Try a Spanish or Italian red wine.
- Black – your taste buds can tolerate both tea and wine with tannins. Go for a Shiraz.
- Black with lemon – then you prefer citrusy sharp flavours, and can handle some tannin. Try a Pinot Noir or a Chianti-style red wine.
Which red wine?
Okay but let’s get to the specifics.
Wineuncorked.co.uk recommends
£4.29 Tesco
The Lateral range of five wines is a reintroduction to Tesco at their value end of the wine aisle. And this red delivers. On introduction in March 2022 this wine was just £3.99, but has since increased in price by 30p, but still offers great flavours of rich plum and damson, with a raspberry jam sweetness. There’s also some cherry too. A quaffable red at a very attractive price.
£9 Direct from Kylie online shop
This was available through many supermarkets but is now mot easily purchased through the Kylie online shop. Bags of juicy fruity flavours – there’s plum, blackberry, dried cherry plus some black pepper and a touch of choc. Not too sweet with a fresh fruit acidity that needs matching to food to taste this at its best.
Asda Nice Drop of Spanish Shiraz
£3.99 Asda
Jammy blackcurrant and vanilla flavours that aren’t as sweet as an Australian Shiraz but is the better for it. There’s still some individuality in the taste that is unusual for such a cheaply priced wine, and the added touch of cinnamon and grassiness makes this a nice wine.
£6.99 SPAR
Bargain flavours of cherry, violets, chocolate, vanilla, toasted bread and some redcurrant sharpness to stop it being too rich. A very nice Spanish Rioja and available through the SPAR stores.
Tesco Finest Chianti Classico Riserva 2018
£8 Tesco
This Italian Chianti is a Riserva, meaning it’s already a few years old and so won’t have the fresh and mouth-filling flavours of wines made in the last 6 months. What it does have is lighter mouth feel and flavours of spicy plum and leather. There’s a bit of astringency, which isn’t unexpected in a Chianti, so it’ll be a good match to foods where you need to cut through the richness.
£9 Ocado, Chiltern Wines, Mr Wheeler Wine
An easy to like slightly sweet Pinot Noir with flavours of strawberry overlaid with treacle and gravy.
