September Wine Club I

For the second Wine Club running, we’ve six great wines all for under a tenner. This time, though, we’re heading to Spain and Portugal where a mix of traditional and modern, energetic young producers are putting these ancient wine regions firmly back on the map.

These are six excellent wines from six distinctly different regions — three from Spain and three from Portugal — with each bottle discounted and priced well under ten pounds. And we’re in safe hands too with family-owned Tanners of Shrewsbury, long-time champions of such wines who were recently and quite rightly named Independent Merchant of the Year by Wines of Portugal.

Both Spain and Portugal are going through something of a wine-making renaissance at the moment and there are many treasures to be found in both countries — and not just in Rioja — and still at great prices. Wines of equivalent quality in France or even Italy would be far pricier.

Robert Boutflower, Tanners’ private sales director, fair bubbles with enthusiasm at our tasting. Portugal, he reckons, is producing classy, modern wines that are a match for any other country in innovation (just look how the port producers of the Douro have reinvented themselves as makers of fabulous red and white table wines, for example) while Spain is the ‘old faithful’ with soft easy flavours and accessible wines helped by mellow Tempranillo and American oak. ‘What they have in common is that both countries offer truly excellent value,’ he says. ‘And these wines are the proof.’

The 2013 Tons de Duorum White (1) is light, delicate, citrusy and wonderfully refreshing. At only 12 per cent alcohol by volume, it’s light and makes for a jolly decent aperitif. Although a blend of five local varieties, it is far removed from the clumsy Douro whites of old and gets its vibrant freshness from being grown at the top of the vertiginous slopes that line the wilder reaches of the upper Douro valley.