Three very different wines (From York Press)

Three very different wines

12:40pm Saturday 1st October 2011 in Tipping's Tipples

In this week’s Tipping’s Tipples, MIKE TIPPING is all a twitter over three very different offerings

Some fellow Tweeters have said that they like my Twitter name. I suppose @TippingsTipples works in that it describes what I Tweet about, plus it is also alliterative.

I've been Tweeting for about a year now, thanks to my “hop-head” colleague Gavin Aitchison (@pintsofview), who suggested I should start as he had found it a useful source of information.

From my point of view, which is wine fixated, it enables me to follow what winemakers and wineries are up to. It’s also a convenient place to read what other wine journalists and bloggers, all over the world, are writing about.

For instance, as I write, I can tell you that in Vancouver, fellow wine scribe @haddadfrank is drinking a 1993 Altare Barolo, which is just opening up.

In the Hunter Valley, Australia, @TempusTwoWines have announced that their Copper Zenith Semillon 2007 has just won Gold at the Rutherglen Wine Show. And in Oregon, @RStuartWine is pleased with the way his pinot noir is ripening.

Given this information overload, you could be forgiven for thinking I would never be short of themes for a weekly column. Believe me, sometimes I am!

My first recommendation this week is sweet rather than tweet. Rustenberg Straw Wine 2010, pictured, is so called because the harvested grapes are dried on straw mats for four weeks to concentrate the sugars.

This South African sticky, a blend of viognier, chenin blanc and crouchen blanc, delivers a mouthful of lightly perfumed nectar that is perfect with pudding. Concentrated and very sweet, it has flavours of orange marmalade, lemon sherbet and golden syrup, with fresh acidity as a counterbalance.

If it’s a dry white you are looking for, one that would make an impressive aperitif, then try Moraitis Sillogi 2010. This is an organic wine, made with assyrtiko and malagoussia grapes from the Moraitis estate on the Greek island of Paros. Fresh and slightly effervescent, it reveals flavours of pear, white flowers, Mediterranean herbs and mineral notes.

Or how about a Provençal pink, just in case our “Indian summer” is here for a little longer? Waitrose has Château de Fontlade Aurelia Prima Rosé 2010. Strawberry scented, clean and crisp, and with bright, summer berry flavours, it is refreshing stuff.

• Rustenberg Straw Wine 2010 (37.5cl), £9.99 each when you buy two at Majestic 18/20

• Moraitis Sillogi 2010, £9.95 from The Wine Society 18/20

• Château de Fontlade Aurelia Prima Rosé 2010, £7.99 at Waitrose 18/20