Wine to stock up on (From York Press)

Wine to stock up on

1:56pm Saturday 31st March 2012 in Tipping's Tipples By Mike Tipping

I THINK we should all panic buy wine instead of petrol. As I write, the tanker drivers’ strike has been on and then off again. If it ever does happen, most of us would probably run out of fuel before too long.

It would be difficult cycling home from the shops with a case of wine. So as a precautionary measure, my three wine recommendations are available online. Let’s just hope the hauliers never run out of diesel, As always the prices quoted here are for one bottle. Do be aware that some merchants sell by the case only and that there may be delivery charges too. Check the individual websites for these details.

M&S online lists Fillaboa Albariño 2010, a stonkingly good white. The Fillaboa estate in Rias Baixas sits on the slopes above the river Miño, which separates Galicia from northern Portugal.

It’s a rich, complex wine with long flavours of pineapple, lemon and honey with a hint of yeast and white pepper. Perfect with seafood it is also very enjoyable on its own.

Staying in Spain but this time Ribera del Duero, online grocer Ocado has Emina Pasión 2009. Elegant, balanced and smooth, it is made entirely from tempranillo and aged in barrels for six months. It suggests cherry and plum, with some toasty notes, minerality and fine tannins.

Finally, a powerful red from the Colchagua valley in Chile, Caliterra Tributo ‘Edición Limitada’ Carmenère Malbec 2009. The two grape varieties blend very well here, producing a wine rich in bramble, blackcurrant and plum fruit, with violets, spice, toasty oak and mouth-filling tannins.

Fillaboa Albariño 2010, Rias Baixas, £11.49 at M&S online (marksandspencer.com) 18/20

Emina Pasión 2009, Ribera del Duero, £10.99 at Ocado (ocado.com) 17/20

Caliterra Tributo ‘Edición Limitada’ Carmenère Malbec 2009, £11.25 at Slurp (slurp.co.uk) 17/20