There are a couple of Wine Tipster videos here with some sparkling wine recommendations and An Accidental Masterstroke live tasting and Q&A. Not a horror movie but a Webchat.TV show about New

Zealand Wine!

Just back from an amazing vino visit to The Douro, which combined top wines, engaging producers, home cooking, fine dining, stylish hotels, bumpy roads and outstanding views. I will write up the star wines from this week in due course, however one of the key conclusions from my visit is the feeling that Porto and the Douro are on the periphery of The English Tourist’s short break travel map. In the north of Portugal, Douro is reached by flying to Porto, hiring a car with sat nav and taking a drive for three hours to reach the region and its famous river.
This week I stayed at the outstanding Vintage House Hotel in Pinhao, where you can take in the breathtaking views whilst having your All Bran. We also had dinner at the wine hotel, Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo and this is certainly a place I’ll visit again.
Remember from a grape perspective the Douro area is not simply the presentation of Port – a fortified wine produced for over 300 years in the region – and the signs you see for the famous houses like Sandeman, Taylors, Warres etc but there is the contemporary story over the last thirty years of the development and production of complex, quality reds and stylish whites. So include in your itinerary of wine tourism some of the still wine producers, for example, Quinta do Seixa, Quinta do Portal, Quintas dos Avidagos, Quinta do Vale Dona Maria and Quinta do Foz.
For the weekend here are a couple of wines to get you in the travel mood.
Planalto White Reserva 2009, Douro, Portugal, £6.87 buy any two Portuguese wines and Save 20% = £5.49, Majestic. This unoaked white made from indigeous grapes varieties proves what the Douro can achieve in terms of producing a dry, classy, rounded, applely and minerally flavoured aperitif wine.
Quintas de Avidagos 2008, Douro, Portugal, £8.99. Castas have the 2007 available, which was a star vintage in the Douro for reds. Soft, attractive plummy and raspberry fruit, medium bodied, balanced tannins and an ideal match with lamb.

You see some alarmingly dangerous moments when people are trying to open a bottle of

bubbly, whether in the home, at consumer shows or as I witnessed in a club recently. When it comes to opening a bottle of champagne it is really important to get this just right, not only from the safety aspect but from the presentational perspective too. So settle down and tune into this vodcast that was recently filmed for G.H.Mumm and Perrier-Jouët in the stylish Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor Bar and learn how to open a bottle of champagne correctly.

The M&S Press Tasting today, where there were 150 wines to oil the palate. I’ll be writing up several wines over the next weeks, however for today I have selected three wines that are available through M&S Wine Direct. This is a important part of the M&S wine business and they will continue to increase market share judging by the selection The Wine Tipster tasted.
Discovered another stunning Riesling from Australia: Moonbridge Riesling 2009, Eden Valley, £6.99, which won Best Value White 2010 at the recent International Wine Challenge Awards. Immediately identifiable as Riesling, this is dry, drinkable, with some trademark petrolly character, balanced by citrus flavours and a stunning length of fruit on the finish. Buy now at this price!
Staying in Oz, the Icarus Shiraz 2008, Barossa, £7.49 is a stylish medium to full bodied red delivering a cocktail of damson fruit flavours, mint, liquorice and herbaceous character. All balanced by subtle oak and a restraint of power that some other winemakers should replicate.
2009 is a Bordeaux vintage to buy at all levels and I really liked the Chateau Moulin de Mallet 2009, £8.49, made with 80% Merlot and equal proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Medium bodied, accessible with upfront, ripe dark fruits and chocolate flavours balanced by soft tannins. A youthful claret with no edge.
On a separate note, Calm of Zero (ex Echobelly) played a stunning acoustic set at The Slaughtered Lamb in a suitably intimate setting. Sonya Madan and Glenn Johansson have some great new songs and will hopefully release a new album in 2011.
More to follow on M&S and Calm of Zero.

My father in law, Alan Hill, is used to people calling me by my nickname Monty. Armed with this knowledge and Alan’s own love of good vino and assiduous research – note a non internet user – he set out to find a non French version of Monty’s wine. Help was at hand when a friend, who is a regular visitor to Southwold, for the pork pies and the excellent Adnams East Green Carbon Neutral Beer 4.3% abv, checked out the Adnams’ vino list. And yes here was my namesake Monty Waldin’s wine, not made in France but in Tuscany and organically too.
Monty’s Tuscan Red 2009, £8.99, Italy a 70% Sangiovese and 30% Merlot blend,medium bodied,with stunning fruit flavours, and an ideal match for organic pizzas!
Now watch out for my wine!

Just spent the weekend in Edinburgh, where aside from the obvious cultural attractions there are an eclectic range of culinary features which are attracting plenty of enthusiastic foodies. The Wine Tipster heard good reports about A Room in a Town, a bistro serving seafood and Scottish dishes, whilst for

the non carnivore experience check out the popular David Bann Vegetarian Restaurant,where the menu is genuinely interesting!
During the weekend, The Wine Tipster was presenting A Journey through Rioja Seminars with Campo Viejo at The Tesco Wine Fair. Rioja is one of my favourite regions and the punters were definitely up for some Tempranillo and oak.
Festivals like these present some off duty moments to tune your palate. First up, Tim Adams Protégé Riesling 2008, Clare Valley,

Australia, a delicious, dry, thirst quenching aperitif white packed with mineral, lime and lemon flavours. Bin your Riesling prejudice and leave the Pinot Grigio unopened!
Secondly, good Loire whites with a couple of years of development have great appeal. Maison des Princes, Pouilly Fume 2007, Donatien Bahuaud, France, is a Sauvignon Blanc with attractive earthy, floral, and flinty character backed with good structure and depth of fruit. Finally, Nederburg Private Bin R181 Merlot 2001, South Africa, is a medium to full bodied complex combination of chocolate, damson, subtle vanilla oak hints and soft tannins.
All these wines are available from >Tesco Wine by the Case
Tim Adams Protégé Riesling 2008, Australia. £54 for 6 bottles, on offer at £39 for 6 bottles.
Maison des Princes, Pouilly Fume 2007, Donatien Bahuaud, France. £72 for 6 bottles.
Nederburg Private BIN R181 Merlot 2001, South Africa. £216 for 12 bottles on offer at £144 for 12 bottles.

Yesterday I was compering at our Charlbury Street Fair and Robert Hardy was our celebrity guest for the grand opening. The celebrities who open the street fair always live in or close to the town – it should be a village really but we must abide by the town charter. We have had a starry roll call of thespians in recent years including Sir Ben Kingsley and Julia McKenzie. Robert had opened our street fair a decade ago and it was great to have him back. Yes, many of us remember him for playing Siegfried in All Creatures Great & Small, however check out his other roles which have included Churchill: The Wilderness Years, Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and Lord Caversham in An Ideal Husband. An impressive range and at 84 he is still working – not a potential member of BBC’s The Young Ones.
Robert Hardy was a popular choice yesterday and I’m popular with my Mum because I have his autograph!

I’m presenting over a number of weekends at The Tesco Wine Fairs, taking punters on a Journey through Rioja. When I’m not explaining the meaning of crianza and Rioja I can taste a few wines. Here is what I have found so far: Vigneti Galssi Albana DOCG 2009, Italy, £8.00, is made from the cult status grape varietal Albana and delivers an enticing range of nutty, creamy and spicy notes. A medium bodied dry white which deserves a wider audience. On a more conventional note, Blason de Bourgogne produce an excellent range of wines and their Blason St Veran 2008, France, £8.29, is the perfect introduction to white burgundy; dry,appealing and stylish with buttery, citrus and tropical flavours. Piccini Supertuscan 2008, Italy, £8.99, is an autumnal medium bodied red, with chocolate, raisins and subtle oak, balanced by typical Tuscan acidity.

Calvados is the best known of the world’s apple spirits and comes from Brittany and Normandy. During out recent visit to Suisse Normand, Mr and Mrs Wine Tipster met Calvados producer and owner Claude Courvallet (see pic). Claude is based just north of Pont d’Ouilly and producers an impressive Calvados Le Vergers de Planville 6 ans, 26 Euros, which has an immediately appealing style, whilst the Le Vergers de Planville 10 ans, 40 Euros, delivers more elegance, purity of fruit and a very long finish. Another interesting point, (well to me anyway) is that Claude’s son practices horse dentistry!
Twenty minutes drive from Claude’s place, in the village of Menil Hermei, we found an excellent B&B owned by a charming English couple Jenny and Lew Barber. They have immaculately and tastefully refurbished their property, in which the kitchen used to be home for a cider press. We had pre-booked dinner for both nights and I suggest you do the same for a relaxing visit. Jenny is a proper chef, and we enjoyed an array of delicious dishes. One piece of advice, try Jenny’s fruity, non gooey and balanced toffee apple crumble.
The total cost for two nights including dinner was 188 Euros. Details: Jenny and Lew Barber, L’Ancien Pressoir, Menil Hermei, Suisse Normande. Tel: 0033 233 12 54 27 or email: menilhermei@hotmail.com
Claude Courvallet, Les Vergers de Plainville, 14690 Pierrefitte En Cinglais, Suisse Normande. Tel: 0033 231 40 70 81 or email: vergersplainville@wanadoo.fr

The range of offers in Majestic, for the period 31st August until 1st November, have just arrived on my doormat. Included are some excellent wines from South Africa, Groot Constantia Sauvignon Blanc 2009, South Africa, £10.99 or £8.79 when you buy 2 bottles (equivalent to 20% off), which performs in the stylish category of New World Sauvignon Blancs. Groot Constantia’s Shiraz 2007, £12.49 or £9.99 when you buy 2 bottles (equivalent to 20% off), delivers plenty of full bodied spicy character, dark fruits, subtle and classy complexity.
Heading to Europe, Malvis Douro Tinto 2007, Portugal, £6.99 or £5.59 when you buy 2 bottles (equivalent to 20% off), was a popular choice when I featured this wine in The Taste of London seminars in June. Malvis is well priced and very much part of the lighter, red berry, easy drinking school of Douro reds. Crossing the border to Catalunya in Spain where Sangre de Toro 2007, Torres, Spain, £7.49 or £5.62 when you buy 2 bottles (equivalent to 25% off), has always been one of the best reds in Torres’ range. This medium to full bodied 2007 – a star vintage – is packed with red and dark fruit flavours and as always is deliciously accessible.