Some wines I enjoyed in January

Polish Pinot Noir, Hungarian Cab Franc and a multi-vintage Portuguese white

Yesterday, in a Financial Times article, the world’s leading wine critic Jancis Robinson described me as “exceptionally efficient”, which reminded me that I still hadn’t got around to writing up January’s wines even though I promised I would get back on track for 2025, and it’s now March.

This was part of an incredibly enthusiastic article about Manchester’s wine scene, for which Jancis appointed me as her trusty guide to the city. What an honour. This was in Feb, so expect a couple of wines I tasted with JR herself to feature when I publish that month’s round-up, hopefully before the end of this month.

But for now, here are some wines I enjoyed in January:

Quinta dos Carvalhais Dão Branco Especial, Portugal (RRP~£40)

As with most hospitality businesses, the Manchester Wine School Xmas do happens in January rather than December. When choosing a restaurant for it, BYOB is a key factor. This year, we decided upon the museum to British Chinese restaurant culture that is the Glamorous restaurant above the Wing Yip supermarket on Oldham Road. First challenge: find the bloody entrance. Confusing signs sent us around the multistorey car park for a couple of laps until we realised we had to go to the very top. I can’t believe I had never been here before and am a little ashamed. But I’ll be back because the food and service were fantastic. Their wine list is actually very good too.

But BYOB it was for us five wine tutors, one of whom was the owner of MWS, the inimitable Simon Woods. Everyone brought great bottles to try, but Simon won with this belting Portuguese white blend (Semillon, Verdelho, Encruzado), which he told us is a blend of seven vintages, the oldest from 2009. All I can say is OOF. This is a big buttery boy, almost oily with cream and butter, layers of complexity, dried apricots, nuts, salted caramel, truffle, freshly sharpened knives and an intensity that stood up to all manner of different dishes but was especially good with a dish of aubergine stuffed with prawns.

Thierry Delaunay, 'Casca Maceration de Soif' Sauvignon Blanc Vin Orange, Loire, France 2021 at Caravan (£13 a glass / £15 a bottle)

I am always aware that working in wine comes with the risk of never having a day off the booze. Trade tastings are often on Mondays, wine tours all weekend, days off Tues/Weds are when I want to kick back and go out for dinner with my loved ones. You have to keep an eye on it. But sometimes, after a wine tour, I can be convinced to stick around for another drink.

On this occasion, I had a fellow wine pro on the tour, Kev, who was about to open his first wine bar in his home town of Honley. His long-suffering partner had come along expecting to be bored to death by wine talk, telling us tales of having to pretend to be interested in soil types and cooling influences at home when she just wanted to enjoy the damn wine. She was pleasantly surprised by the humour and lack of stuffiness on the tours. We were all getting on well, so Kev treated the last stragglers (myself included) to another bottle. Thanks Kev!

This is the kind of orange you can win over the sceptics with. Made entirely from Sauvignon Blanc, the aromatics really lift that savoury tannic note you get from skin contact, bringing orange blossom, zest and tinned mandarin segments to the party.

Barraco Fior Di Bianco Sicily at Lina Stores, Marylebone, London (£64 a bottle)

I’m fortunate enough to go on a lot of press trips to London as part of my job, and often, when our hosts find out I am a ‘wine person’, they get excited to show me some good stuff. I was surprised to find that the smart, classic London Italian restaurant and deli Lina Stores has such a forward thinking wine list with loads from the lower intervention world. Yes, there are Italian classics on the list, but the team wanted to show me some more interesting stuff since it is opening in Manchester this spring and would be a good addition to the wine tours.

This was my favourite of the three or four we tried, a blend of Sicilian grapes Grillo, Catarratto and (my fave) Zibibbo with a very short skin maceration. It went beautifully with all the buttery pasta and seafood we were gorging on and weirdly, for a dry wine, with the tiramisu dessert too. A Sicilian summer wine with a big, aromatic nose reminiscent of walking past one of those street sellers with a wheelbarrow full of wrinkled lemons the size of melons. There’s a saline twang, too, a sea breeze that lifts your heart when everything is getting a bit much in the world. God, I need a holiday.

Musso Langhe Nebbiolo, Italy 2022 at Atomeca Spinningfields (£10.50 a glass)

One of the questions I get asked the most is what my favourite wine is. I always answer that I don’t have one, that I prefer to try new things rather than sticking to favourites etc., but this is not quite true always. In reality, if I see Nebbiolo by the glass on a wine list, I’m having it. I love its reliable wet autumn leaves aroma, its subtlety, its poise. It’s like a ballerina with muddy toes. There’s also a lovely bit of cinnamon roll in this one at my favourite new place to drink wine: Atomeca Spinningfields. Impeccable food here too.

Sauska Cabernet Franc, Makar, Villany, Hungary, 2018 at Tom’s Chop House (part of a £75 Manchester Wine Tour)

I love showing people wines from countries they may not normally buy wine from on my Manchester Wine Tours. When we stop by the Victorian pub, Tom’s Chop House, we often taste the two pictured above. People always prefer one or the other. The one on the right is a gorgeous soft and velvety merlot-heavy Italian BDX blend.

The one on the left is the one I want to highlight today. A Cabernet Franc from Hungary made by former engineer Krisztián Sauska, who was the ultimate American dream success story. He moved there from Hungary in the 70s, starting on the factory floor and working his way up til he was running the damn place. Then with the money he made, he moved back home and set up a winery to leave a legacy his family could inherit. And he makes the most beautiful wine. Everyone seems to love this deep, inky red with glossy black cherry, black olives and dill. Insanely good with a few slices of medium rare steak.

Alceno, Sierra de Enmedio Monastrell 2023 from Reserve Wines (£11.50 )

January is not generally a month for big spending if you can help it. With the double danger of having to have the heating on all day and being a quivering wreck from Xmas depleting your bank account, it’s a time for frugality. So I decided to order a box of wine from Reserve packed with bottles at a far cheaper price tag than I usually spend to see me through the winter months (dry who?). This was also partly for research purposes; it’s always useful to find affordable wines that are really good, and I’m not brilliant at it, tbh, so I need practise.

I was super impressed by this one for just over a tenner. Like my 90s self’s favourite eye makeup, this is soft plum and a touch of charcoal. There’s a surprising depth of fruit and enough spice to make it wintery. All too easy to polish off a bottle.

Markovitis Xinomavro, Naoussa, Greece 2019 at Sterling (part of a £75 wine tour)

Sterling is the place I go to on almost every single Saturday wine tour. All the other venues rotate but people love the secret wine room and cheese doughnut snacks so much. Both things are exclusive to wine tour guests. Sterling also has such an exciting wine list that is constantly changing so there is always something new to try - a thrill for the guests and for me.

Recently, we’ve shown this Greek red to a few groups. Xinomavro literally means sour black, and this has a lovely sour cherry flavour alongside a sort of roasted tomato savouriness and the kind of herbs I imagine you might find growing wild along a Greek coastline. If people aren’t bowled over by this one, it’s probably because they prefer the one on the right in the pic above. Also super.

Adoria Vineyards Pinot Noir, Poland, 2021 from Hakkapo (£11 a glass / £50 a bottle)

Hakkapo secretly has one of the most innovative short wine lists in the city. I regularly take people here on my wine tours so am slowly turning people onto this fact, but if you haven’t been, I urge you to go with wine in mind. The food is wonderful too.

I was agog at how brilliant this Polish pinot was. I don’t think I have tasted one with so many flower shop aromas. It reminds me of a strawberry jelly studded with red berries and suspended rose and violet petals, served at an elegant dinner party. I believe the winemaker is Californian but fell in love with and moved to Poland, where he makes these outstanding wines. Polish wine is definitely having a moment. If you haven’t tried any, I recommend you resolve to do so asap.

Robert Denogent, Pouilly Fuisse, La Croix, Burgundy, France (RRP ~£35)

I was invited to an event at Manifest Liverpool to celebrate women in wine, organised by the unstoppable Queena Wong under her Curious Vines project. Although I had to rush back for the Manchester Food and Drink Awards that evening, I made it work to attend both events. I wasn’t going to miss this for the world. It was a pleasure to share wine and stories with so many absolute powerhouse women in wine.

One soaring star of the moment is Grace Cox from The Barn at Moor Hall. Grace brought along this special bottle, which we had planned to pass around a bit, but it lingered far too long on our table as we kept going back for more. This was vividly yellow with an unfiltered olive oil appearance. The initial struck match gives way to tons of chewy citrus peel, baked apple and pear. Something new with every sip. Lush. A foodie wine.

Jonty’s Ducks Guardian of the Vines Pekin White 2022 (RRP~£18)

It was a pleasure to meet Nicole Garcia who works at Chester-based merchant and wine bar Vin Santo. We immediately hit it off. Nicole brought along this super fruity South African white blend. Mainly Chenin Blanc but with Roussanne, Muscat, Semillon and Viognier also in the mix, I’m sure you can imagine all those honeyed apricot notes. The cute name comes from the wine producer Avondale’s secret, all-natural weapon of vineyard pest control, some pretty badass ducks.

2014 Viña Gravonia Crianza Blanco, López de Heredia, Rioja (RRP~£45)

I’ll never forget my first aged Tondonia white rioja. Midway through my WSET level 3 studies, I had heard it was a cool thing to try but somehow wasn’t expecting something the colour of Sanderson’s Throat Specific (IYKYK) and so intensely, almost aggressively savoury. I was quite taken aback. Years later, I am all about aged white wines with nutty, oxidised notes. They’re not for everyone but if you get a taste for them, it becomes a bit of an obsession.

So I was thrilled when the brilliant Georgie from Hawksmoor brought this 10+yo babe to Manifest for us to taste. Even though this is the ‘youngest’ of their wines, with a minimum of four years in cask and then around the same in bottle before you can get your hands on it, it’s an incredibly complex drop. The fruit backbone is orchard apples and pears baked in a crumble and then reheated again the next day to take on a bruised apple hue. The crumble is there too, that intense, toasted nuttiness. Maybe a bit of orange zest folded into the crumb before baking. All this with a wisp of old hymn books and creaky floorboards. Incred.

Lomond Methode Cap Classique Brut 2019 at Maray (£11 a glass / £49 a bottle)

I love to show people great alternatives to the usual Champagne and Prosecco on my wine tours. This lively number from South Africa, full of conference pear and lemon zest, always puts a spring in everyone’s step right from the get-go - especially when paired with Maray’s lovely little boquerones. If you’re not familiar with the term Methode Cap Classique (MCC), it’s code for ‘South African champagne’ and if MCC was good enough for Obama’s inauguration (not this exact one, but still), then it should be good enough for you.

And finally, as a thank you for subscribing, I’m offering a 10% discount on wine tours booked on my last remaining available dates in March or April. Enter the code JANCIS at the start before choosing your number of guests to get the offer.

I have also just added a Tuesday to the calendar in May for any hospitality folk who can’t come on weekends. This is an experiment. If it goes well, I will do more of these!