Some wines I enjoyed in November

Featuring wines from Canada, Poland, Georgia and more

Yeah, you read that right, these are my favourite wines from November 2023. I’ve got a bit of catching up to do when it comes to reworking my copious illegible wine notes into accessible blog form.

The good thing about wine is that it doesn’t go off in the space of a few months (unless it’s open of course). It actually improves for having laid in a dark cellar for a while (kinda like this blog). So I’ve dusted off some bottles for you below, most of which you should still be able to get your hands on.

Read on for some wines I enjoyed in November:

Sebastien Besson Beaujoalis Nouveau from Petit Paris Deli (~£20 RRP)

On Beaujolais Nouveau Day, the third Thursday in November, the region’s winemakers release very young wine to be drunk ASAP. It was massive in the 80s with yuppies from the UK hopping over the channel to fill their car boots with the stuff, bring it back and quaff (they deffo quaffed) it with their mates. It fell out of favour here for a while but the “natural” wine trend seems to have reopened the wound. I relish any excuse to drink wine (not that I need one these days) so I am a fan of this fun event. I zipped around 6 or 7 different wine bars in Manchester that day tasting bojo at all of them and my faves came from Petit Paris (ofc) with this one just slightly pipping the others to the top spot for its slightly more intense character - although the one with the upside-down label was a very close second. As is the tradition, it tastes like a pink and white striped bag of pick-n-mix. foam bananas and all.

Lightfoot & Wolfville Fauna, Nova Scotia, Canada from Cork of the North, Heaton Moor (~£20 RRP)

Not a million miles in character from a Beaujolais, I bought this wine because it’s from blimmin’ CANADA, because it has the prettiest label I’ve seen in a long time (yep, I buy wines based on labels quite a lot too, sue me) and because Aliya at COTN said it was her fave. Made from a whole load of unfamiliar grapes to me (petite pearl, leon millot, marquette, marechal foch and frontenac noir, since you asked), this is a light, raspberry cranberry number but also has a really prominent liquorice quality that makes for a very interesting drop. Canadian wines are popping up a lot lately and of the two I bought on a visit to COTN, this was the one I liked best.

FIO, Teppo Mosel Riesling 2016 at Reserve at Mackie, Manchester (£24 RRP)

November saw my Manchester Wine Tours in full flight as I took several groups around the city as unsuspecting guinea pigs. Luckily, the laboratories all involved wine and snacks which they happily hoovered up. No cruelty whatsoever involved. One of my favourite wines from several we enjoyed at Reserve at Mackie in November was this ever so slightly off-dry Teppo (meaning time) riesling. An interesting project this, it’s a collaboration between riesling veterans the Mosel-based Kettern family and port-royalty Niepoort. Well worth your time.

Ravensworth, Riesling 2022 at Climat Manchester (£60 a bottle)

I love Riesling so much that I have included two this month. This one is quite different to the previous one. It’s from Australia rather than Riesling’s OG region of Mosel. It’s even slightly unusual for an Aussie Riesling because it comes from the warmer area of Murrumbateman near Canberra in New South Wales as opposed to the cooler and more famous Aussie Riesling zones of Clare and Eden Valley. Anyway, we tasted this on Beaujolais Nouveau Day at Climat (which also served as the restaurant’s one-year birthday bash) and it stood out like an awkwardly shaped bottle in a wine rack on the food-matched wine flight. There’s all the lemon ‘n lime you’d expect from the grape with an extra bit of chalky oomph and something from the florist. I’ll probably get a bottle of this next time I eat at Climat if it’s still on their (award-winning) wine list.

Kortavebis Marani, Saperavi, Kisi and Khikhvi, Kakheti, Georgia at The Pearl, Prestwich (£50 with dinner)

If you’ve been on one of my wine tours or know your wine stuff, you’ll be aware that Georgia is recognised as the probable birthplace of wine. It’s here that we have the earliest evidence of winemaking. Georgia arguably invented orange (or amber, as they call it) wine but you should seek out the reds which are most often made from Saperavi. Here, it’s blended with two other local grape varieties.

Saperavi is unusual in that it has pink flesh as well as red skin. It makes deeply fruity reds that are aged in egg-shaped vessels called qvevri - traditionally buried underground. This cherry bomb of a wine from Kortavebis Marani was almost too easy to knock back at Prestwich’s newest bistro, The Pearl.

Winnica Turnau Chardonnay, Lower Silesia, Poland at Mana, Manchester (Part of a £!£!£! tasting menu wine flight)

Have you ever had wine from Poland? If not, it’s likely you will at some point because wines from Lower Silesia seem to be popping up everywhere in the UK at the moment. I went to Manchester’s only Michelin-star restaurant Mana in November and ordered a slightly smaller version of their wine flight to go with the multicourse menu (yes, you can often do that if regular wine flights are overbearing to you but you want matched wines, just ask).

This eyebrow-raising wine flight featured sake, umeshu, and Ancoats’ fave, orange wine. It had highs and lows for me but the standout was this nutty, slightly floral Polish chardonnay. Give it a go if you spot it anywhere by the glass. They also had it on the shelves at Cork of the North last time I was in.

Concrete Tank, Bodega Alandes, Mendoza Argentina by Karim Mussi via Condor Wines (RRP ~£20)

Sometimes, I am a right jammy get who gets invited to dinners with winemakers. They are keen for wine professionals to taste their entire range and we are happy to oblige. On this occasion, my lovely friend Anna from Manchester wine bar The Beeswing took me as her plus one to a slap-up multi-course meal at Catalan restaurant Tast hosted by South American specialist Condor Wines. Charismatic winemaker Karim Mussi was present and regaled us with funny stories.

Honestly, all these wines were great but this was my favourite. Tannic AF and super savoury, with a distinct whiff of freshly ground coffee, this is a very age-worthy red blend if, unlike me, you have the patience to lay wines down for a few years. Cabernet Sauvignon is the next big thing in Argentina due to climate change, according to Karim and this blend features 29% Cab Sav, 29% Tempranillo (the star grape of Rioja) and 42% of Argentina’s calling card grape, Malbec. There is no oak here, only concrete, making it clean and fresh-tasting despite its intensity.

Terra De Cuques, Priorat, Spain at Sterling bar, Manchester (Part of a £75 wine tour or ~£40 RRP)

I often tell anyone who’ll listen that grapes are like people. They are much more interesting if they haven’t had too easy a life. A bit of struggle, a few scars, a few stories and I’m much more likely to want to spend time with you. The wines made from grapes that have had to struggle for nutrients tend to be more interesting and complex. Nowhere is this truer than in Priorat where the rugged, mountainous terrain not only makes the grapes’ lives hard but it’s a reyt bastard for the people who have to pick them too. There is a history of political struggle here as well. Winemakers had to fight to save these vines in the wake of Franco’s subsistence-based agricultural policy. All in all, this makes for expensive but worth-it wines.

Winemaker Domino Huber here teams up with South African wine royalty Eben Sadie who makes very highly regarded wines in Swartland. Their wines are inspired by the traditions of Burgundy but they take a more modern biodynamic, ‘non-intrusive’ approach in the vineyard and winery. This is an intense blend of Carignan grown in the region’s llicorella soils and Garnacha grown on clay soils. It’s a stunner and we served it on a couple of my early Manchester Wine Tours with Sterling’s indecent cheese ‘doughnuts’.