tried & TESTED

Tringario Ludopata Marselan 2020

Jose and Trini Gonzalez established their winery in 2015 with the aim of demonstrating “what Chile is capable of when the shackles are off”. This limitededition Colchagua Marselan, fermented in concrete eggs, is fresh, light and juicy, with appealing raspberrylike fruit and a cranberryish tang.

RRP: £17.99 ABV: 14.5% Propeller Wine propeller.wine

Domaine des Tourelles Vieilles Vignes White 2020

Not just old vines, but ancient varieties too. Merweh, which makes up half of the blend, is a hardy grape that likes the wild living on Lebanon’s mountains but ripens unevenly. Obeidi, grown at altitude on pergolas, sounds marginally less problematic. Together they make an exotic, herbacious wine with lots of appley notes.

RRP: £16 ABV: 11% Boutinot (0161 908 1300) boutinot.com

Enate Chardonnay 234 2020

Chardonnay is probably excluded from the list of white varieties grown in Spain that we’re supposed to get excited about, but this is an example to win over any doubters. Mountain freshness and minerality vie with exotic fruits (and a touch of banana Angel Delight) for supremacy in a delicious and affordable wine that’s proving to be a consistent performer.

RRP: £15.99 ABV: 14.5% Daniel Lambert Wines (01656 661010) daniellambert.wine

Giant Steps Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2020

It wasn’t a vintage everyone in Australia recalls with much fondness but the Yarra got off more lightly than most. Yields were down and Chardonnay bunches were smaller and tighter, and you can taste that here, though that acidity and edge of sourness is leavened by a hint of tropical fruit and a gentle leesy cushioning.

RRP: £22 ABV: 13% Liberty Wines (020 7720 5350) libertywines.co.uk

Balfour Winery Blanc de Noirs 2018

Winemaker Fergus Elias sees this as a yin and yang wine. “Traditional ripe Blanc de Noirs flavours of red apple and blackcurrant combine with the linear citrus and oyster shell characteristics so often found in our vintage wines,” he says. It’s firm and arresting on the palate, but with a creaminess to round things off.

RRP: £35 ABV: 12% Balfour Winery (01622 832794) balfourwinery.com

TerraNoble Gran Reserva Carignan 2018

The alluvial terraces of this part of Maule can only be cultivated by horses, and picked by hand. After opentop maceration and soft extraction, the juice splits into concrete eggs and untoasted foudres before bottle ageing. The natural freshness and greener edges contrast with the inky depths and ripe-fruit aromas.

RRP: £15 ABV: 13.5% Vintage Cellars (0207 630 6254) vintagecellars.co.uk

Esk Valley Artisanal Collection Merlot/Cabernet/Malbec 2019

The winery’s first Malbec-led wine from Gimblett Gravels starts with its constituent varietals being fermented in open-top concrete vats and then aged in oak barrels for 18 months. It’s as juicy and intense as you’d imagine, with a herbal undertow. A perfect partner for the hearty stews we require in, er, July.

RRP: £19.25 ABV: 14% Hatch Mansfield (01344 871800) hatchmansfield.com

Carminucci Belato Offida Pecorino 2020

Carminucci started out in 1928 and is still run by the founder’s son, Piero, who has earned a great deal of acclaim in Italy for his organically-farmed wines. The natural honeydew sweetness of the once-forgotten but now beloved Pecorino grape makes this a real crowdpleaser, but there’s a lovely orchardy tartness too.

RRP: £13.75 ABV: 13% Hallgarten & Novum Wines (01582 722538) hnwines.co.uk

James Mitchell On the Road

JAMES IS THE NEW ACCOUNTS MANAGER FOR NORTHERN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND AT ALLIANCE WINE. HIS NINE YEARS AS A REP HAVE INCLUDED ROLES AT TANNERS AND INVERARITY MORTON

I love the north of England; I’m from

Manchester. Driving through the Pennines or the North York Moors on a day like today, there’s nothing better. It’s a great life being out and about and seeing people and I love that every day is different. I’ve got customers in Northumberland, so I might be there and then down to the centre of Manchester, and I am taking over Alliance’s Scottish customers too, so it’s really exciting and so diverse with so many different kinds of people. I can’t wait to meet everyone.

In my car, I listen to the radio – news

and sports. James O’Brien on LBC in the morning and then 5Live. I find commercial radio a bit too much. You can start singing the jingles and still be singing them when you get home. The children look at me like I’m an idiot!

There’s plenty going on in the north. I think in the past perhaps there could be a sniffy attitude from the south. In my 20s if I was at the London Wine Fair I would always feel that the thinking was, “oh, here he comes with his flat cap and his whippets!” But the wine trade has changed, the north has got some fantastic businesses selling great selections of wine and it is a much more inclusive and dynamic place now.

I worked in wine shops for 10 years

and I know how hard it is. The hours are long and you have to think about staff issues, all the finances and a whole host of mundane but vital things. However, there was nothing better than selling a bottle of wine to a customer for them to come back a week later to thank you and ask what else you recommend. It was a thrill. I get the same feeling now I am a rep. Working with this diverse portfolio I can do the same, and there are always loads of different wines to recommend next time around.

I’ve missed all the tastings that my

customers host. Seeing the end consumer and answering their questions is always

A chat with a rep can reassure you and help get a good idea of what is going on with other people, to keep everything in perspective

a great chance to see how the wines are received by the people that drink them. It’s great insight and I enjoy helping our customers on the day, but also understanding their customers better. It’s all about being supportive, and at those key times of the year when tastings can really make a difference to a business, boosting the sales. It’s nice to know you’ve played a small part.

If you’ve been stuck in the shop over

the last 18 months and you haven’t been to any tastings and had those normal connections with people in the wine trade, I like to think a chat with a rep can reassure you and help get a good idea of what is going on with other people, to keep everything in perspective.

My role is to understand who my

customer is and I am working really hard on unearthing all the little gems in this new portfolio so whatever my customers are after, I can help them. I started off as a waiter and that has set me up very well, deciding if a table is one you could have a laugh with or wants to be left alone. You become very good at understanding people, very quickly.

I’m always blown away by just how

fantastic the shops are. They are full of

enthusiastic staff who know their stuff, they are always looking to innovate and try new things. There’s a whole new generation of people coming through who are much more interested in funky wines, and labels, and they are looking for a story too. I am itching to get in front of customers to show the array of wines I can sell. We have so many cool labels that really leap out at you, and great stories for people to learn too. I know those wines will fly off the shelves and make a real difference to the bottom line and the end-customers’ satisfaction.

Feature sponsored by Alliance Wine

For more information, visit alliancewine.com Call 01505 506060

Life Outside Wine An occasional series looking at the pastimes and sidelines of independent wine merchants This month: Acting with Mark Ross of The Green Room, Glastonbury

I was a child actor and I was in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film with Dick Van

Dyke. I was one of the child slaves – I was in it for some months and my brothers were in it too. When they were filming the Battle of Britain scene I remember running up the bridge at Pinewood and we’d see the Spitfires flying over and they had explosives going off in the banks to look like they were bombing. It was a wonderful experience seeing the car going up in the air – kind of spoiled it when you realised it was on hydraulics.

When I was 45 I applied to a number of drama schools and I got into Bristol.

They have 30,000 applications for about 80 places. I spent two years there and then it got quite serious with the RSC and the Old Vic. About seven years ago it went really quiet. I got a part-time job in a supermarket doing beer tasting. That progressed to doing events and eventually I got my shop in Glastonbury.I still subscribe to Spotlight, so if any acting work comes up I’ll be ready, but I’m not pushing for it.

The job I enjoyed most was a production

of Henry V. There were five of us doing an abridged version of the play in an hour and a half. I think I had 38 costume changes and played eight characters in that time – it was insane. We toured around the country and it was great fun. When I finished the season at the RSC I was offered another chance to tour Henry V but I was concerned that casting directors would wonder why I’d gone from the RSC to small-scale fringe and so I turned it down. That was a silly thing to think, in fact. I should have just enjoyed it and rocked on.

Mark Rylance is wonderful to work for.

I played a small role in his production of Much Ado About Nothing but I was also an understudy. About a day before we opened Mark called me and asked me how I felt about going on as someone was ill. He said, “I would never want an actor to go on stage if he didn’t feel ready,” and that he was prepared to go on with the book rather than me go on unprepared and get bad reviews. He was so considerate. It’s not wrong for a director to demand you go on – as an understudy that’s what you’re paid for and if I wasn’t ready that would be my failure.

A couple of years ago I was put up as a

judge in a crime drama. Unfortunately when you cover my grey hair with a wig, I look about 10 years younger and too young to be a judge. When I was at Bristol people always said, “you’d be great for doctor, solicitor, accountant, policeman,” but it’s kind of crazy that I never got invited for any of those roles, even though The Bill, Holby City and Casualty were still going at the time.

I was in a music video for Professor

Green. I had no idea that he was a rap artist. During the audition I actually asked what sort of professor he was! Turning up for a music video was like turning up for a major feature film. The trucks and crew … it was huge. No expense spared. It was very sad because my big scene was meant to be where I break down as I react to Professor Green rapping, but on the third day of shooting when it was time for that scene, Steve [Manderson] got taken to hospital with an abscess so my scene got cut.

I think everyone in commerce should have some exposure to drama training.

Just to make them a bit more extrovert and stretch their boundaries. It’s invaluable. I’m doing a tasting in September, and it doesn’t faze me; it will be a delight. I’d love to start a YouTube channel featuring cooking with wine, and food and wine pairing.