One new wine in this week has –  hit the ground running – straight into the shop and on special offer to get stock moving – Sauvignon de Touraine, Domaine Michaud (£7.99 or 3 for £20) is a super example of Loire Valley Sauvignon  - edgy and flinty for the traditionalist but with enough gooseberry plumpness to satisfy the modernist. Also relatively new are two very classy wines from Mas d’Auzieres which nestles under the Pic Saint Loup in the Coteaux du Languedoc. The delightful Irene Tolleret makes wines of poise and charm  - a serious, supple red and a splendidly vivid rosé, appropriately named Rires et Sourires (laughter and smiles).

Another wine that caught my attention this week is the stout, juicy and now beautifully mature Toro “Gravedad” 2006. We tend to buy the better non-Rioja Spanish reds in big chunks usually over-enthused after a long tasting! The results are stacks of slow moving wines which tend to get forgotten about. With quality reds, cash flow aside, this doesn’t matter and the result is nice little parcels of perfectly mature wine – a rare commodity. One day, we in this country might actually cotton on to the fact that there is a lot to red Spain other than Rioja but in the meantime it might be worth your while checking out as well our Finca la Estacada 12 meses en barrica 2006, Abadia la Arroyada Ribera del Duero 2007 and  Calzadilla Crianza, La Mancha 2002.