Colinas de Uruguay Albariño 2016

Colinas de Uruguay Albariño 2016, 13%, Uruguay

(£8, Sainsbury’s or in the Netherlands and Canada via Wine Searcher)

We often find ourselves searching for whites that have plenty of oomph but aren’t super extrovert in their flavour profile.

This happens especially when we’re picking wines to go with food: whites can need to stand up to some pretty strong flavours, which requires depth of flavour without too much character to clash with the ingredients.

When you can get a wine like this, which is also decent value and has a bit of ‘discovery’ factor, then it’s a winner.

Step forward the Colinas de Uruguay Albariño. It’s lovely and peachy, with hints of honey, and a wonderfully juicy, rounded and fleshy flavour profile, with a hint of spice. Versatile with food and great value. Pretty summery too.

By way of brief addendum, this wine was shown as part of a Sainsbury’s spring tasting which also featured some other tip-worthy wines with a difference, from an excellent Taste the Difference Côtes du Rhône white 2015 (£7), a wonderfully zingy Brancott Terroir Series Sauvignon Blanc 2015 (£10), an endearingly light-hearted Argentine red Comuna No3 Malbec 2015 (£7) and an elegant Chinese red for claret-lovers: Changyu Noble Dragon Cabernet Gernischt 2013 (£10).

(Peter, 6.5/10, March 2017)