Bouchard Aîné & Fils Pinot Noir 2014

Bouchard Aîné & Fils Pinot Noir 2014, France

(£6, Sainsbury’s or use Wine Searcher)

It’s rare to find a decent Pinot Noir* under a tenner. So for £6 this Bouchard Aîné & Fils Pinot Noir is a rare bargain.

I featured it on Saturday Kitchen as an accompaniment to a Scandinavian-inspired dish by Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt of steak tartare with lingon berries, pickled chanterelles and home-made flatbread. Which is a bit like a posh deconstructed burger, really. This really wasn’t an easy dish to find a wine for, from the yeasty warm bread to the tangy lingon berries, the pickled mushrooms and the delicate steak. Fuller-flavoured whites (like the Jordi Miro Garnatxa Blanca from M&S) worked OK. But the nip of tannin from a red was so much more satisfying – and this Bouchard was a really seamless partner.

Niklas favours a nip of ice-cold vodka with his dish and you can see the logic. But this red is very palatable and makes a fine match. ‘Scandilicious’ was the Hairy Bikers’ take. Cheers, boys! (6.5-7/10, Peter, Sept 2016)

*I must admit I originally assumed this wine was from Burgundy, and described it as such. But, on closer scrutiny, it seems the fruit comes from various locations around France including the south and the Loire. Even so, it’s a lovely fresh style in keeping with a light Burgundy – so very cleverly made in this regard. But not real red Burgundy.