Why you should choose Naked Wines this Easter
The biggest pull you might think is the £80 voucher we have for Wine Genie, and yes, that floats my proverbial wine-faring boat as well, but it wouldn’t amount to much if the wine case wasn’t any good. Fortunately, Naked aren’t exactly known for their ”bad” wines, quite the opposite! Naked champion the individual producer and support them through their Angels programme to help make wines with passion, feeling, provenance and flavour.
As a testament to this, I’ve gone through a case of wines from Naked and, as you can imagine, had a very good time of it. I’ve picked my favourite wines of the case which I’d strongly recommend getting your hands on if you want to try good wine at a good price (great if you use the voucher).
The Best Whites
Ever since my trip to the Hunter Valley, I’ve been a fan of these blends and Semillon as a grape in general. Whilst this is made from grapes around Southern Aus rather than just the Hunter, this wine still showcases greatness on par with Hunter winemaking and grapes. As expected from the Sauvignon, there is gooseberry, passionfruit and zippy citrus flavours, but the Semillon comes in and tempers these with its high acidity and citrus flavours (lemon, lime, green apple) making it a superbly balanced wine. I’ll admit I tried this wine after a few glasses of other wines, but by the morning it was still memorable as a good good wine.
Naked have some very interesting wines indeed. Bourret is perhaps better known as Terret Gris, although this still is largely unknown. Its main appeal is full bodied wines with the crispness of flavour you tend to get from lighter grapes like Pinot Grigio or Vermentino. There is also a touch of Picpoul in there to add some acidity and even more citrus. It was one fresh wine. Light and bright on the palate, zipping along the tongue and despite seeming at first simple, it develops more and more complexity with each sip. Expect lemon, lime, sherbet, nettle and a saline, slightly bitter finish. A strong mineral, shell-like undertone pervaded throughout the wine as well as an earthiness. All in all it was really interesting and delicious.
A South African Chardonnay of some merit named after the Winery it is from. Arabella Chardonnay has New World boldness with a lick of old World restraint and refinement. A nice citrus nose is backed up by the lightest of buttery oak. The palate does shine with even more oak, giving vanilla and butterscotch notes but it is well managed by the citrus edge and saline finish bringing harmony to the wine. Numerous awards throughout vintages speak for itself.
French Sauvignon is always overlooked in light of the New Zealand boom, but for those who find NZ too much, the French have a much more restrained and elegant style that ought to appeal. Yes, it has gooseberry but to a lesser extent. There’s also fresh cut grass, nettle and a little asparagus even. There is a nice undertone of tropical fruits from mango, papaya and passion fruit which uplift the flavour profile nicely. This will suit your upcoming Easter feast perfectly.
The Best Reds
It doesn’t get much more Spanish than Tempranillo, the grape behind great Riojas capable of making versatile wines. This is a young style of Tempranillo, expressing plenty of ripe, red fruit. There was a lot of cherry and plum in particular. A lovely spiced note brought a nuance to the wine whilst the smooth mouthfeel helped it go down all too easily.
Hailing from Argentina’s Mendoza region, the place you really need to go to if you want a good Malbec, this wine hits the spot. A meaty nose showed strong notes of earth and leather as well as a whiff of raw meat. Dark fruits, dates and maybe a touch of smoky bacon shored this up. To taste, it was spiced with cassis and had notes of charred wood whilst juicy, red and black fruits filled out the rest in an emphatic manner. Despite how heavy this wine sounds, the mouthfeel was remarkably soft.
I’m generally a big fan of South African Pinotage and this proved no different. Filled with the classic blueberry, plum and chocolate notes of Pinotage, I was very pleased. Additional ripe fruit and coffee notes gave it a little extra oomph and the finish ended well with prune and leather notes.
The third and final from the Arabella winery (they were all good). The nose immediately told me this would be a chunky wine: Dark, dark fruits, cherry, liquorice and violet greet you. These are much the same on the palate with the addition of a nice peppery backbone typical of any good Shiraz. Finally, some judicious use of oak brought a little vanilla to the wine.
Portuguese regional reds around Lisbon are pretty popular on the market for their easy drinking style and flavour intensity. This one displayed red cherry, plum, blueberry, dried herbs and a strong flavour of chocolate, a sort of intensely dark version. The wild berries on the palate helped evoke the Portuguese outdoors very well too.
So, these are my favourites of the case and hopefully I’ve given you a sense of the flavour, quality and passion in these wines. I’d strongly recommend getting a case yourself to get stocked up for Easter and beyond. Make the lamb pair with something worthy of it!
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