Lovely wines from Aldi’s Spring Festival

Hard on the heels of Lidl’s January Wine Cellar comes Aldi’s Spring Wine Festival bringing you a dozen wines from a range of regions – but all priced under £8.

The bottles went into stores this week and will be available while stocks last; here are three from the Festival that particularly impressed me.

Click on any of the bottles shown for an enlarged image to help you pinpoint the wine on a crowded shelf

A minor aristocrat with massive appeal

Here is a delightful (and impressively inexpensive) white wine from Western Hungary that blends two little known Eastern European grape varieties to create appealing, “drink-anytime” fare with perceptions of sweetness well beyond its 8gms of residual sugar.

So, relax with the firm acidity and citrus zest of 2016 Little Princess (£4.99 and 12% abv) that underpin the wine’s red apple, pear and peach fruit, combination of sweeter spices and savoury edges.

Onto royalty of a different sort

From unfamiliar grape varieties to one of the best known, cabernet sauvignon, and from Coonawarra – that narrow “terra rossa” strip of South Australia with a geology and climate that suits cabernet so well.

Decanting is strongly recommended for 2016 Mo Sisters Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon (£6.99 and 14%) to enjoy fully its rich loganberry and blackcurrant fruit, soft tannins and suggestions of mint, cocoa, cloves and aniseed.

Finally to a powerful European red

Italian winemakers are especially good at those drying processes that evaporate water content and, thus, intensify and enrich the resulting wine. Appassito tells us that has happened here.

Concentrated and smooth, 2015 Leggermente Appassito (£5.99 and 13.5%) has textured sloe and black cherry fruit with a sweet edge and perfumed touches of cinnamon and eucalyptus.

 Best of the Rest

Make Valentine celebrations even more special

 If your personal Valentine’s Day event is not until this weekend inject a note of luxury into it with an ever reliable rosé champagne which offers tantalising delicacy and extra levels of crispness and energy.

Taittinger Brut Prestige Rosé (widely available but £37.99 at www.drinksupermarket.com seems the best current price and 12.5%) combines a creamy texture with vanilla and brioche infused red cherry and strawberry fruit.

Or a rosé for everyday

For a more everyday pink wine opt for this inexpensive but versatile version from north-eastern Italy – and like the Aldi Appassito – corvina led.

Relish then the ripe plum and floral red currant flavours of 2015 Alpha Zeta Rosato Veronese (£6.25 at The Wine Society and 12.5%) which are skilfully counterbalanced by lively apple and pink grapefruit acidity.