Wines of the Week: Lamadoro Negroamaro Puglia 2011; Finca Flichman Malbec Reserve 2011; Encanto Mencia 2009

Terry Kirby selects the best bottles to buy

Terry Kirby
Saturday 05 January 2013 20:00 EST
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Sunday lunch

Lamadoro Negroamaro Puglia 2011

The leftovers long gone, the decorations packed away, our pockets are empty and January is chilling. So, here is the first of three sensibly priced and warming reds to help our passage through winter. Unique to the deep south of Italy, the Negroamaro grape makes rich, herbal and deeply savoury reds such as this. Perfect with baked pasta or spicy Italian sausages with polenta chips. £9.99, morrisonscellar.com; £9.95, oldbridgewine.co.uk

Midweek meal

Finca Flichman Malbec Reserve 2011

Similarly rich and full-bodied, but this Mendoza wine is much more complicated than that. Great value at the price and a real treat with a midweek steak or lamb chop, it has a lovely palate freshness and vibrant cherry fruits overlaying a concentrated base of smoky, bitter chocolate-type flavours, making the wine both warming and enlivening at the same time. £8.99, Waitrose

Bargain basement

Encanto Mencia 2009

From the inland Bierzo region of northwestern Spain, where the Mencia grape thrives on the cool hilly vineyards, creating a supple, easy-drinking, all-purpose wine which would be an ideal match for pizza or almost all tomato-based Mediterranean dishes. Fresh, bright, red fruits, but with some aromatic touches and a little oak ageing for some pleasing complexity. £6.99, Sainsbury's

Terry Kirby selects the best bottles to buy

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