A light and fruity sparkler with a languid charm

You may have noticed gaps on the High Street lately. Various off-licences have gone to the wall, and some of them really deserved to die, as they did not really represent value for money or good service. Now an online operation, The Drink Shop, is aiming to fill the gap and offer a diverse range of products you would have found in an excellent off-licence.

I’ve selected a delicious sparkling wine from the same region featured last time: Saumur. The red wines of the area (as you may have discovered) are deliciously light and digestible; precisely the same may be said of their fizz. It is made by just the same method as Champagne, a painstaking process of double fermentation, but with a different blend of grapes. There is 20 percent Chardonnay here, but also a high proportion of Chenin Blanc, the classic white variety of the Loire Valley (try Vouvray to taste it pure and simple). Plus, as in Champagne, there is a generous dash of white wine made from red grapes: Cabernet Franc instead of Pinot Noir.

The result is a delectable, fragrant mouthful with a scent of almond or apple blossom, and a creamy, dry finish. Crémant is a technical term meaning this wine is less fizzy than most sparkling wines, and these languid bubbles just add to its charm. This would be the perfect wine for a family celebration; serve as an aperitif or with fresh wild salmon or river trout cooked in French butter

Langlois Brut, Crémant de Loire, £12.69, www.thedrinkshop.com.

10% off for Risk Collective members

As the no.1 most visited online off licence, The Drinks Shop is the ideal one-stop shop for well known wines and spirits brands, connoisseur spirits, cocktail ingredients and gifts such as champagne and truffles. It offers over 3,000 different items. Many lines are exclusive and not available elsewhere.

Visit www.TheDrinkShop.com and set up your account. Then select your purchases and register this code UK FAB 123456 at the checkout. Or call +44 (0)1843 570571 to order.

The offer is valid for a single transaction per customer/email address, received until 31 March 2010. Offer excludes delivery charges. Not for use combined with any other incentive. Customers must be aged 18 or over.

ROZ COOPER: BIOGRAPHY

Roz began her wine career in California, leading wine tours and tasting wines for a wine warehouse near San Francisco. She then ran her own California wine import business in the UK and subsequently became assistant editor of Decanter magazine, then wrote various books on wine including The Wine Almanac. Since then, she has written wine columns in many publications and edited books and magazines, including The Italian Magazine. She’s passionate about green issues including organic and biodynamic winemaking and also works on a voluntary basis with the Galapagos Conservation Trust.

Tags: Wine of the Week