Wine of the week: a bracingly dry, complex white

2010 Vouvray Sec Ammonite, Alexandre Monmousseau, Loire (£10.30, £9.28 by the case, Haynes, Hanson & Clark, 020-7584 7927, www.hhandc.co.uk).

I rocked up to the wine merchants HHC the other day for a fabulous wine tasting with the ever-genial Jim Eustace. Loire and Burgundy always form the cornerstones of my tastings with Jim, but he chucked in a few smart Bordeaux and a number of other oddities, too, for good measure. If you are looking to bolster your house claret' selection, why not load up with 2008 Chteau Haut-Colombier, which looked suave and swaggering at only £11.85. A devastating 2010 Falanghina Taburno from Campania was sensational too, and it took me immediately back to the Amalfi coast with its sea spray and stone fruit nuances.

If you are tiring of Kiwi sauvignon blanc, and find sancerre often a little dear, then look to 2010 La Galope from Gascony (£9.15) and discover truly perfect balance. The star of the show was this dry Vouvray. Ammonite is breathtakingly beautiful with whispering floral notes and a heavenly finish. This style of wine is usually off-dry or sweet, and it is so lovely to see a bracingly dry chenin blanc with masses of class and drama in the glass. A modern, pretty, everyday wine with more complexity than seems possible I don't find these very often.

MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.