Wine of the week: electrify your palate with this Txakoli

published 9 August 2019

2018 Flysch, Bodega Gorosti, Getariako Txakolina, Spain£14.95, Berry Bros & Rudd, bbr.com

Last week I featured the ultimate English aperitif white wine (if you missed it, you can read it here). This week, I have searched for an equally thirst-quenching style of white wine from the rest of the world. If you have yet to experience the palate-electrifying flavour of a Txakoli then you haven't lived or rather your palate is still in snooze mode.

With only 11% alcohol and a water-white colour, this style of wine is the Basque country's gift to the world. Traditionally, you would pour this wine, ice cold, from a great height (at least 50cm) into a glass and watch the microscopic bubbles, coming from the dissolved carbon dioxide, fizzle as it settles. Don't waste a moment and then slake your thirst your eyes will pop out of your head.

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This is the starting-gun wine for a great seafood feast. It is the time-honoured aperitif in every Spanish three-star Michelin haunt. The hondarrabi zuri grape is certainly an oddball, but it has magical qualities and, like top-flight Muscadet (a very rare beast but one worth hunting down), it has a wet pebble/sea spray freshness that few wines can manage.

Flysch is the finest version of this gripping style of wine I have ever tasted in the United Kingdom. It is a small price to pay for a white-knuckle, white-wine experience. I am certain that you will enjoy the ride.

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

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. 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, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

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.