Red Fox Wines L'Atzar Brut Reserva Cava - Premium, Spanish Sparkling Cava Wine With Fruity and Citrus Notes - Made From Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel-lo Grapes - 75cl Single Bottle, 11.5% ABV

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The ultimate white for crab, octopus (dressed with olive oil and dusted with paprika) and prawns is albariño from Rías Baixas on Spain’s Atlantic coast. The peachy flavour of the wine brings out the sweet succulence of the shellfish and its subtle salinity plays into the seaside feel. With dishes such as chilli con carne or red meat cooked in a spicy marinade or rub, red wine can be good but choose one that is generously fruity because the chilli will effectively turn down the volume on the fruit and you want to have some left.

For some people, wine is just a drink. For me, it’s as much a part of dinner as whatever is on my plate. And just as a cook might say, “this is good with French beans or a green salad”, or think about how the different parts of a meal might sit together to satisfy the appetite, I think about the place of the wine, its taste and perfume, on the table. Cava is one of the most underrated sparkling wines, and is a great alternative to prosecco. It’s known for its admirable freshness and being incredibly drinkable, making it the perfect accompaniment for a range of occasions. This is partly a mood thing. It’s also about the fact that what you’re eating has the power to change the perception of the wine you are drinking. For instance, salty food makes a wine taste less refreshing, a big steak seems to soften the tannins in a red wine, and so on. The Gran Campo Viejo Cava Brut Reserva is a fresh, well balanced and elegant sparkling Spanish wine. It has fine and powerful aromas of fruit, with a round and pleasant palate.Basil has a slightly anise-like smell and contains the aroma compound linalool, which is also found in lemon peel. If you’re eating basil in pesto or putting a lot of it in a tomato salad then try wines made from the cortese grape (used to make Gavi) which tastes a bit like lemon pith and bay and seems to go very well. Spicy food Matching every course with a wine can feel fussy, detracting from the fun rather than adding to it. I make an exception if lunch or dinner is simply a main then a pudding, when a dessert plus a good wine turns it into an event. A few good combinations: strawberries and moscato d’Asti; orange salad and cream sherry; tarte Tatin and sweet riesling or Coteaux du Layon (sweet wine made in the Loire from chenin blanc). Basil

Rosé, lighter reds, refreshing whites and easy-drinking sparkling wines (like prosecco and cava) are always popular on picnics. And don’t assume that wine needs to come in a bottle. Wine in cans is now very good – even the Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks now has his own range. Grillo is a Sicilian grape, a natural crossing of cataratto and zibbibo. This one is glossily viscous and tastes of yellow peaches with a faint tropicality (like mango) and floral notes. I love it with pasta con sarde, the pasta dish that is ubiquitous on Sicily. Somehow, it just goes with the wonderful Arabic-European blend of fragrance and fruitiness of the olive oil, pine nuts, raisins, sardines and fennel fronds.Not forgetting mountain. Dominating the cava towns is Montserrat, a craggy outcrop of pink conglomerate. It’s worth planning a visit to the Benedictine monastery, Santa Maria de Montserrat, to coincide with a performance by the famed Escolania boys’ choir, usually at 1pm in the basilica. Organic producer Llopart offers lovely mountain views. There are two ways to go here. You can look for reds that have generous fruitiness, such as Portuguese reds, southern Rhône blends, Australian cabernet-shiraz blends and also reds from South Africa: Cape blends (which contain some pinotage), Rhône-style blends or Bordeaux-style blends. This Cava offers a lot of heart for the value. Whereas prosecco is known to keep it fruity appeal because it is made in large steel tanks, Cava is a traditionally made fizz. It is made using the same method as Champagne: after the initial ferment in a stainless steel tank, the dry wine is then bottled for the second ferment which captures the bubbles in that bottle, giving you a more complex wine with finer bubbles. Mind you, these bubbles make me think of sitting on a beach with an impromptu picnic and watching the world go by. However, I am sure that you can come up with your own ideas. Of course, you can cook anything on a barbecue but this is predominantly the territory of meats, spicy rubs and relishes, and a certain smoky, charry taste that can destroy a delicate old wine. Barbecues also tend to be eaten outside with a riot of different side dishes and a lot of chatter, so any wine you open had better be able to compete with that.

Richard Bampfield, Master of Wine at Lidl said: Richard Bampfield, Master of Wine at Lidl said: “Dry, with bright, citrus aromas and attractive creaminess on the palate, the Cava Brut really is a high quality fizz at this special price point. A refreshing, tasty reminder that Cava often outperforms its big rival, Prosecco.” You could finish dinner with a chunk of Parmesan cheese and keep on with the Valpol which will go really well with that too. Domaine des Valanges Saint-Véran 2020In the same way it can work with other salty, fatty foods such as cured hams, fried chorizo or salty, hard cheeses like aged pecorino. Cava also works well with asparagus risotto and with Spanish rice with artichokes and tomatoes. The L’Atzar Reserva has had 15 months in that second ferment phase, resting on dead yeast to give a bready character to the soft mineral talc, floral and pear and lemon fruit. It is dry and those flavours last around for a long moment making this cava a versatile choice. Me … it makes me think of sitting on a beach with an impromptu picnic and watching the world go by. However, I am sure that you can come up with your own ideas.

Pinot noir is so often a possible answer to the “what shall I drink with this?” question. It is very good with the earthy flavour of mushrooms – think garlic mushrooms on toast; mushroom risotto; monkfish with ceps and artichokes; macaroni cheese layered with mushrooms. Rioja is really good with both pork and lamb. For the pork, think pulled pork or meltingly soft, slow-cooked pork shoulder (you could serve this with a date and almond couscous); lamb could be a classic roast leg of lamb studded with rosemary and garlic or a slow-cooked joint. And just as, in food, there are happy marriages such as strawberries and cream or Yorkshire Puddings and beef gravy so, too, there are combinations of food and wine that go particularly well together. Of course it’s also a great wine to drink with tapas; there’s an affinity with almost every dish from pan y tomate to fried prawns with garlic. Quinta do Noval 10 Year Old Tawny NV

The palate is refreshing, the sparkle balancing the green and citrus fruits. It is light but long and elegant. What I find fascinating now is how cava is escaping from decades of torpor. Gone are the years when cava was the cheaper default from Champagne. Prosecco holds that prize now. Thankfully, many producers are now looking to compete on quality, since they cannot compete on price. For some, that means reducing yields in the vineyards, aiming to get the best out of the local varieties, and giving the wines longer than the minimum bottle age. Rioja goes really well with the paprika-spice of chorizo, and you could also serve it with almost any dish in which chorizo is a strong flavour, for instance: cod with butter beans in a chorizo and tomato sauce; squid, chorizo and red pepper stew; or just chorizo sausages cooked in red wine and served with chunks of fresh bread.