Tesco’s Finest Montepulciano d’Abruzzo La Francese 2013

13%
€12

Available from Tesco

Light juicy dark cherry and plum fruits with a nice freshness.

A great all-purpose wine, but I imagine this would go very nicely with pizza as well as lighter meat pasta dishes.

I remember meeting Gatene Carron back in the late 1990’s (both she and I were very young then!). She was very glamorous too – a globe-trotting winemaker, fluent in four languages, who had studied in France before working in China, Australia, Oregon and Chile, where she made wine at Concha y Toro. When I met her she was a flying winemaker for UK company Western Wines, who made wine in various parts of the world. She now works for Mondo del Vino, a large Italian producer that supplies many of the importers and multiples in Ireland and the UK. The wines are consistent and reliable with the odd star. This is one of the good ones, named after her, La Francese.