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The second Mont Tauch Fitou I’ve tried, and about as different as it is possible to be. If the last was the bottom of the barrel effort made of the ugliest, most gnarled grapes of the area’s least attractive vines, this is closer to the top of the range. It says something about the nature of the range that even this is only £6.99 at Majestic. It’s actually a really fascinating comparison. It’s not a particularly famous name but there are a lot of Fitous on the market here, and a decent percentage of those come from this cooperative. I could spend an entertaining evening tasting my way through their range.

Apparently competition is fierce among the area’s winemakers to see which will have theirs accepted to make each year’s blend of this wine, which takes the best efforts of the best 12 local viniculturalists to make a superior blend of Carignan, Grenache and Syrah. It is a full-bodied, tensely-structured mouthful of wintry-evening joy. It doesn’t astonish in any way, it just tastes like a very good example of what you’re expecting. I got it from Carrefour in France at about £5.30, though the way the pound’s going it would be a bit more than that now (and a bit more still tomorrow)

The other day my father served a varietally-labelled Durif from Australia, which in itself is unusual enough to make me sit up and take notice. It was a lovely wine, and confirmed for me the greatness of this grape. I’d previously had a big, bold, brassy and brilliant EOS Reserve Petite Sirah from the Wine Society (no longer on its list, sadly) – Petite Sirah and Durif are one and the same. Apparently it’s a bit of a bugger to grow in hot areas, because the berries are so big they all squash together on the vine, creating moist dark little grapey hotspots that mould just loves getting into. But it’s certainly worth your while if you can manage it. It’s a shame it’s such an obscure wine: the Wine Society now has no Durif on its list at all, neither does Majestic or Berry Bros, while Oddbins has one Petit Sirah. Surely there’s got to be space on our shelves for a bit more of this stuff?

Well, this is a mystery. I picked this up from Tesco’s in Calais a couple of weeks ago for very little money, and the entire internet appears to know nothing about it. Tesco’s online grocery store, and their wine arm, deny all knowledge. The label provides almost no information, short of mentioning that it was bottled at M44 6BD – A postcode in Manchester, home of Kingsland Wines and Spirits – “the premier independent supplier of wines and spirits in the UK”. The grapes, it says, were grown in the Mendoza region. The reverse label boasts, puzzlingly, that “prime shiraz grapes are selected from the Mendoza region at the foot of the Andes”, so not malbec at all, and says that “the wines are aged on oak” – note the “on”, not an “in” – no expensive French bariques here.

So, is it any good? Acceptable, I’d say. Just drink it and it goes down in a vaguely pleasant, full-bodied, deep dark red way. Swish it about a bit and it reveals aromas of pencil shavings and flavours of dank, mouldy flannels. One to take to a friend’s.

I’ve been a bit quiet of late, which I would be more sorry about if I were writing for anyone but myself, but it’s still not very good. So I’m going to post twice tonight. This isn’t because I’m getting totally bladdered on the sofa – this is another night’s wine. I was quite excited about it at the time, having read a lot about Oregon pinots without experiencing any of them. I got this at Costco, of all places, where it came in a little over £9 – not a cheap wine by any means, but less than most Oregon pinots and worth, I felt, a bit of a punt.

I don’t think it lived up to my expectations. It was certainly pleasant, nicely rounded, with good, mouth-watering acidity, but it didn’t have any spiciness to it. It was extremely easy to drink, but perhaps a little too much so for my tastes. A bit of research revealed that Firesteed are a relatively high-volume producer, having been created with the express purpose of creating cheaper versionsof America’s more expensive styles. When they started making wines they didn’t even have a vineyard, sourcing their grapes from various producers in the area. They now grow some of their own grapes, but this wine comes from the Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue and Walla Walla Valleys of Oregon. A very professional operation, and a very professional product, but I reckon that £9 can be better invested.

I got this from the Wine Society a while ago. It’s no longer on their list, and I’ve no idea who Howard is, but this is anything but a folly. A very fine, full-bodied, jammy evening of wine-based fun very much guaranteed. Portuguese table wines can be rather good – worth a lot more exploration, I think.

So there I was reading a lot of wine blogs, and now here I am writing one. It’s not that I thought they were bad, but none of them were mine. Really, I’m not usually so possessive. So, what do I know about wine? Well, not that much, if truth be told, but I know more today than I did yesterday and with any luck I’ll know a little bit more tomorrow.