3 hours ago
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Beginnings are important. As a writer, I’m all too aware of this: from the right introduction, the rest tends to flow. The same logic applies to drinks: a good beginning eases proceedings. For this reason, I am unbendingly particular about how I take my morning coffee and, if I’m drinking, what form an evening’s aperitif should take. Life’s too short for bad beverages, after all.
An aperitif is arguably less a specific drink than an appetite-whetting moment with a glass of something. But what? Typically, when it comes to wine, an aperitif will be light and crisp, with any fruit character at the more green or citrussy end of the spectrum. Brioche-y sparkling wine, be that champagne, crémant or something English, and dry sherry such as fino and manzanilla, with their savoury notes, are traditional choices to ready your palate for food.
One of my favourite wine discoveries of the past year or so has been Bodegas Alvear in the Montilla-Moriles region of Andalusia, which produces wines made exclusively with pedro ximénez (PX), a grape famous for producing the darkest, stickiest sherries out there. Its Tres Miradas cuvée in today’s pick is a unique dry white wine made with old vine PX grown in chalky soils; it has a light sherry note thanks to being aged under a layer of natural yeast (flor), but it is both fresh and structured, making for the sort of high-impact aperitif I’m after.
Wines from maritime climates, particularly cooler ones, tend to be a safe bet, too, bringing the salinity and minerality I’m looking for to stimulate appetite. A txakoli from Spain’s Basque region, say, with punchy, citrus-apple notes and a touch of spritz to surprise the palate. Muscadet, made from the melon de bourgogne grape in the westernmost Loire, is another great, unsung white: crisp, affordable and a fine aperitif. Take a road trip along the northern French coast, and you’ll be spoiled for pre-dinner deals on a plate of oysters and a glass of this stuff. It’s often bottled sur lie – that is, with dead yeast cells that give the wine a rounder, almost bready flavour that works particularly well as an aperitif. Ocado has several available, with some for less than a tenner.
There is also a breed of aperitif wine that both readies you for a meal and sees you all the way through it. Muscadet and its southern French cousin picpoul de pinet do this, as do albariño and zesty bourgogne aligoté, which usually has that Burgundian butteriness that can be hard to leave behind. Pale rosé is also a classic aperitif choice, as happy on its own as with a plate of crudites or a bowl of peanuts. The Pink Flamingo rosé in my pick, made in Europe’s largest organic vineyard in the Camargue wetlands west of Marseille, has a coastal freshness that I’d happily enjoy before, during and after a meal. After all, endings are as important as beginnings.
Six wines that work brilliantly as aperitifs
Oliver Dubois Muscadet 2023/4 £10.50 (with “mix six”) Majestic, 12%. A straightforwardly crowd-pleasing muscadet: lean, green and a great price.
Pink Flamingo Organic Camargue Rosé £12.50 Waitrose, 12%. You’ll never want aperitif hour to end, nor does it have to. This peachy-pink, daisy-fresh number is food friendly, too.
Rezabal Txakoli 2025 £13.50 The Wine Society, 11%. Make your aperitif a Basque one with this energetic and petillant txakoli.
Alvear Tres Miradas 2022 £17.50 The Whisky Exchange, ?13%. Green orchard fruit meets almonds and sourdough.
Fortnum’s Muscadet Sur Lie Domaine de la Morinière £12.95, 11.5%. A lovely example of a muscadet aged on the lees. Lemony, saline and richly textured.
Crémant de Loire, Domaine Catherine et Pierre Breton NV £23.40 Sip Wines, 13%. Possibly the perfect crémant, combining 40% red grapes with chenin blanc for a fizz that’s as generous as it’s refreshing.
