Is there anything more mouth-watering than bittersweet citrus in wine?

From Louis Roederor to Cape Cabernet Franc, I am really enjoying the acidity and bitter notes in my wine. Which one of you is experiencing the same?

My wife loves citrus. Lemons, pithy and sweet, squeezed into honey and ginger tea, or soaked in a lemon drizzle cake. A salty soy ramen with soba noodles finished with a squeeze of lime. Easy peelers – but only when they’re properly ripe. Citrussy gins, served with lemonade.

On the other hand, I haven’t got the citrus bug in quite the same way. In fact, my love for acidity comes through the wines I drink (I think every wine person has a Riesling phase). In that sense it is less about lemons and limes for me, but a more phenolic, bitter style of citrus. It’s the pithiness of a lemon I like, or the bitterness of a grapefruit. It’s the way a blood orange makes you pucker. I think I went all in on higher acidity about the same time I started to indulge in Negronis, Manhattans and Aperol spritz. Acid, for me, came alongside a change in my palate for bitterness.

As well as wine, I found myself moving from black Americano to filter coffee. While I still enjoy a deep, chocolatey roast in my coffee, I’m mostly interested now when my coffee is fruity with some sort of acidity and bite. Full bodied, oaked red wines and darkly roasted black coffees have become comfort blankets – more about their nostalgia than their interest.

I think this is partly why I always find the What’s your favourite wine? question quite challenging. My tastes change dramatically as I get older, but also week to week. It honestly does depend on what I’m eating, who I’m with and/or the mood I’m in. I can’t really say what wine I’d be excited to choose except in the moment I’m choosing it. But what I can pinpoint are trends in my taste; time spans in my life where I’ve opened myself up to a particular style or flavour of wine that I might not have picked before.

I’ve read a matcha tea guy on LinkedIn repeatedly inform his audience that as you get older, tasting becomes harder – and arguably we all reach an age where we have so few tastebuds versus our younger selves that we really have no right to say what is or isn’t tasty. Maybe it’s like brain paths – the more you exercise one, the more it solidifies, perhaps at the expense of another. I wonder if varying your tastes actively and inviting curiousity means those buds live a little longer? I’ll have to look into it.

For now, if you’re also going through the moment in wine where you feel like a glutton for acidity (happily sipping Mosel Rieslings at room temperature without squirming) or you drink black coffee and don’t mind your Manhattans dry, then let me tell you about a few bottles of wine I think you’ll like (and maybe you can share some of your recommendations with me).

One of my favourite reds recently has been the 2022 Morgenster Cabernet Franc (£22, Great Wine Co). That crunchy, dried cranberry fruit and red plum character has so much volume that you can almost chew it, and yet its tannins are soft and subtle. It has a wonderful smoky, green bell pepper aroma. It’s a really good example of Cab Franc and its wines like these that remind me I really ought to drink more South African wine (I am still recovering from years of terrible Pinotage and I know there’s so much good stuff I should be exploring).

Terradora Greco di Tufo (£17.25, Waitrose) is a bit of a nostalgic white wine choice for me. I used to like the honeyed note of Greco when I first tried this wine a decade ago when I worked part time at Waitrose. I remembered its savoury honey character and grippiness, so I thought I’d give it another go. I wasn’t disappointed. Those phenolic, textural elements I remembered are all still there and ripe peachy tones are balanced nicely with herby flavours. It’s one of those wines I like that can warm up at the table with you and it’ll morph into a new wine each course. Another great example from Waitrose, this time red, is the Bersano San Pietro Realto Ruchè (£16.25, Waitrose). Although this Piedmont red really comes into its own on the second day, so have a small glass the day before or decant it a good hour or so before you drink it. Expect black cherries, great acidity and cedar-like smoked tannins.

I’ve found that alongside my love for bittersweet acidity I’ve become much more of a sparkling fan than I have ever been previously. The zing of a great fizz, especially when paired with some toasted, nutty like maturity and apple skin phenolics, can be so refreshing.

So if you’ve got a similar taste going on, my favourite of the Champagne grand marques is Louis Roederer. You don’t need to buy Cristal. In fact, pound for pound, Louis Roederer The Collection 245 Champagne (£59.00, Berry Bros & Rudd) is top value and drinking so well. Having explored some of the other grand marquees recently, this really is a cut above.

It does feel a bit odd to pick out a Champagne and not mention an English sparkling though. I think because English fizz is so good and the trade needs us to keep celebrating it if it’s to keep on thriving. Two of my all-time favourites are Wiltshire’s Bluestone Premier Cuvée 2019 (£45.00, Bluestone) and Hampshire’s Raimes Classic 2020 (£34.00, Raimes). The Bluestone is a weightier expression and has long lees ageing. Raimes has a lean, acidic backbone and delightful apple fruit flavours. Both, unsurprisingly, are mostly made up of my favourite fizz grape: Chardonnay.

If you’re after some more white wines with this kind of profile, try more Hungarian Furmint, Austrian Gruenr Veltliner, or most Italian white wines are a safe bet. I give you a nod as to why Italian white in my recent substack about their Sauvignon Blancs – the wines seem to naturally balance riper fruit with a bittersweet “yellow” note. Have fun exploring!