London International Wine Fair

Most of the world’s wine trade descend on the event, held at the Excel centre in Docklands.

Having attended for five years, I had resolved not to go again. Then I started receiving invites, which involved lunch, and after studying the programme more closely, I discovered a couple of interesting-looking seminars.

Lunch on day one followed a vertical tasting of Champagne house Perrier-Jouët’s cuvée Belle Epoque including the 2002, 1996 (Jeroboam) and 1995 (Jeroboam).

For reference, I reckon the 95 is drinking brilliantly now, the 96 is yet to peak and the 2002 is very promising.

I wasn’t expecting a tasting of Chilean chardonnay that afternoon to be the highlight of my visit, but in a way it was. There are some exciting wines coming from the Limari Valley, which will feature in a forthcoming Tipping’s Tipples.

My lunch date the following day was with McGuigan’s chief winemaker, Neil McGuigan, who was named White Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge last autumn.

Neil opened up proceedings here with a 2010 Semillon Blanc, which is not a blend but a single varietal semillon aimed at sauvignon blanc drinkers and hence the name. “It’s made from semillon and it’s white,” said McGuigan with a big Aussie grin.

This wine, which is almost off-dry, left me a little nonplussed, but there were some excellent wines with lunch, including the powerful McGuigan “Hand Made” Shiraz 2006, Langhorne Creek, which cuts the mustard at £22 from Majestic Finewine.

But it was the popular LIWF Top 100 tasting that has yielded the recommendations this week, starting with a modern-tasting, smooth Italian red, Alpha Zeta R Valpolicella Ripasso 2008. It has vivid flavours of burnt cherry, dark chocolate notes and toasty oak.

South Africa’s signature grape pinotage may not be everyone’s first choice, but Flagstone Writer’s Block Pinotage 2008 is top stuff.

Superbly made and well balanced, it delivers concentrated black fruit flavours, spiced with wax polish, smoke and black treacle.

Lastly, an organic wine from the Marlborough region of New Zealand that is more subtle and quite different in style to the usual.

Rock Ferry Sauvignon Blanc 2009, unusually for the grape and region, is fermented in oak not stainless steel. The wine is as bright as a button and alive with tropical fruit, melon, gooseberry and minerality.

• Alpha Zeta R Valpolicella Ripasso 2008, £10.99 at Latitude Wine (Leeds) 18/20.
• Flagstone Writer’s Block Pinotage 2008, £14.99 from The Wine Circle (winecircle.co.uk) 18/20.
• Rock Ferry Sauvignon Blanc 2009, £10.99 from Vintage Roots (vintageroots.co.uk) 19/20.