Rosso di Montalcino, Pertimali 2003

Italian wines offer wonderful value. Not necessarily the most commonly held view, yet one I hold true. Take last nights wine at a dinner party hosted by my cousins. I'd sold them this wine and was thus a little on-the-line as to whether it was going to hold up to a very slow roasted shoulder of pork. It was magnificent. It tips the scales at £15 and for that you get a wine that drew oohs and aahs when each person took the time to have a good long moment with it. There is nothing flashy about Pertimalis Rosso. Grown in the cooler northern part of Brunello it is wine as wine should be. A partner. A cradle. Complex, a conversation piece, full of character. Not in your face, "oh what a card" stuff. Subtle, refined, intrigueing. The sort of person you'd choose to sit on a train for 10 hours with. Evelyn Waugh not Alex Garland.

I suggested David decant it some three or four hours in advance. I'd done a little experiment at work. When we came to sit down there it was, open, but still not fully. Perfect. Gas in the tank. There was something curiously Bordeaux-esq about the nose. Old Bordeaux though, something like 1978 or a 1975. Definitely Medoc. Then the warm tanned leather works its way in followed closely by bramble and hawthorne and you're no longer in France. You are somewhere innately more concerned with texture and earth elements. Finally, at a further swirl, a sense of mocha and dark chocolate fills the glass. See what I mean? This is character. If the nose carries on it's shoulders a vague sense of austerity and the world worn traveller the palate is broad, generous and ripe. There are ample tannins, mouth coating layers of berry fruit and amazingly for such a warm vintage, a freshness of acidity. We are talking man-on-wire balance here. Matched with the salty pucker of slow cooked pork in all it's sweetly saline juices it was tremendous.

Barolo Riserva Voghera Brea, Azelia 2000

This little wine has just shot straight into my top ten bottles of all time. Not least because of who I drank it with. We went to Enoteca Turi in Putney. Smoke became fire. She's quite amazing. Let's hope it lasts and I don't do something stupid.

The Barolo fitted perfectly. Soaringly aromatic from the glass, menthol, sweet cherry, sun warmed strawberries, the rich tang of fresh pipe tobacco and sweet roasted asian spices. The palate was strung with ripe powerful minerally tannins, huge fruit concentration of roasted strawberry, violet, black cherry, with base notes of tobacco pouch and crushed coal dust. It was so profound I could smell it from the glass on the table over my Rabbit.

Morey-St-Denis, En La Rue de Vergy, Bruno Clair 1998

My neighbour took in a case of this wine yesterday, delivered from my reserves. Her fee; a bottle of Scavinos very drinkable Rosso di Tavola 2005 that combines bright black cherry with Piedmontese tannins to create an excellent long saturday shoulder of lamb lunch acompaniment. Ripe and structured and with bundles more fruit than your everyday Rosso di Tavola. Very accomplished.

The burgundy I couldn't resist, cracking a bottle as soon as I got home. Good pinot, with a little age needs little excuse save for a hungry palate and a willing audience. I had one, and soon I had the other as a knock at the door signalled a friend over to collect some frozen mice from my freezer - a remnant of my days snake-sitting.

Morey St Denis always conjures sweet fruit for me. It has the prettiness of chambolle with the depth of a gevrey. And this didn't disappoint. High-toned strawberries, minerals and a whiff of autumn pipe smoke on the nose, and some clearly stated concentration on the palate. Classic Clair this, not an ounce of tomfoolery here just pure pinot Morey fruit. The merest hint of aged pinot creeps in but purely to complement the absolute grace in which this mans burgundy ages. Thoroughly enjoyable, I couldn't help but repeat my mantra that a good bottle should leave two of you wanting just a little more. It should, as it did, put a slight spring in your step and give you the urge to talk and laugh and love. This is not the most profound bottle you'll find. But it does give you all the pleasure that a mid-range burgundy should - it makes you want to have fun and I had to be held back from drinking another bottle. Which my date tomorrow should thank me for.