21 years on and browsing through the selection of wine at a local Morrisons, I noticed a Cypriot wine. I had a block of Halloumi at home waiting to be cooked. Perfect. I grabbed the bottle and gulped when at the till I had to part with a whole £3.99! This was not looking good!
Anyway, I made a lovely salad of cherry tomatoes, chopped-up cucumber chunks, red onion, wild rocket, and baby beetroot topped with slices of the cooked Halloumi. Dinner sorted. Now to try the wine...
It's a pale straw yellow wine, with a light nose which suggested hints of pear and vanilla. So far so good. Time to taste... I tentatively sipped the wine and do you know what? It won't win any awards, but with my salty Halloumi salad, or with a summer barbeque, for £3.99 a bottle - it ain't half bad! A light, clean, crisp wine.
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| Island Wines Dry White Wine and Halloumi salad |
On closer inspection of the bottle, and for those interested, this is a SODAP bottled wine, produced for the Co-operative Group. A 2009 Island Wines Dry White Wine of the Paphos Region, Cyprus. It's a blend of Xynisteri, Ugni Blanc and Muscat and says that it has "delicate floral and citrus fruit aromas, this wine is fresh and fruity with green apple on the palate and a vibrant and crisp finish". I wouldn't necessarily go as far as using the word vibrant, but an honest-enough description What did alarm me though is the list of ingredients!
In addition to the grape varieties mentioned above, the makers have used tartaric acid, the preservative potassium metabisulphate and the wine has been made using oak chips, yeast, bentonite, a milk product - casein, pectinolytic enzymes, and polyvinylpolypyrrolidone!! This looks more like a skin product than a wine! I am a believer that if you can't pronounce an ingredient, you shouldn't consume it, even if some of these ingredients are used to stabilize or refine the wine. I just pray that this isn't typical of all wine making!
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