Wine Tasting Note: Bodegas Añadas CARE Cabernet/Garnacha/Merlot Crianza, 2003, Cariñena, Spain  Add/Read Comments

Living equidistant between the university city and Reading, as I do, Oxford wins every-time. Reading is something of a culinary dessert. True you have Smelly Alley with a couple of grocers, a fish monger and a butcher, a decent deli down by the Church and a Carluccio's hidden away behind the Court buildings but all this pales in comparison with Oxford's Covered Market.

I went there yesterday. Lunch was a tasty, meat-packed pie from the Pie Minister and an urge for something sweet sedated by a slice of freshly baked flapjack from one of the many delis.In the bag went onions and potatoes from the fruit and veg man and a brace of plump partridges (two pence under a fiver) from M Feller, Son and Daughter. What the market lacks though is an independent wine merchant; one of the few remaining Oddbins opposite acted as a handy substitute. I came away with a funkily packaged Spanish red to accompany said partridges.

The birds were cooked as per a recipe from Slater's Kitchen Diaries with Spanish sausage substituting for the Italian he recommended. (Sausage briskly fried in a pot with a little oil, chopped onions added and softened. Partridges browned in the same pot before the addition of 500ml chicken stock, a splash of the red and a bay leaf. Popped into the oven, covered, for half an hour).

They were served with a simple salad of fresh spinach and toasted walnuts plus homemade wholemeal bread to mop up the sauce. Most satisfying.

Doubly delicious when served with the Oddbins red - CARE Cabernet/Garnacha/Merlot.

Wine Tasting Note: Bodegas Añadas CARE Cabernet/Garnacha/Merlot Crianza, 2003, Cariñena, Spain.
Oddbins for £8.49.
First reactions - not very 'Spanish', rather new worldy in style. Soft tannins, smooth, full-bodied, oak hardily evident. Black-fruits and damsons. The blend retains a smidgen Spanishness with the Garnacha component. Tasty indeed and certainly worth the asking price. Alcohol a noticeable 14%.
Scribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]