Trio

'Wine comes in at the mouth, And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth, Before we grow old and die. I lift the glass to my mouth, I look at you, and sigh...'

[William Butler Yeats, force behind the Irish Literary Revival]

DOMINO DEL Bendito 'El Titan' '04 is a prowling, brooding, cave black behemoth. With ecclesiastical legs and a trace of blood at the meniscus, fireclay, blueberries with clotted Jersey double cream and warm wood surge forth on the nose. On the palate, a rush of plump berries, peppered venison and grippy tannins mingle lustrously with herbal aromatics [£29.99, The Wine Library]. A show-off, show-stopper in door-stop weight vial. From just 20 organically cultivated acres, this is a most marvellous Tempranillo, know locally as Tinta de Toro (DO Toro).

A more leanient wine is Lacoste-Borie's Pauillac 'oo, the second wine of Château Grand Puy Lacoste, a Fifth Growth sited amidst top terroir. Slightly turbid (hazy), with fat, water-extinguished cigar on the nose and a light berry palate, with some leafiness, this is relaxed rather than stately...

More relaxed still, the latest rendtion of my winemaking friend's Refosco - Cescon Marco from Friuli. Bright red with violent flecks, this happy, deep mattress of a wine evokes lightly peppered strawberries within a shallow coulis reservoir.