Waitrose, Loved & Found Fernão Pires, Western Cape, South Africa, 2021

The Waitrose Loved & Found range is perfect for adventurous wine drinkers who are keen to make new discoveries but on a limited budget. This new addition to the range certainly delivers on the obscurity front. Fernão Pires is a Portuguese grape, here transported to South Africa's Breede River Valley, with drought-resistant and dry-farmed vines planted in 1987. Crisp and satisfying, this has seen whole-bunch pressing, a little skin contact, and lees stirring with batonnage. It's an exuberantly aromatic grape, reminiscent of a Sauvignon Blanc in some ways, with tangy, snow pea, citrussy and pineapple juiciness.