It's time to move on to my favourite wines. The first time I tried a Chapoutier Cotes du Rhone was at Xmas when my parents were over and we had the Cotes du Rhone available from Waitrose. I was amazed how well it went with the Xmas food. Today I am drinking up the rest of the Cotes du Rhone Villages "Rasteau" from the same producer. This is slightly more expensive (8.99 at Oddbins) than the normal Cotes du Rhones, but is absolutely amazing. I got it for around 7 pounds at Taste of London. The first thing that struck me when I poured the wine was the colour. It is indeed a very nice deep red colour. The wine has very nice ripe plummy kind of taste almost like the Chateauneuf du Pape. It is definitely one of my favourite mid-range-priced wines. It smells nice and goes very well with a nice rustic dinner. If you are interested, tonight I made pork chops with new potatoes and string beans and peas. Not the best match maybe as I think a steak or lamb chops would have been better, but anyway. This wine I can only recommend and it is also nice to drink on its own. Rasteau, by the way, is a very up and coming village of the southern Rhone valley. I am sure that in a couple of years it will have reached Vacqueyras/Gigondas status. It is already similarly priced.