麻豆社

Bordeaux is the kind of wine that every now and again it's nice to have. Not a wine that one associates with value for money, usually, as this region is responsible for some of the most expensive and, to be fair, overpriced wines in the world. You have to look very hard for a real bargain in the high street. Mutton is one of the classic pairings with red wine from Bordeaux - lamb or mutton has a way of softening the tannins in wine and takes the dryness and anger out of the more youthful powerful wines. If you can find an elegant, complex wine for around a tenner, you have the wine 'holy grail'.

Joe and Tom with Raymond

This is a red wine in a Brioni dinner jacket for bargain basement money, my friends!

Joe Wadsack

Tom’s crumbed mutton chops, turnip gratin and cabbage.

1. Château les Arqueys 2008 Bordeaux (£7.95 www.leandsandeman.co.uk)

This is amazing for the money, and by the time this show airs, you might even be lucky enough to get the incoming 2010 vintage, which is even more succulent and suave. This is a red wine in a Brioni dinner jacket for bargain basement money, my friends!

2. Bois Pertuis Bordeaux 2011 (£9 ASDA)

This is modern budget Bordeaux that always delivers uncomplicated, ripe and silky fruit, with a modern layer of oaky vanilla spice. The stew will help to temper the youthful dryness of this cracking little wine. Bang on match.

3. Taste the Difference St. Emilion 2011 (£10 J Sainsbury)

Now there simply aren’t many Bordeaux wines that you can just walk in to the high street and buy; certainly not for a tenner or less. This is largely to do with the lack of availability of the really decent ones. They don’t make much so big supermarkets can’t sell them. This is a shining exception. I have been using this quite a lot in my house to entertain. I put it in a decanter first, obviously, and then tell them where it’s from. I have unseated quite a few snobs with this chap. If you like Merlot, this is the best one around at the moment for me.

Raymond’s baked apples with semolina soufflé

To go with Raymond’s impossibly classy apple soufflé, I have tried to think outside the box. Here are three really decent English ciders of varying poshness. What could be better?

1. Merrydown medium cider (£1.90 ASDA)

How retro can you get?! A can of Merrydown. I used to drink this with my girlfriend at uni. Everybody did. What separates it from other ordinary looking ciders on the supermarket shelf is that it has always been made from English ‘eating’ apples. It has a direct, uncomplicated apple-packed crispness. I much prefer it to the usual big bottled cider brands that are served over ice. They have a huge amount of sugar in them, but not much flavour. Merrydown suprisingly is made from almost twice as many apples per litre and half the added sugar. Far fewer calories, and good with curry too.

2. Orchard Pig Charmer medium sparkling cider (£1.99 for 500ml Waitrose)

This is how I always imagine I want my Somerset cider to taste. Warm autumnal aromas of russet apples and a hint of clean earthy compost (Yeah, I know. I know). At 6.5% abv, the flavours are ripe, round and malty, sort of like an apple Chardonnay with a bright, fresh, tingling acidity. Complex and very well balanced.

3. Barn Owl Farm pressed medium cider (specialist beer and cider retailers) £2.30 for 500ml

I drank this on the train to London back from the Brogdale fruit collection in Faversham in Kent. Brogdale is a majestic collection of virtually every variety of garden fruit ever grown in Britain. They have an almost equally impressive selection of craft ciders and local beers in their shop. This is magnificent cider. One of the finest that I have ever tasted. It has a beguiling scent of sea air, fresh cox’s apple and dewy grass (I know, right?!) The flavour is on the dry side of medium with a steely, pure, vivid flavour of apples and calvados. You can almost imagine the tannic skin and pithy, crunchy pulp in your mouth. It’s brilliant. These guys have been at it for a hundred years, and it shows. The world must know about Perry’s Cider Farm!

*Please note that the retailers and prices listed were last updated on 22nd December 2014, and these drinks may also be available at different retailers.