WINE OF THE WEEK: Toro Loco Superior 2023, Utiel-Requena, Spain

£4.99, Aldi

No one would accuse Toro Loco Superior of being sophisticated, but it is honest-to-goodness red wine of the kind that comes in useful for parties or when you just need a welcoming bottle that you can open (in this case, unscrew) without any ceremony to go with the likes of pizza, sausage and mash or rump steak.

It delivers a mouthful of bouncy fruit – damson, elderberry and cherry – with just the right amount of freshness and light tannin to pull it into shape.

So often, cheap reds cloy after a glass because they've been left with too much residual sugar, but this is refreshingly dry. And it's oak-free. It simply doesn't need oak.

The blend is Tempranillo (60%) with the local Bobal and it's from the high-elevation Utiel-Requena region, inland from Valencia in southeast Spain. 'Superior' is, literally, the designated superior part of the region.

More than 3,000 families are behind the wine, growing and hand-harvesting most of the grapes as part of a community project. History doesn't relate who came up with the name, but 'loco' means crazy and 'bobal' is an old Spanish word for bull head.

It's a wine for casual dining – bean casseroles, burgers, spaghetti with meatballs, chorizo, empanadas, pizzas, etcetera. 12.5%. Empty bottle weight: 430g.

Toro Loco Superior Tempranillo Bobal 2023, Utiel-Requena, Spain

£4.99, Aldi

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