The flowers on my vines (pictured last week) are now the smallest berries. It seems the settled spell of weather we have enjoyed has come at the right time. It's been a good vintage so far: no late frosts and good weather during flowering.

Tonight's wine is Portuguese. It's a sample sent to me by viticulturalist David Booth, who works in the Alentejo. The wine is simply labelled 'sexy'. Can a wine be sexy? If you describe a wine as sexy, what do you mean byt it? I sometimes describe wines as seductive, but that's a different thing: what I mean is that the wine has obvious appeal, which I wouldn't necessarily equate with 'sexy'. Is Sexy sexy? Not in my book, but it's a delicious wine with more than a hint of seriousness.

Sexy 2004 Vinho Regional Alentejo, Portugal
From Fita Preta (www.fitapreta.com) Sweet dark fruit (blackberry and blackcurrant) on the nose, with some warm spicy overtones. The palate is smooth, rich, ripe and spicy with soft, full black fruits. It's a ripe, fairly complex wine with some of that old fashioned Alentejo character combined well with a modern, fruity style. Lovely. Very good+ 88/100 (Crop thinning; hand-picked; sponteneous ferment; 20 days post-ferment maceration; 30% aged in new French and Portuguese barrels). Portuguese retail is 7 Euros - at this price, Sexy is very good value.