A PROPER Italian job for you this week. I stumbled upon this cracker from Western Sicily at Booths in Windermere.

The wine in question is the Gorilla Syrah 2011, which comes under the portfolio of Crush Wines: a forward-thinking company who scour the globe for new and exciting wines and work with passionate winemakers and growers alike. This syrah is no exception and the company make a variety of different wines under the Gorilla label from Sicily. Why Gorilla? Well, they make a contribution from the sales of these wines to the Save the Gorilla Fund.

So now for the wine and the grape variety Syrah. With its heartland in Northern Rhône (France), it has found a home in Sicily and this has produced a wine of fine character. The wine shows plum-like colour and is followed with a nose of ripe red berry fruit which leads to a warm and generous feel in the mouth of spice, black pepper, blackberries and velvety tannins, this is then finished with a lingering length. With Christmas fast approaching this is a fine red for the turkey or beef and a lot less than a top end Hermitage or Australian Shiraz. Available from Booths and at £6.49 a real steal.

  • Graeme Hedley is sommelier and expert on food and wine at Kendal College’s Lakes Hotel School