Wines of the week

Luis Pato Maria Gomes, Bairrada, Portugal 2010 (£8.99, highburyvintners.co.uk ; corksof.com ) Luis Pato has for some time been one of Portugal's best winemakers, a moustachioed maestro who has helped transform the reputation of the sleepy Bairrada region to the north of Coimbra. He specialises in indigenous Portuguese grape varieties such as the wonderfully named Maria Gomes, which here makes for a mellow but fresh white, which is full of apricots and orchard fruit. Bellingham The Bernard Series Roussanne, Paarl, South Africa 2010 (£9.99, Sainsbury's ) Here's a wine that provides yet more proof that the grape varieties of the Rhône are well-suited to some of South Africa's warmer regions. In this example it's roussanne, most commonly encountered in white Rhône blends, that has had a successful relocation to the Cape, in a full-throated, powerful but beguilingly exotic white, with notes of fresh tropical fruit salad. Pinot Noir Edoardo Miroglio, Thracian Valley, Bulgaria (£12.50, swig.co.uk ) In their 1980s heyday, Bulgarian wines, especially cabernet sauvignon, were a cheap supermarket staple, the kind of thing people served at dinner parties to undermine wine snobs' commitment to all things French and expensive. The arrival of first Australian then Chilean wines rather stole the Bulgarians' thunder, but this exceptional pinot noir – bright, earthy, complex, satin-textured and, yes, great value – points to a much brighter future for the country.