Wine Club

‘If Mueller was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia — is that a red line?’ Trump: ‘I would say yeah. I would say yes. By the way, I would say, I don’t — I don’t — I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody -- and somebody -- from Russia buys a condo, who knows? I don’t make money from Russia. In fact, I put out a letter saying that I don’t make — from one of the most highly respected law firms, accounting firms. I don’t have buildings in Russia. They said I own buildings in Russia. I don’t. They said I made money from Russia. I don’t. It’s not my thing.

Dry January must have heightened my senses. Or maybe I’m simply craving alcohol. Either way, I’m pretty chuffed with this week’s selection, courtesy of FromVineyardsDirect: six classic French wines. It took an age to whittle the wines down to six, largely because I felt compelled to drain every bottle. I’d hate you to think I was shirking my researches. The 2016 Château Bauduc Sauvignon/Sémillon (1) will be familiar to diners at the restaurants of Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay, where it’s the house white. Produced by Gavin and Angela Quinney at their 200-acre estate in the Entre Deux Mers, it’s a blend of 70 per cent Sauvignon Blanc and 30 per cent Sémillon.

Good grief, I’m glad that’s over. Dry January, that is. The worst thing was that for most of it I slept terribly and invariably woke with what can only be described as a hangover: throbbing head, aching eyes and dreadful feelings of remorse for having drunk too much the night before (not to mention for having behaved appallingly and for owing a large number of folk some pretty hearty apologies). It would slowly dawn on me, though, that I had drunk nothing but Badoit and that I hadn’t, after all, been at the Presidents Club bash and that I needn’t reproach myself. I’m now happy as a lark having jumped off the wagon straight into the warm embrace of Messrs Corney & Barrow.

Well, I don’t know about you but I found the recent festivities somewhat challenging. I didn’t draw a sober breath between 8 November and New Year’s Day which, as my wife Marina kindly pointed out, was neither big nor clever. She’s no slouch herself when the corks are popping so for her to call me a lush is a bit rich, but I took her point and hopped meekly on the water wagon on 1 January. As the days of sobriety turned to weeks I began to feel rather smug, especially since so many mates fell by the wayside. One chum lasted all of two days; another barely a week until a bottle of fine Beaujolais undid her; and a third told me that far from drying out he felt obliged to drink for two since his wife had done the giving up for him.

I can’t lie to you, I hate this time of year. I further admit to being a fully paid-up member of the Bah Humbug Brotherhood and a long-time sufferer of Christmas Affected Doom, Depression and Despondency (known to anyone who will listen, such as sympathetic barmen and random strangers in the Dog and Vomit as CADDAD), a ghastly condition that flares up around mid-October and lasts until January. And it only gets worse as one gets older. Sadly, there’s no known cure, although symptoms can be alleviated a little by taking November and December off in the Caribbean or the Maldives, alone, with Netflix, a box of books, some decent grub and a well-stocked minibar.

Christmas is the time for fine claret, whether the grub you plan to gorge on is a juicy rib of beef, a succulent saddle of lamb or the dread festive turkey. And, if you’re canny, there’s no need to break the bank. We’ve put together three keenly priced clarets with our partners Mr Wheeler. Each has unimpeachable credentials, from truly great estates. Drink long and drink deep. The 2014 Vieux Château Saint André (1) from Montagne Saint-Emilion is a complete and utter claret-lover’s delight. Produced from fruit grown on his own six-hectare estate by Jean-Claude Berrouet (who, being the former winemaker at Ch. Pétrus, certainly knows his onions), the wine is almost indecently flirtatious and approachable.

I adore the wines of New Zealand and reckon I could survive on nothing but, if I were ordered to drink the wines of just one country for the rest of my days. Well, I’d need the odd bacon sandwich or plate of oysters in between, but I think you know what I mean. One of the first Kiwi wineries I ever visited was Kumeu River, up near Auckland. Michael Brajkovich, a Master of Wine, makes stunning wines there and his Maté’s Vineyard Chardonnay is one of the finest and most sought-after in the country. To enjoy a bit of Kumeu stardust at a very keen price look no further than the 2015 Kumeu Village Pinot Gris (1). It’s deliciously fresh, floral and creamy and proves beyond doubt that, in the right hands, Pinot Gris is a delectable grape. £10.

It’s the turn of FromVineyardsDirect this week and, just to keep things simple, FVD’s Esme Johnstone and I decided simply to offer readers FVD’s six best-selling wines. FVD’s customers love them, I love them and I trust you’ll love them, too. I even persuaded the normally unpersuadable Esme to knock off 50p here and £1 there just for goodwill’s sake. Anyone looking for a top-quality, champagne-method fizz of real style at a ridiculously cheap price should look no further than the 2013 Cave de Lugny Crémant de Bourgogne Millésime (1). I cannot praise it enough.

Gosh I love Gosset champagne! And having recently been in the enviable but liver-challenging position of researching a book on my favourite fizzes, I remain convinced that this oldest of all Champagne houses (est. 1584) is up there with the very best. Thanks to our partners, Mr. Wheeler, we are able to offer almost the entire Gosset range at the best possible price, including the yet-to-be-released Blanc de Noirs. The Gosset Grande Réserve Brut (1) is a blend of three vintages (2005, 2006 and 2007, I believe) and of three grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, of course). It’s rich, creamy and toasty with ripe and dried red fruit, a keen mineral note and a long, fresh finish. £39.50 down from £49.50.

Esme Johnstone, of FromVineyardsDirect.com, has done it again. He’s managed to snaffle some cracking ‘defrocked’ clarets (and one Sauternes) from some of Bordeaux’s finest estates and is offering them here at remarkably keen prices. These wines are from the same vineyards and same winemaking teams that produce the estates’ fabled grands vins (which sadly I’m unable to name but can give clues to) and boast impeccable pedigrees. I strongly recommend you get stuck in. We’ve offered the 2014 Pauillac (1) before, that first allocation being snapped up by thirsty readers in a trice. No surprise there, given the wine’s provenance, coming as it does from the leading and foremost icon that exists (geddit?).

As readers know, The Spectator is a famously broad church. All manner of opinions are held and expressed here, and it’s impossible to find common ground, be it on Brexit, Trump and May, or even on the relative merits of Marmite and Bovril, say, or how to pronounce ‘controversy’ correctly. No one agrees about anything. What a shock, then, to find total unanimity among thirsty members of Spectator staff who joined me and Laura Taylor from Private Cellar to taste wines for this offer. Never were spittoons so redundant. The following six wines were the favourites. Actually, I lie: there was one dissenting voice about just one of the wines.

I love Picpoul de Pinet; I mean we all do, right? It’s the quintessence of easy, affable drinking and I’ve not met a Picpoul more easy or affable than the 2016 Racine Picpoul de Pinet (1), produced by Bruno Lafon and François Chamboissier, the Burgundian/Bordelais pair behind Diva Sud, a collection of great-value wines from the Rhône, Languedoc and Provence. Their Picpoul is spot on: fresh, lively and light--bodied with excellent acidity, fine concentration of fruit and — hooray! — an easy-access screwcap. Don’t overanalyse it, just bask in its tasty simplicity. £9.75 down from £11.50. The 2015 Domaine Mourchon ‘La Source’ Côtes du Rhône Blanc (2) is an old favourite of mine.

Mas de Daumas Gassac is one of the great estates of the Languedoc. Indeed, it is often referred to as the Languedoc’s Grand Cru or First Growth, and I am just one of many to have fallen under its spell. The estate’s Moulin de Gassac range is famously accessible and shares the same pedigree and winemaking philosophy as that of Mas de Daumas Gassac, and speaks just as resolutely of its terroir. It is also extremely well-priced, particularly so for readers of The Spectator since our partners Mr Wheeler have lopped off up to £1.50 a bottle. Several of these wines aren’t available anywhere else and those that are won’t be so keenly priced. Fill your boots.

Our partners Yapp Bros have just scooped the coveted Wine List of the Year gong at the recent Inter-national Wine Challenge, along with Languedoc Merchant of the Year and Loire Merchant of the Year. In their commendation, the judges said: ‘The Yapp Bros list is concise, beautifully illustrated with great writing and offers much more than a simple list of wines.’ I think it’s fair to say that Jason Yapp is feeling rather chipper.