Wine Club

We’ve a really strong selection this week from Tanners of Shrewsbury. In fact, I was so impressed that it took a heck of a lot of swilling, swirling and spitting (well, not so much of the latter to be honest) to whittle the wines down to six. Tanners’ Robert Boutflower even put up a deliciously tasty South African Pinotage, and that’s not a phrase I’m used to typing. Pinotage, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, is a grape with which I’ve always struggled, but this example (from Doran Vineyards, since you ask) had none of those characteristic burnt-rubber notes; it was just joyously juicy and very drinkable. Anyway, it didn’t quite make the cut but is on the Tanners list if you’re interested.

One of FromVineyardsDirect’s finest ruses has been to obtain, quietly and discreetly, small amounts of surplus production from the most celebrated châteaux in all Bordeaux (and I mean the most celebrated) and to sell the wine on under their own labels at extremely reasonable prices. These ‘declassified’ wines (as they like to call them) are made from estate fruit with exactly the same care and attention that goes into the properties’ grands vins by the same winemaking teams. Understandably, FVD would rather I didn’t say exactly which estates they are, although you might find some clues below...

We’re with my alma mater Berry Bros & Rudd this week featuring some of their excellent own selection wines. I was quite bowled over by their quality, as indeed I was by the generosity of wine director Mark Pardoe’s discounts. In fact I strongly recommend you start your festive stockpiling right here, right now. Why wait until the week before Christmas to buy Berrys’ scrumptious own selection red burgundy for £16.50 when you can buy it from this page right now for £13.95? Not all fine fizz comes from Champagne. Nope, some of it still comes from where it all started: Limoux in southern France where, in 1531, the monks of Saint Hilaire Abbey are believed to have created the first sparkling wine. The Berry Bros.

We’re not due a Wine Club offering in the magazine until next week, but so good were the wines that I tasted recently with-FromVineyardsDirect .com that we just had to include them so that readers might join in the fun. It’s an entirely French line-up, ideal for autumn. And despite the plunging pound and the fact that the wines were very decently priced in the first place, we even squeezed a bit of a discount out of Esme Johnstone and his gang, for which we’re very grateful. The 2014 Clotilde Davenne Sauvignon de Saint Bris (1) is a delightful curiosity, a Sauvignon Blanc from Burgundy in what is really Chardonnay country.

We have six real treats this week: three from Italy and three from Spain. I would have been happy with almost any of the wines that Private Cellar’s Laura Taylor put up and those that didn’t make my final six only just missed out by inches. And, in the face of a plunging pound, Laura has done her very best with the discounts. Thanks, Laura — every little helps! I simply cannot remember when I last drank — let along bought — any Soave. In the late 1970s, Soave was a staple in every wine bar along with Muscadet, Beaujolais Nouveau and those raffia-covered Chianti flasks. It was OK, but dull, dull, dull. Not sure I’ve had any since. I therefore had the lowest of low expectations when the 2015 Soave Gregoris, Antonio Fattori (1) was thrust under my beak.

Although many wine merchants are tightening their post-Brexit belts and rationalising their cellars, Yapp Bros have thrown their net ever wider. They might be the 2016 International Wine Challenge Loire Specialist of the Year and ditto for the Rhône, but Yapps have recently been fishing outside their traditional waters, making first-time forays deeper into France and into Germany and Spain. Wise old truffle-hound that he is, Jason Yapp’s touch clearly hasn’t deserted him and we at The Spectator are the beneficiaries. All the wines below are completely new both to Yapp Bros and The Spectator and each and every one is a delight. And to tempt us even further, Jason has generously lopped a quid off every bottle.

We’ve something a bit different this week: six wines not only from the same region (Burgundy) but also the same producer (Maison Louis Latour). The Wine Company’s Mark Cronshaw presented such a fine selection of Latour’s wines that they were impossible to resist, especially after we’d cornered him to demand some pretty punchy discounts. Maison Louis Latour is one of the great names of Burgundy, family-owned since 1797 and currently in the hands of 11th---generation Louis-Fabrice Latour. The company boasts a vast range of wines and it wasn’t easy whittling them down to the following three Chardonnays and three Pinot Noirs. I’m confident, though, that we have a fine selection.

After three and a quarter centuries in the business, Berry Bros. & Rudd is certainly trad, but it’s also reassuringly innovative. So it is that we have here a classic claret but also a Chardonnay from a part of France that doesn’t grow it, a blended single varietal from Chile (don’t worry, all is explained below) and a wine from Greece which is all but extinct. Best of all, Berrys’ buying director, Mark Pardoe MW, has knocked up to 26 per cent off the list price. Hooray! The 2013 Domaine de Lansac ‘Les Quatres Reines’ (1) is a deliciously uncomplicated, unblended, unoaked Chardonnay from the tiny region of Les Alpilles in the Languedoc. Night-time picking and low fermentation temperatures allow the fresh fruitiness to shine.

Summer’s taking its leave and we have a fine Gallic half-dozen from Corney & Barrow with which to enjoy the last of the sun. And to cheer us up, we have a double discount on offer, the initial price-lopping enhanced by the fabled Brett-Smith Indulgence, in which a further £6 is knocked off a case if you buy two dozen bottles or more. We start with the 2015 Corney & Barrow Blanc (1), the most recent vintage of the merchant’s bestselling white wine, beloved of Spectator readers. Produced by Producteurs Plaimont in Gascony, in close cahoots with Corney & Barrow’s buyers, it’s a lemon-fresh, zesty and exuberant blend of Colombard and Ugni Blanc given a touch of extra weight thanks to a short period on the lees.

A tasty selection this week courtesy of FromVineyardsDirect.com, the masters at snuffling out tucked-away treasures for bargain prices. FVD’s founders, Esme Johnstone and David Campbell, have impeccable contacts and seem to know everyone who matters in the regions that matter. As a result, they nab tiny parcels of this and that from both well-established and up-and-coming producers and we, dear reader, are the-beneficiaries. First, the 2015 Esterházy Estoras Grüner Veltliner (1) from Burgenland in Austria. I once spent a lot of time in Austria and have always loved its signature grape. When in the right hands, as here, GV somehow manages to combine the lusciousness of Pinot Gris, the bouquet of Riesling and the acidity of Sauvignon Blanc.

We’ve some wonderful summery wines this week, each one from France. Not deliberately so: it’s just that these six wines — from Alsace, Loire, Bordeaux and beyond — were easily the best in our tasting. And I reckon they show that France on song is pretty much unbeatable and (thanks here, I admit, to some very generous discounts) great value. First, the 2015 Sauvignon de Touraine, Domaine Bellevue (1), a lemon-fresh, really rather tropical Sauvignon Blanc produced but a stone’s throw from the dreamiest of all Loire Valley châteaux: Chenonceau. Patrick Vauvy is the fourth generation of his family to make wine in Noyers-sur-Cher and his wines are noted for their elegance and exuberance.

We at The Spectator drink a lot of Pol Roger Champagne. It’s more or less the house pour. Not every day you understand, just on high days and holidays such as the Spectator summer party, from which more than a few of us are still recovering. And I must say that when standing like a vertical sardine in the crush of said party, stuck fast between a resolute Remainer and a wild-eyed Brexiteer, both about to kick off, there is nothing more heartening than the sight of the familiar white-foil bottle. A tap on the waiter’s shoulder, a pirouette-like turn, a swift gulp and I was away, free to muscle in on the gossip behind me about what happened at that Boris barbecue.

Much has been written about the tip-top quality of the 2015 clarets, the en primeur campaign of which is in full swing, and there are indeed some absolute belters to be had, but at a price. And while a fine vintage in one region rarely guarantees a fine vintage in another, 2015 was a glorious exception with spectacular wines made across France not only in Bordeaux but also in Burgundy, the Rhône, Alsace, the Languedoc and beyond, in red, white and rosé. This selection from Yapp Bros offers an excellent opportunity to discover just how good 2015 was throughout France. Indeed, so chuffed with the wines is Jason Yapp, and so keen that readers try them, that he has generously snipped a quid off every bottle.

The Languedoc is home to some cracking wines at the moment. And really great value ones too, especially compared to the all-too-often-overpriced wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhône. Domaine de la Jasse is one of the region’s leading estates and when we offered some 2012 Domaine de la Jasse ‘Black Label’ Tête de Cuvée Rouge last year it fair flew out the door, so tasty and – importantly – so tastily priced was it. This time we’ve gone one better, well, actually two better, with not only the most recent vintage of the Tête de Cuvée Rouge but the current white and rosé too.

I never drink before noon or 7 p.m., but find myself ever more often glancing at the sundial and licking my lips as the appointed hours approach. Thereafter at least a bottle of wine a day goes down the pipeline, which distresses government health advisers but gives boundless pleasure to me. It is hard to detach expectations from knowledge of price. On that basis, grand vintages often disappoint: to us barbarians, no liquid can really be worth, say, £400 a bottle. Some generous hosts recently produced for us such masterpieces as Lafite and Pétrus ’82, both of which felt as if they would have been more impressive a few years back. Some very old Haut Brion seemed positively nasty.

The following wines from Private Cellar are all about summer, chosen with long lunches on the lawn, picnics by the river and crafty evening drinks in mind. I reckon they hit just the right note. And because I’m so wretchedly indecisive I’ve snuck a seventh wine in too. First, the 2015 Finca Salazar Sauvignon Blanc (1) from the family-owned Bodegas Pinuaga in Castilla La Mancha, Spain. Aged over the lees for several months, it’s fresh, vibrant and juicy with tropical melon, papaya and citrus. And it’s organic to boot. Only 1,600 cases were produced and Private Cellar snapped up as much as they could with The Spectator especially in mind. Indeed, these pages are currently the only place in the UK where you can buy it (and its sister red below). £7.

I reckon Robert Boutflower of Tanners has the measure of The Spectator. He knows exactly what tickles our fancy. He put up a dozen wines for our tasting, any one of which I’d be delighted to recommend to readers. Price was ultimately the deciding factor, though, and — hooray! — we nailed the mixed case for a cheering, knockdown £108. Yes, yes, I know there’s no longer an R in the month and we’re not to eat oysters until September, but I’m still jolly well going to recommend the 2014 Domaine Fief de la Brie Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie (1).

There is rosé and there is rosé. By which I mean there is the ghastly, teeth-rattling, vinous bubblegum that is Blossom Hill White (actually pink) Zinfandel from California, which you can pick up in Tesco for a fiver a bottle (plus £3.69 for the subsequent essential Alka-Seltzer), and there is the subtle, herbal, spicy, salmon pink Single Blend from Sacha Lichine’s Château d’Esclans estate in Provence, which you can nab for £9.45 a bottle with this offer. I know which I prefer.