Jonathan Ray

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.

So, that’s it then. Summer, I mean. It pushed off without ever having really arrived. There were some bizarrely scorching days in between the chill and the showers, it’s true, but I’ve barely worn my shorts, haven’t swum in the sea, only managed one day at the cricket and the lawn outside is as green as I’ve ever seen it at this time of year. Sigh. These wines have been selected by FromVineyardsDirect.com with autumn in mind, albeit with the vain hope of an Indian summer. If it’s hot, chill the Languedoc Pinot Noir; if it ain’t, then relish its earthy autumnal qualities at room temp. To the vino. I have always loved the white wines of the Rhône.

Wine merchants Mr Wheeler are in the midst of a vast sale as they amend their list and move on to more recent vintages. I’m delighted to say that we are the lucky beneficiaries, for there are heart-warming discounts on some seriously tasty vino. There are well over 100 wines in the sale and the following six are my pick of the pops. They are likely to sell out fast, though, so I urge you to fill your boots at the earliest opportunity. If you’d like to see what else is in the sale, visit mrwheelerwine.com. First, the extremely toothsome 2015 Terredirai Prosecco Extra Dry (1). If you’ll pardon the pun, the Prosecco bubble shows no sign of bursting and, although there’s a lot of dross out there, the best examples just get better and better.

Having just finished researching a book on champagne and sparkling wine (out in October since you ask), I’ve been awash with fizz. There must have been 150 bottles cluttering my office at one point — I couldn’t even reach the telly to watch the cricket. I began to get the sweats whenever I heard a cork pop and for a nasty moment thought I’d never be able to stare a bottle of bubbles in the face again. Happily, thanks in part to the scrumptious Le Colture Rosé Vino Spumante Brut NV (1) which arrived from Corney & Barrow just as I was about to panic, I’m now firmly on the mend. It’s irresistible.

Mark Harvey, Chapel Down’s managing director of wines, was in great form last week at our Spectator Winemaker’s Lunch, held as usual in our boardroom. And I must add that Mark’s wines were in equally tiptop shape. With vineyards across Kent and a winery near Tenterden, Chapel Down is well-known as the largest producer of fine English wine. Although most of us around the table had enjoyed Chapel Down’s wares before, the one or two guests who hadn’t were taken aback by the wines’ quality, style and, well, sheer panache. We started with the 2011 Three Graces, a fabulous fizz blended from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (the said three graces) and aged on the lees for four years.

Well, that’s Wimbledon done and dusted for another year. All hail King Roger! It’s been a great tournament with much to enjoy. And it has certainly been a darn sight more enjoyable than the second Test match against South Africa. What a debacle that was. Sigh. Still, both events have given me the chance — armchair sportsman that I am — to settle back on the sofa, put my feet up, and rediscover my love of Pimm’s. I’m told that spectators got through 320,000 glasses of the stuff at Wimbledon over two weeks; just imagine how many couch potatoes like me were also knocking it back at home. That’s quite a bit of Pimm’s for sure. But I must point out that it wasn’t the gin-based Pimm’s No.

Esme Johnstone at FromVineyardsDirect.com is the past master at digging out little parcels of top quality, fully mature vino from fine French estates and I’m delighted to report that his touch has not deserted him. Along with a brace of tip top whites and a rosé, we’ve a trio of really tasty (and tastily priced) clarets, each one so delectable they’re just begging to be drunk. First, the 2016 Domaine du Bicheron, Macon-Péronne Vieilles Vignes (1), an old favourite that I remember we offered a couple of years back in a previous vintage to the delight of Spectator readers. This vintage is even better. Made from old vine Chardonnay in the Mâconnais, this is beautifully structured and everything quality white burgundy should be.

As readers well know, we love Pol Roger champagne at The Spectator. We like to think of it as pretty much the house pour. It’s used at all our events and also simply to calm our nerves at the end — or, occasionally, the start or middle — of a testing working day. We can’t seem to get enough of it. No, I mean we really can’t. We’re always running out. Happily, we had just enough to go round at the latest in our series of Spectator Wine-maker’s Lunches, hosted by the always ebullient James Simpson MW, MD of Pol Roger Portfolio. Readers canny enough to book a ticket were treated to fine fizz, excellent Forman & Field grub and Mr Simpson in effervescent flow. There’s nothing J.S.

Calling all Beaujolais lovers! Yes, that’s you! I mean, we all love Beaujolais, right? Not the scuzzy, naff Bojolly Noovoo that was the grim but standard fare of 1970s wine bars, but the wonderful, fresh, ripe, juicy, new wave Beaujolais from one of the region’s ten crus, full of rich, succulent, damson-like fruit and silky tannins. 2015 was a stupendous year in Beaujolais and Domaine Henry Fessy is a remarkable producer, with vineyards in all ten crus, namely: Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin à Vent, Régnié and Saint Amour. DHF also produces a scrumptious Beaujolais-Villages and a rare and very fine Beaujolais Blanc from 100 per cent Chardonnay (the only white on the list).

Heaven help us, it’s barbecue season. You know, that ghastly time of year when testosterone-fuelled hunter-gatherers push the little lady aside and fire up the rusting, bird poo-covered grate in the garden and ask the neighbours over. Never mind that these poor saps never darken the kitchen the other 11-and-a-half months of the year (and wouldn’t know what to do there if they did), nor that the little lady in question is a hugely capable Leiths-trained cook as well as a multi--tasking barrister/entrepreneur/CEO/novelist and mother of three, no doubt. I’ve never ‘got’ barbecues. The food’s either scorched or raw. I mean, isn’t it to save us from such things that God invented kitchens?

All six wines this week come from the Languedoc, courtesy of Jason Yapp, that canny wine hound who understands the twists and turns of France’s largest vineyard area better than anyone I know. And so happy is he with our selection that he’s lopped a quid off every bottle. The Domaine Collin Crémant de Limoux Cuvée Rosé Brut NV (1) is a stunningly fine pink fizz from just south of Carcassonne where they were making sparkling wines almost 140 years before they worked out how to do it in Champagne. A bottle-fermented blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Noir, it’s full of lush, ripe raspberries and wild strawberries but with only 6g of residual sugar per litre (Brut champagne usually starts at nine).

I write this from my sick bed. Laid low with a vile lurgy, I feel far from well. And, sad to report, Mrs Ray is far from understanding. She says I should learn to be more stoical. I say she should learn to be more, well, sympathetic. It’s not my fault that I feel my ailments slightly more keenly than she does. Laura Taylor at Private Cellar was a darn sight more solicitous, I can tell you, and on hearing my plight when sending me a dozen bottles to taste for this offer, strongly commended the Réserve de Sours Sparkling Rosé Brut NV (1). I was dosed up to the eyeballs on Day Nurse, Night Nurse, Any-Time-You-Like-Nurse, and alcohol was the last thing on my mind. But blow me, I took a tentative sip of the fizz, then another, then promptly drained the glass.

It’s spring and that means it’s time for rosé. Sales of the pink stuff continue to rocket and we’re all out and proud rosé drinkers these days, darling. That’s not to say there aren’t some dire bottles on the shelves. Like that vile Blush Zinfandel from California (shudder) or the weirdly coloured one from the corner shop that glows in the dark and numbs your gums. A fine rosé, though, is a wine of great beauty — and no rosés are finer than those from Sacha Lichine’s Château d’Esclans estate in Provence. The sole aim of Sacha and his partner Patrick Leon, former head winemaker at Château Mouton-Rothschild, is to produce the finest rosés in the world. Many believe he has succeeded.

A wonderful offer from Berry Bros & Rudd, this. Wine-loving readers will know that once or twice a month we hold Spectator winemakers’ lunches at 22 Old Queen Street. A well-known winemaker will bring some wines and chat about them to a maximum of 14 readers over lunch in the boardroom. These entertaining affairs must surely be the best value in town: just £75 a pop for four courses of jolly fine grub and as much wine as you can drink; not to mention the chance to chat to some of the world’s leading winemakers and to meet like-minded Speccie readers. Little wonder that we always have to flick the lights to turf folk out as afternoon turns into evening.

We start this week with the ever reliable 2015 Corney & Barrow House White (1), largely because if we didn’t I would get angry letters asking why not. I really do wonder why my mother doesn’t just pick up the phone instead. She’s got my number. A blend of 70 per cent Colombard and 30 per cent Ugni Blanc, produced by Producteurs Plaimont in Gascony, this has been Corney & Barrow’s best-selling white for over 20 years and is pretty much the Spectator Wine Club’s too. It’s light, zesty, fresh and uncomplicated; perfect, in fact, for springtime drinking. It’s also a cracking price at £6.63 with the Brett-Smith Indulgence (whereby you get £6 off an unmixed case) or £7.13 without, down from the list price of £7.50.

Spectator readers, being wise wine-lovers, are particularly fond of Château Musar, that extraordinary wine born of the Bekaa Valley in the Lebanon. Whenever we offer it in these pages, we promptly sell out. This is surely our best Musar offer yet, thanks to the canniness of our Wine Club partners Mr.Wheeler. As readers will know, Musar only releases its grand vin when it’s deemed ready to drink and the mighty 2006 has only just had the nod, held back while the 2007, 2008 and 2009 all matured before it. The Spectator, in cahoots with Mr.Wheeler, has exclusive first dibs on said 2006 Château Musar, two months before anyone else. Not only that, the Château has put aside the last of its 1996 vintage just for us, all 170 bottles of it.

I’m going to fess up right from the off and say that, yes, you’re right, we’ve offered two of these wines several times before. But they simply shone in our tasting and refused to be ignored. You loved them last time, dear reader, and these vintages are even better. The other four are crackers, too. So get stuck in. And I must add that even though FromVineyardsDirect is noted for its rock-bottom prices and tight margins, FVD’s sainted Esme Johnstone is knocking 50p off every bottle as well as keeping prices at pre--Budget levels. Hooray! So to the 2013 Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Millésimé (1), which we’ve not offered in these pages before even though it’s a regular at Spectator lunches and the Spectator Wine School.