Jonathan Ray

I adore the wines of New Zealand. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if I had to drink the wines of just one country — taking France out of the equation, of course — then New Zealand would do it for me. There are spectacular aromatic whites from Marlborough, Gisborne and Nelson; soft, smooth and supple Pinot Noirs from Marlborough, Martinborough and Central Otago; and wonderfully sophisticated Bordeaux blends from Hawke’s Bay. There are also fab fizzes and exquisite sweet wines if you can find them. So, just for the heck of it, thanks to an excellent proposed longlist from Mr.Wheeler, we’ve gone 100 per cent Kiwi this week with six typically tasty wines from the Land of the Long White Cloud. And just so you know, Mr.

Tanners have been around since 1842 and certainly know their onions. Both Decanter and the International Wine Challenge named them ‘Large Independent Wine Retailer of the Year’ in 2016. I mean to say, how lucky are we to have them as one of The Spectator’s partners? Their sales director, Robert Boutflower, put together a list of typically quirky wines, any one of which I would have been happy to recommend. The final six more than pass muster. Added to which, RB was magnanimity itself and tossed in some tasty discounts, with the mixed case just £108. The 2015 La Petite Vigne Viognier (1) comes from near Carcassonne and the Foncalieu co-operative, which boasts some 1,000 growers, drawn from all corners of the Languedoc, Gascony and the Rhône.

Phew, done it! Dry January, that is, and 31 whole days on the wretched water wagon, clinging on by my fingertips. Well, 31 whole days apart from a two-day, champagne-soaked trip to Pol Roger (about which more anon on our Spectator Wine Club website) and three days with the missus in the Loire Valley (ditto). But having spoken to my legal advisers I understand that I’m in the clear. Apparently, because I was drinking outside UK jurisdiction, it doesn’t really count and I can still claim to have had a dry January in this country. Doncha just love lawyers?

I don’t know about you but my cellar took a pounding over Christmas and on New Year’s Eve. Yes, yes, I know it’s only a cobwebbed cupboard under the stairs. The point is that it’s all but empty apart from a few corks, some half-drunk vermouth, a shattered decanter, a bottle of Bailey’s (where did that come from?) and the faint whiff of cordite. I’ve an urgent need to regroup. Thank heaven, then, for Yapp Bros and this timely selection. It didn’t take Jason Yapp and me long to agree that we should look no further than the Loire for this offer. 2015 was a cracking vintage in the Loire Valley, which remains a happy hunting ground for lovers of aromatic Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc and cool-climate Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc.

Tricky time of year this, with the festivities hoving into view. Never easy for anyone, least of all those of us who suffer from Christmas Affected Doom, Depression and Despondency (CADDAD), a ghastly affliction about which I’ve written at length elsewhere so won’t bore you with now. Suffice to say that it is a dreadful burden, often hereditary (invariably passing down the male line with females rarely affected), often undiagnosed and rarely properly treated.

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.

We had some fascinating wines at the Spectator Wine School’s penultimate class of term this week. The theme was wines of the New World and our poor students had drawn the short straw in that they had me hosting the two hour session. Usually each class is hosted in turn by an expert from one of our seven partner wine merchants with the final class on champagne and sparkling wines being hosted by James Simpson MW of Pol Roger. Nevertheless, I’m happy to say I managed to muddle through and I like to think the students learned a little and I didn’t parade my ignorance too much (although a savage delivery saw me clean bowled when asked the name of the river that flows through Stellenbosch in South Africa)*.

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.