Jonathan Ray

In Grenada, Jonathan Ray attempts to extend his life by eating plenty of dark chocolate. I’m in the House of Chocolate mini museum in St. George’s, Grenada, and Kindra, my guide, is giving me a brief chocolate master class. Not only do I learn all about its production, I stuff my face with as much chocolate as I’ve ever eaten in one sitting and – best of all – discover that I’ve probably prolonged my life by several hours, if not days, by doing so, chocolate being about as good for you as anything can possibly be. Well, according to Kindra anyway. “Grenada chocolate is the answer, not matter what the question!” she exclaims with a laugh.

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.

We had such a fine Spectator Winemaker Lunch with Michiel Eradus of boutique New Zealand winery, Eradus Wines, the other day and the wines were so darned good and so well-priced that I insisted that Corney & Barrow allow us offer them to readers through The Spectator. Founded in the Awatere river valley in Marlborough in 2002 by Dutch émigrés, Har and Sophie Eradus, Eradus Wines is now run by the couple’s son, Michiel, who has won countless awards and plaudits for his pure and expressive yet modestly-priced wines. Michiel gave an excellent master-class on New Zealand wines in general and Eradus Wines in particular and all of us round the table were so impressed that most of us (including your humble correspondent) bought some on the spot.

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.