Jonathan Ray

I’ve so many mates on the wagon this month that there is hardly anyone left to play with. It turns out that even my old chum Jason Yapp is doing a detox. More baby steps really, he tells me, a day at a time, but even so. Happily, though, before Jason went all virtuous, he and I sat down for a lengthy tasting in order to choose some seriously tasty fare for the first Spectator Wine Club of the year. And I am really chuffed with the final six that we picked, for they are excellent examples of what regional France has to offer the discerning drinker. All three reds and one of the whites are organic. We didn’t pick them because of this — it just turned out that way.

Just in case you missed it last week we’re showing again the details of the final Wine Club offer of the year, courtesy of Private Cellar, the East Anglian wine merchant which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. The great Jancis Robinson recently declared the company to be the finest independent merchant in the UK, which is one heck of a compliment and one with which many of our readers would agree, certainly the readers who joined us the other week to taste a dozen or so of their wines, of which the following selections were the highest scorers. The Henri Chauvet Brut Blanc de Noirs NV Champagne (1) is something of a favourite at the Speccie, having been featured in a number of Private Cellar’s tastings with us.

We’ve a really peachy quartet of wines this week courtesy of FromVineyardsDirect, all at extremely attractive prices. Messrs Johnstone and Campbell of FVD are dogged in their pursuit of bargains and have done us proud. The 2011 Château Bauduc, Bordeaux Blanc (1) will be familiar to diners-out as the house white in both Gordon Ramsay’s and Rick Stein’s restaurants. Don’t let that put you off, for it’s a beauty. It was very well received at our reader tasting in London the other week. A classic Bordeaux blend of 80 per cent Sauvignon and 20 per cent Sémillon from the Entre-Deux-Mers, it was applauded for its fresh, ripe fruit and its supple, deliciously rounded finish.

With the need to stock up for Christmas in mind, we have gone all trad this week with a brilliant selection of classic French wines from our old friends Berry Bros & Rudd. And I’m delighted to report that having softened up Mark Pardoe MW, Berrys’ wine buying director, with a large, chilled glass of his very own Extra Ordinary White, he has lopped between 10 and 20 per cent off the list prices. This really does represent a substantial saving on what weren’t steep prices in the first place. Berrys’ have been trading for well over 300 years and have built up rock-solid relationships with long-standing producers and suppliers, and I would argue that their own-label wines are as good as you will find anywhere.

It’s back to basics this week and pretty darn delicious basics at that. Corney & Barrow’s house selection has an almost fanatical following among Spectator readers and it’s a real pleasure to offer the core of the range here at extremely generous rates. In fact, if one takes advantage of the fabled Brett-Smith indulgence (£6 off per case when buying two dozen bottles or more) there is a double discount on offer. This makes the wines very accessible indeed and ideal for stockpiling in time for Christmas. The Corney & Barrow House White (1) is a deliciously drinkable and refreshing Gascon blend of Colombard and Ugni Blanc drawn from the vineyards around Saint-Mont, deep in d’Artagnan country.

It’s fair to say that they let their hair down a bit in the Spectator offices on a Thursday afternoon, the magazine having gone to press, and it could have been a rash move to hold a wine tasting in the boardroom. As it was, everyone behaved impeccably and went about the task of tasting 18 different wines on behalf of the Wine Club with commendable attention and diligence. We all took notes and gave the wines marks out of ten. The following six wines were our favourites and they did well to shine amid some pretty stiff competition. The 2013 Wide River Viognier (1) from Robertson in South Africa was the first to get a unanimous thumbs up from the Spectator tasters. It was adjudged to be delicate, fragrant, creamy, floral and gratifyingly easy to drink.

Our latest Wine Vaults offer comes from the ever-dependable Yapp Bros, absolute masters at unearthing small, top-quality independent producers whose output is too small or too niche for the supermarkets. And this week, bearing in mind that we’re all now back from our summer hols, Yapp have come up with four tried and tested French classics that will taste every bit as good here as they did over there. For, as Jason Yapp points out, it’s a sad fact that wines quaffed on holiday in France invariably lack that certain je ne sais quoi once back home in rainy Basingstoke. Very generously, Jason has lopped a quid off every bottle, which, with free delivery, makes for a substantial saving.

It’s very much the last of the summer wine this week, with three whites ideal for quaffing outdoors during the last picnics or barbecues of the year and three reds perfect for the warming stews and roasts of early autumn. And there’s a distinctly French flavour to this FromVineyardsDirect selection too, with just one white from Spain to break up the Gallic monopoly. Picpoul de Pinet is all the rage at the moment and there can’t be a wine bar or restaurant that doesn’t have one on its list — with, sadly, many indifferent ones among them. The 2013 Château des Lauriers Picpoul de Pinet Prestige (1), though, is as good an example as I’ve come across. It’s typically zesty and the first sip is nothing if not invigorating.

It is noticeable how the nights are drawing in now, added to which the leaves in our garden are ever so slightly but definitely beginning to turn. Nevertheless, we’ve still got summer drinks on the lawn or by the poolside barbecue in mind with this lovely, typically quirky selection from The Wine Company. And I’m delighted to say that we’ve managed to extract some pretty generous discounts this week, too, with an average bottle price of just £9.79, down from an average £11.49. Thanks chaps. We start with the 2012 Reuilly ‘La Raie’, Domaine Claude Lafond (1) a first-rate 100 per cent Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire, made by the celebrated local figure Claude Lafond’s daughter, Nathalie.

Mark Pardoe MW, Buying Director of Berry Bros. & Rudd, was in charitable mood last week. Not only did he put up a particularly mouth--watering selection of wines, he also agreed to lop a full 15 per cent off the list price. That Mark was positively glowing with bonhomie is thanks to the fact that Berrys’ had just been crowned 2014 Wine Merchant of the Year at the International Wine Challenge, praised for its ‘sensational list’. Well done guys! The 2013 Constantia Glen Two (1) is a classy blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Constantia, near Stellenbosch, boasts just eight producers of which Constantia Glen is the newest. Soft, creamy, aromatic and stylish in a dry white Bordeaux kind of way, it’s perfect with garlic and tarragon roast chicken. £14.

We’ve a great selection of regional French wines this week from my old chum Jason Yapp. With carefree al fresco imbibing in mind, during what promises to be a blisteringly hot couple of weeks, I was keen to keep the wines under a tenner and relatively light in alcohol, and we almost succeeded. Only a gorgeous, peach-scented Viognier is more than 12.5 per cent alcohol by volume, and only a cheeky Vin de Savoie is over a tenner. Wines of similar quality from better-known (but certainly not better) regions would have cost a heck of a lot more. Sadly, our self-imposed strictures meant that we had to ditch a really toothsome 2010 Vacqueyras Cuvée Spéciale. It’s just too pricey for this offer at £14.25 and too alcoholic at 14 per cent.

It baffles me that German wines are still something of a hard sell in the UK. I imagine that they’re all too readily associated by consumers with that ghastly German export Liebfraumilch, which no self-respecting German will ever have heard of, let alone have drunk. Forgive me if I’m teaching you to suck eggs, but fine German Riesling, which I adore, has nothing to do with such ghastly vinous bubblegum (which is chiefly made from Müller-Thurgau) and the 2007 Weingut Göttelmann-Dautenpflänzer Riesling Kabinett Trocken ‘Halbmond’ (1), from the Nahe, is a thing of great beauty, and ideal summer fare.