Jonathan Ray

For many years, Languedoc-Roussillon was a byword for lousy wine. The region was infamous for producing vast amounts of grim fare which appealed to nobody except the French army who bought the rough local reds by the container-load, for cleaning their rifles with or running their tanks on or something. Today, though, this vast area has been transformed and is an exceptionally happy hunting ground, especially for those wine lovers bored with the wines of Bordeaux or miffed at Bordelais prices. Or put off by the dire reports of Bordeaux’s 2013 vintage. Languedoc-Roussillon’s climate and terroir are both spot on, and a new generation of winemakers has gleefully spotted the region’s potential.

A really tasty selection from The Wine Company this week at very generously discounted prices. There is a theme of sorts: I wonder if you can spot it. Made exclusively for The Wine -Company (Moa Ridge and The Wine Company share an owner in Suffolk-based Johnny Wheeler), the 2011 Moa Ridge Chardonnay (1) from Marlborough, New Zealand, is spiffing value at just £12 a bottle (down from £14.99). Hand-picked and oak-aged for 15 months, it’s full of citrus and spice and succulent stone fruit. It’s subtle too and gratifyingly complex, more Burgundian in style than New World, and perfect with a dozen or so of the last R-in-the-month oysters. The 2007 C.J.

When I worked at Berry Bros & Rudd 20 years ago, I had a wonderfully eccentric customer who liked to ring up during bathtime. He was a confirmed claret lover and, although he longed to broaden his horizons, he could never quite muster the courage to do so. We would spend 20 minutes or so discussing tasty alternatives from the Rhône, Spain, Italy or the New World, but his nerve always failed him and he’d retreat guiltily back to the safety of Bordeaux. He promised faithfully to be more adventurous next time, although we both knew he wouldn’t be, and I would go through the motions of giving him the prices of a Chianti or Crozes-Hermitage. ‘Hang on,’ he’d boom from the bathroom.

He might have been born in the UK and he might carry an Australian passport, but Kevin Judd of Greywacke (pron: grey-wacky) is a Kiwi through and through. Nobody grasps Marlborough better than he does, be it understanding the nuances of landscape and light as an award-winning photographer or the vagaries of climate and terroir as an award-winning wine-maker. Judd’s a New Zealand legend — wise, passionate, dry, thoughtful and focused. And my goodness he’s laconic, famously so. Having interviewed him a couple of times, I can confirm he’s not someone to use a dozen words when one or even none will do. But what he does say (or doesn’t) is said (or isn’t) with a teasing, knowing look in his eye.

Corney & Barrow have really pulled out the stops on this one. They presented a couple of dozen wines for me to taste and so delicious were they that it was the Devil’s own job trying to whittle them down to six. In fact, I gave up trying, which is why there are seven wines in this offer. Sorry, but there it is. I just couldn’t choose between them. Corney & Barrow’s MD, Adam Brett-Smith, was in especially munificent mood too.

I’m honoured — and nervous — to be following in Simon Hoggart’s colossal footsteps in these pages. Simon, God rest his soul, was not just one of our greatest political journalists; he was one of our best wine writers and his Life’s Too Short to Drink Bad Wine is a classic. I know that this column, which he made his own, is something of an institution for its readers. If I can bring a smidgeon of Simon’s wit and perspicacity to the Spectator’s wine club, I will be doing very well. Happily, our old friends Tanners of Shrewsbury have come up with a mighty tasty selection with which to start off the year.

I have always really, really hated flying. The first whiff of an airport and I'm scared out of my wits. But not only am I terrified; I also loathe and resent the contempt in which passengers are generally held by the airlines – the way we're herded like cattle and the way we're expected to eat unspeakable food with a neighbour's elbow in the face.

As befitted someone who spent half his life looking at it, my father had a beautiful watch. Although I don't recall the make, I do remember how sleek and elegant it was. My father's whole life seemed to be ruled by time and by his pathological hatred of being late. I remember once sitting in a restaurant with him as we awaited the arrival of his lunch guest, an old friend whom he had bidden to arrive at 1 p.m. My father and I had got to the restaurant 20 minutes or so before the appointed hour, as was his practice, and at five to one he glanced at his watch and sighed crossly, 'Tsk, in five minutes' time the bloody man will be late.' In later years, although a complete technophobe, my father bought himself an answering machine, fearful of the calls that he might miss when he was out.