SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
his pudding certainly has no theme. Four countries and six wine areas make up my raid on the Avery's cellar for the Christmas season. I had hoped to include Avery's excellent special cuvee champagne which has improved mightily but they are making a special pull-out offer of it to Spectator readers in this issue, so I can't. The Avery's Fine White Burgundy(1) never fails. This 1985 is a trifle lighter on the taste than the 1983 but cleaner and purer than the 1984 and has a very respect able nose. An extremely pleasant rather than a stunning chardonnay at £4.40 which everybody will enjoy and be polite about, even if nobody falls off his chair.
A price of £5.66 may not seem sensa- tionally cheap for a Listrac(2) of a not particularly brilliant year, and I can quite understand that most punters will be more tempted towards the Chateau d'Angeluse 19790) at £3.87, but I do assure them that the Fonreaud is the better wine. The Angeluse (not to be confused with St Emilion's Angelus, which would be rather more expensive) is an honest man's claret — clean, straightforward, good value, everything which the French commercial traveller means when he speaks approving- ly of un bon vin. It has a very little smell. The Fonreaud has a fine, bordeaux smell and strong bordeaux taste, although with- out any frills or pretensions. It is what the French would call un bon bordeaux. Nine French families out of ten will probably never drink any wine better than this.
Now to Sardinia, of all places. On my only visit to that rather dirty island I discovered no decent wine at all, but John Avery has been more successful. The Cannonau(4) is made from the grenache grape, and is full of fruity tastes — a mixture between those big, red boiled sweets and pear drops. It is nice and sweet and easy to drink and round as a red billiard ball at £3.37. The Tanca Farra(5), much more expensive at £5.20, won high and unanimous praise from the panel for its beautiful garnet colour and pure, strong Italian taste, with no suspicion of hanky- panky. It may seem absurd to pay £5.20 for a Sardinian wine, when it is hard enough to persuade people to pay that amount for the best Italians, but this is a thoroughly good wine and should be better known.
The last Sardinian, the Torbato Terre Bianche, is a white, and once again it may seem absurd to ask £5.00 for a white Sardinian, but this one has a lovely hon- eyed nose and a strong vinous taste which make it ideal as a winter aperitif. I would call it something of a revelation, since it is unlike any other wine I know, without having any non-wine taste in it. A most impressive, heavy, dry white.
Avery's Elizabetha Sherry, a lino, has
Searching the world for a Christmas mix
Auberon Waugh
been offered before. Perhaps because it has not been advertised much, unlike Tio Pepe or La Ina (to which it stands up very well) it is priced at the bottom of the range — £3.70 the bottle — while its quality is very near the top. For those who care what sherry they drink and can't afford Tio Pepe, I recommend it highly. Perhaps my greatest enthusiasm is for the Christmas mixed case. The price of £100 may seem rather steep for six bottles, but they are all lovely. The case is designed to provide everything a reasonably self- indulgent, middle-class family needs to drink on Christmas Day. The Meursault is a complete stunner and the Hospices, while showing its age, has every taste which grand old burgundy ever had. Only fools sneer at Sandeman port. Its 1966 was one of the best of a very good vintage.
An average price of £16.66 the bottle may seem reckless, but Avery's list prices even the 1978 Pommard (which comes from Jaffelin and is a beautiful, deep, old-style burgundy) at £21.99. Bought indi- vidually the case would be very much more expensive, as punters can discover for themselves. Next year the socialists may be upon us, and we will all be drinking carrot juice.
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