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Spectator Wine Club
Auberon Waugh
Iri the run-up to the Christmas season, cone's thoughts naturally turn to the Plight of the poor. Groan, boo, go back to Russia. I will start again. Where cheapies are concerned I generally feel that the big chain-stores have the edge over the Wine Club, chiefly because their take-away prices do not include carriage and delivery Charges. However, I found a £3 wine in the list at L'Escargot Bienvenu Restaurant in Greek Street (where it was reasonably priced at £5.75) which strikes me as sensa- tional and which should keep most of us very happy until Christmas. 1 say most of us because not everybody Will like the 1979 Wente Bros Zinfandel from California. Out of a panel of eight, five raved about it like me and thought it brilliant, three disagreed. I have never seen a more violent division among wine drinkers. It is a sort of blackberry (rather than blackcurrant) jelly of a wine with an enormous, warm nose, full of ripe fruit and flavour with good persistence. I would agree that it lacks complexity but what on earth do you expect at the price? The taste 1_,s very definite and, I would say, completely uelicious. It irritates me to say you will either love it or hate it because I cannot understand how anyone can fail to love it, but I must sorrowfully record that some do. Burgundians may be more open to the cl,eI18hts of the, hot berry t flavour ,thariclaret drinkers; merlot drinkers in Pomerol and St ttnilion more open to it than those with two feet planted firmly in the Medoc. All I can say is that it has an enormously opulent nose, tastes very good indeed and I am Ordering four cases. Those who are nervous °,,f investing £36 in a case can go and taste It or themselves at L'Escargot, where a meal for two will cost about £40 and certainly be Worth every penny of it. I think young price Beech has ordered 150 cases on my recommendation, now reduced to 146 cases,
, American wine snobs tend to look down
their noses at the Zinfandel grape, and It is true that it can produce some pretty ,u1sgu sting wine. Classical Europeans tend to disbelieve that any American grape with such an outlandish name can ever be taken seriously. On an American wine tour last November I found several good examples, ttl,Ot always very cheap, but nothing to beat Wente Bros effort which has none of the herby texture — like a mouthful of grass ,holly berries and cow-parsley — one sometimes finds. It is the most genial drink "namable at £3 a bottle — not a thinking man's wine, perhaps, but a richly sensual _experience for the beast in us all. And Within reach of the less fortunate. That should carry us through our pre-
Christmas drinking, but I append some more of the '82 clarets for the future. Mrs Thatcher is not going to last for ever, and we will have only ourselves to blame if we have made no provision in the lean years ahead. These wines are ex-cellars Bordeaux, for delivery some time next year when a fur- ther £25 or so a case will be payable to cover freight, delivery, duty and VAT — although it is possible that Mr Lawson will reduce duty in the Budget, and with it the VAT element.
I re-offer the Pichon Longueville Baron at £65 because only 25 people took advan- tage of the offer last time, and I think those who neglected to do so may be regretting it. The Baron has not been performing well in recent years which is why he is so much cheaper than the other deuxieme crus, but the experts (save one) all agree he was really back on form in '82, and that it should be a marvellous wine in the 10-15 years' time. He also has a very pretty label. Simon Loftus of Adnams avers that Beychevelle is one of the stars of this annus mirabilis, and I observe that Christopher and Company is asking £109.25 for it, in- cluding VAT but nothing else. For those, like Mr Eyres, who think it mad to pay £7.50 a bottle plus carriage, duty and VAT for something they will not be able to drink for years, I add two bourgeois crus which were sniffed out by Price Beech from the huge variety on offer. They will be drinking much sooner, of course, and many people have been saying how excellent they are and much better buys than the classified growths. The case against them is that you pay exactly the same duty and carriage rates as you do for a Lafite at £30 a bottle, or a Petrus at £40 (although less VAT). Also one does not like one's standards to slip.
Château Patache d'Aux is a grand bourgeois from Begadan in the north Medoc. Hugh Johnson calls it `popular' and `full-flavoured' in his brilliant new Wine Companion (Mitchell Beazley £14.95) although it is only 'well made' in his Pocket Wine Book (do. £3.95). Château La Tour- Bicheau, from Portets, in Graves, is dazzl- ingly described as 'among the good red pro- ducers of Portets' in the former, unmen- tioned in the latter. David Peppercorn (Bordeaux-Faber £4.95) characterises La Tour-Bicheau as being light, fruity and easy to drink, developing fairly quickly. He says that Patache d'Aux is 'one of the most im- portant wines of Begadan,' belonging to the Delon family of Leoville-Lascases and Phelan-Segur. He says it 'enjoys a good reputation and consistently makes a robust, full-flavoured wine which needs time to mature'. Price Beech says they are the best ' of the bourgeois in their range. You pays your money and you takes your choice.
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