SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
The good, the cheap and
the wonky
Auberon Waugh
I THINK we've seen this Château de la Tuilerie Blanc before. It has come from the Costieres de Nimes — a fairly new appellation controlee, I suspect, plucked from the enormous VDQS areas called Costieres du Gard. It has also come down in price, which is encouraging. It is rare to find a good white in the Midi, but this example is fresh, bouncy, excellent as an aperitif; nothing tinny or over-stabilised about it. A basic wine taste. Many whites in this £4.50 range have something wrong, this one doesn't. Good easy drinking, dry with a touch of prickle, but not tart. Pay a penny under £4.50 for a white wine and you will get something pretty nasty (unless you hap- pen to like Australian riesling or South African chenin blanc). This meridional white will make everyone happy.
Klsin Constantia's Sauvignon Blanc 1990 is altogether more serious. From one of the smartest wine estates in the Cape, it has the smell of crushed gooseber- ry leaves and great intensity of taste as well as the freshness for which this grape is famous. At £5, it gives the full, grassy taste of the best sauvignon at what strikes me as a reasonable price.
H5pilton Russell's Reserve Chardonnay 1990 has also, I think, been seen before, but it has come along well since I last tasted it — a wonderful rich cardboard texture with good acid finish. It is a powerful, full, rich wine of which the whole of South Africa should be proud. Whenever you drink it, you would know it for a superior, expensive wine. The price of £7.04 a bottle seems reasonable. More French than colo- nial, it will get even better with time, but is already very high-class indeed.
Now for a cheapie . Jean de Thelin makes his wine in the Minervois region to the east of Carcassonne, but pure Merlot wine cannot call itself Minervois, hence the description of Viii de Pays d'Oc, as in Languedoc. In the ancient land of the troubadours they said `oc' for 'yes', instead of 'our, as they said in northern France. It is a good, young, stalky Merlot with plenty of entirely proper tastes for its price of £3.75. It scored very high marks from all the panel.
Next a big price jump, I fear. We tasted the Rustenberg Cabernet Sauvignon 1988i at £8.37 and, though admiring it for its rich- ness, I was astounded that anybody dared ask such a price for a South African wine. Now it has come down to £7.16 I am still mildly surprised, while acknowledging that in terms of pure, high-quality Cabernet France could not match this price. Aus- tralia and Chile could, but they both have strange local tastes attaching, which you either like or not. But this is pure, straight, highly concentrated Cabernet. I don't sup- pose many will opt for the straight case on my say-so, but I should be surprised if any- body disagreed with me having tasted it from the sample case.
Finally (6tie joker in the pack. I first tasted this wine (which is not to be confused with Tyrrells Old Winery Pinot Noir, much cheaper) at the Australia Day tasting in Lord's, and was knocked sideways, having decided to go for it, to learn that it is retailed at £11 a bottle. Is anybody in Britain going to pay £11 for an Australian pinot, however fruity? Tasting it again at £8, I decided we would be mad not to give it a try. It is not exactly like burgundy, but has an excellent, strong pinot taste with fruit pudding interludes — redcurrants etcetera. It is very strong and powerful now (and, at five years old, pretty venerable by Australian standards), but I would be fasci- nated to know what will happen to it with a hit of bottle age. It might easily be mistak- en for a slightly wonky grand cru — wonky, only in the sense of unusual, not in the sense of wrongly made — and is already quite delicious. When one thinks of it, £8 is chicken-feed by burgundy standards. I think this just might be another great Aus- tralian wine, like Penfolds Grange Shiraz or the Teuwin Estate Chardonnay, or some of Rouge Homme's Cabernet, or the won- derful new Parker Coonawarra cabernet. If so, it makes it much more exciting that it is a pinot — the first important pinot to come out of Australia. Mind you, Tyrrells Old Winery Pinot is very good, too, but I couldn't get any out.
The mixed case works out at £5.91 the bottle — not too brilliant, but there have been some colossal reductions. I would say that all the wines are bargains in their dif- ferent ways, except possibly the Rustenberg at £7.16, which is well reduced from £8.37. It is an adventurous mixed case, and people should have fun with it. If they drink fast, there will be time to re-order.
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