SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
talian wine offers are generally among the less successful in our annual list. This may be partly because I know so little about Italian wines; they are at least less unsuccessful than our single disastrous offer of Spanish wine, about which I know absolutely nothing. However, this time young Price-Beech has come up with one wine about which I can be really excited the Pinot Nero from Vinicola Udinese(3) — and I hope he is rewarded for the effort.
We start with an old favourite, the Chianti Putto from Fattoria del Ugo(1) which Franco Amici Grossi has been sup- plying at least once a year since the Club was founded. The 1985 is a distinct im- provement on anything produced the year before and Price-Beech swears that the 1986 is even better. It has now, for the first time, been awarded the DOCG, which is the highest Italian category. As usual, it is an easy, toping wine for pouring down the throat until it comes out of the ears. For the first time, I detected a touch of tannin which might mean it has a bit of future, but at £3.32 it is really recommended for drinking with simple meals and then long into the night.
No. 2 is another old friend. The 1984 Cabernet de Pramaggiore is a little thinner than the 1983, but none the worse for that. It also has a better smell with proper cabernet taste and fewer stalky elements than I have detected in the past. It is a respectably full wine with plenty of body and what I call sweetness, although people don't like you to use that word to describe a dry red, for drinking now at £4.30.
Now for the month's excitement. I don't suppose many people remember the sensa-
Wops cooking now?
Auberon Waugh
tional 1979 Pinot Nero from Udine which I found at Avery's three or four years ago. That offer had an unhappy ending: it was over-subscribed and when the 1980 re- placement arrived it poured from the bottle in a sort of pink froth, like some gimmicky toothpaste for kiddies. Oddly enough, I kept a few bottles of the pink froth and in 18 months it had turned into a fairly respectable middle-weight burgundy, but by then it was too late. This 1985 Pinot Nero from Vinicola Udinese(3) promises to be a serious heavyweight burgundy, with the proper sweaty smell and real depth of taste which even the richest burgundy fanciers have been denied since the grow- ers of burgundy, one by one, have come out of the closets and revealed themselves as belonging to the Bulgarian persuasion.
Perhaps I am talking in riddles. The point about modern burgundy is that you can buy examples even cheaper than the £4.30 this Italian version costs — Majestic Warehouses have one at an unbelievable £2.99 — but they are waterish, light and with no more than the ghost of a burgundy taste. For anything thicker and heavier you have to pay a fortune — £20 a bottle ex-cellars for a 1985 grand cru — and even
then, nine times out of ten, you are denied the dark colour and rich, sweaty smell, the sweetness and long finish of proper old- style burgundy. This pinot has all these qualities now; it also has a slight prickle — not unpleasant, but definitely incorrect — which it will lose, I should guess, in less than six months. Although it has the concentration of an old grand cru, one must admit it has few pretensions to the same elegance. But it will be a lovely surprise for Old Burgundians, and even better if they keep it a year or two. Now I had better move on. The Bar- baresco 19800) is a serious wine buyer 5 substitute for barolo, being made from the same grape — the nebbiolo — and in the same heavy, serious, rich style. From recent price movements, it seems that America has begun to learn about barolo. Perhaps £5.86 is still more than anyone wants to spend on an Italian wine, but 1980 is a very old wine by Italian standards. This one has masses of fruit and enough acid to keep it lively for many years. Finally, two cheap whites. The Toscano Bianco this year is a very pale waterish colour and seems at first to have no smell at all; the taste is mild and fruity with a good, waterish finish. In fact, it has re- freshingly little taste at all without being sour or thin. Closer attention to the nose reveals a wonderful smell of fresh water. It is exactly the sort of wine my wife yearns for after a diet of rich, buttery Australian chardonnay. Perhaps £3.32 is a lot to paY for a bottle of really nice fresh water with vinous undertones, but there are un- doubtedly occasions, in the summer, when it is exactly the sort of wine one wants. The Verdicchio Classico(6) has more meat to it, but is still very light. It has a good dry after-taste — quite difficult to find in cheaper white wines, which tend to finish sour or sugared. Again, I would say it is an aperitif wine rather than something to be drunk with meals, but it is no good pretending that £3.68 is tremendously cheap for such an unprententious wine, however pleasant. I remember when we offered really decent white burgundy from the Maconnais at that price, but then I suppose I remember when Big Ben was the size of a wristband and the great struggle nowadays is to find white wines at this price which are not actively unpleasant.
An agreeable low-key offer this time, but with one wine in it which I hope will excite the Burgundians among us. Next month, the last Australian offer in this extraordinary year and then — wait for it — the Spectator's first all-South African offer. Cancel your subscriptions now. My deputy editor does not allow me to run South African offers on the Literary Re- view, which is available from 51 Beak Street, W1R 3LF at £15 a year.
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