SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
We have had various Chilean whites before at various prices, but the Montes Sauvignon Blanc 1995 from Curico(1) is unmistakably a star. I notice how members of the panel started their tasting notes with clever remarks about green gooseberries on the nose, positive sweetness in the mid- dle, but soon gave way to simple cheers: 'One of the best yet. Absolutely delicious.' This wine, which drinks very easily indeed, should give many people a happy summer at £4.50 the bottle.
The next wine, which comes from Arles, in Provence, in a dark green burgundy bot- tle, and is described as a blanc de blancs, yin de table de France, turns out, most unex- pectedly, to be 100 per cent gewilrztramin- er. I do not know why they have not always grown gewiirz down there, because this Boisvieil St Pierre(2) is utterly delicious and, at £5 the bottle, much cheaper than the equivalent quality from Alsace. In fact, it is altogether a jollier and more festive drink than the Alsatian variety, a nice, easy, spicy wine.
The 1995 Montes Chardonnay from the Nogales estate(3) is unoaked: a charming drink, which is full without being overblown, no vanilla but a good, long after-taste. At £5.40 it struck us all as being as near perfection as anyone can hope for, with a faint but exhilarating prickle which 'Another success — we're ruined.'
Faint and exhilarating prickle
Auberon Waugh
may or may not survive.
The Cuv6e du Champfleury(4) has been offered before and always proved popular. It is a nice, cheap, dry, straightforward yin de table at 11.5 , very little tannin, but enough of everything to keep it standing upright. It is produced by the celebrated negociant Nathaniel Johnston from various sans-appellation sources in the part of south-western France where he is best known. At £4.35 it is a good, clean, unthreatening wine for lunchtime drinking, or as a treat for the poor at dinner.
The Montes Merlot 1995(5), also from the Nogales estate, is a good, fat, fruity example, with masses of character for your £5. It has good, smooth character at 13 per cent alcohol by volume. A bit heavy for lunch, perhaps.
Finally, a wine which calls itself Clos Malverne, Devonet(6). The eagle-eyed will immediately spot that this comes from the Devon Valley, near Stellenbosch. I have not been able to find out anything about Clos Malverne — it does not seem to be part of the Gilbey holdings in the area — but the wine, a blend of cabernet and mer- lot, with cabernet very much on top, is superb. It smells like good, rich claret with plenty of fruit — a Lynch Bages or a Bey- chevelle, perhaps — and at £5.60 offers bags of taste for the money. At long last, South Africa is beginning to produce some seriously high-class reds, as well as the excellent whites which are already begin- ning to get a little pricy. But if they can hold the price of their reds to £5.60 or so, we will be returning again and again. The mixed case, as I have already pointed out, works out at slightly under £5 the bottle. I hope we won't be swamped again, but it is always advisable to get your order off early.
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