SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
SIMON HOGGART
Ithink this is a wonderful offer, and it kicks off with a special treat. Spectator readers love Château Musar, and a year or so back cleared out all the stocks held in British warehouses. We obtained new supplies, but it was an anxious wait. Now Lay & Wheeler are offering the chance to buy the brand new 1999 vintage, which will not be on sale in the shops until early summer, several weeks before the general public can get their grubby paws on it. Supplies are limited, so you will need to order now — the closing date for the pre-release is 1 March 2006; the wine will be at your door during April, and possibly earlier.
Serge Hochar, the winemaker, says that the ’99 is his best vintage since the ’95. Fans will know what to expect — others will be delighted to discover a rich, dark, velvety wine with cedar, smoke, even chocolate and liquorice, topped off with a wonderfully fragrant perfume. The white is just off-dry, rich and voluptuous, with flavours of apples, caramel and cream, like a liquid tarte tatin. Excellent value at £167.40/£131.40 per case.
Now the main offer, which will be dispatched when L&W receive your order. All these wines are first-rate; all are generously discounted. You will love L&W’s own Colombard 2004 from Plaimont in Gascony1. This co-op is branching out into luxury wines, but you’d go far to find something as rich and zestful and lemony at only £4.20 a bottle — a 15 per cent discount. Also reduced by 15 per cent is the Tin Hat Semillon/Chardonnay2 made to L&W’s own specifications in Victoria. This is a smashing wine for party glugging or as an apéritif. It is packed with fruit and, again, excellent value at £4.65.
Amanda Skinner at L&W has knocked a remarkable £20 a case off the fabulous Staete Landt Sauvignon Blanc 20043 from Marlborough, New Zealand. Why is this as delicious as Cloudy Bay at half the price? The people at Staete Landt have split the land into 18 parcels, each with a different clone of the grape, each designed to get the best out of the particular soil. Each is tended as if it were a separate vineyard and the results blended to make a wine that is rich, crisp yet almost creamy, crammed with flavour. A noble wine, for £8.82.
Another £22 has been knocked off each case of the Mâcon–Vergisson La Roche 20034. This combines the heady, buttery, vanilla flavours of a fine Burgundy with that underlying flintiness that helps give it real power. You could hardly do better anywhere at £11.10 a bottle.
I held an informal tasting of the reds, and everyone was knocked out by the Montagne Noir Merlot 20045 from the Pays d’Oc. We loved it — ‘soft, earthy, velvety, fruity, slatey, gorgeous mouth-feel’ were some of the adjec tives thrown out by happy guzzlers. At £4.20, I don’t know how they do it.
There is 13 per cent off the Lay & Wheeler 2002 own-brand Médoc6, chosen by Anthony Barton of Bordeaux. For fans of classic claret, it is exactly that, and at £6.33 you can afford plenty.
The next wine, the Cuvée Stephanie 20027 from the Veritas Winery in the Barossa Valley is, I think, fabulous. It includes the Shiraz, Mourvèdre and Viognier grapes, and so is close to being a knock-off of Côte Rôtie, finest of all Rhône reds. It is quite sensational — rich, many-layered, gorgeous, fleshy, opening out in a decanter to become something you want to sip very slowly indeed. Astounding value at £7.86.
Greenhough’s in Nelson, New Zealand, make a very fine Pinot Noir, for which they charge a lot. They also make L&W’s ownbrand Pinot 20048 from slightly younger vines. At £8.94 it is discounted 11 per cent and you would be hard put to tell the difference from its bigger, pricier brother. A lovely soft, herbal, scented wine. All deliveries are free.
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