SPECTATOR MINI-BAR OFFER O ne thing I like about the wine
trade is that people are always optimistic. If the country is prospering, why, they say, folk will spend loads more on wine. If we are in deep trouble, as today, we will eschew eating out and stay at home with a bottle of wine. Or we will buy fine wine to lay down because, frankly, even Blossom Hill and Blue Nun would be safer investments than most banks.
But in straitened times we naturally look for value. And Private Cellar, one of our new Wine Club partners, has come up with an absolutely splendid collection of bottles for this week’s mini-bar, all of them substantially reduced from the list price.
New Zealand’s great strength is Sauvignon Blanc, so they have started to produce some excellent Chardonnays as well. Now the Aussies are trying Sauvignon, and this Indis 2005 (1) from Western Australia shows how well they are doing. It is rounder and fruitier than its Kiwi equivalent, and more flavoursome than your average Sancerre. Reduced by 22 per cent to £6.65 a bottle, saving more than £22 a case.
I loved the St Véran 2004 made at the Ch. de Fuissé (2). St Véran is sometimes thought of as the poor relation in Burgundy, but when you get a wine as fresh and zingy and deliciously crisp as this, at such a reasonable price, you realise that this is as welcome to the party as your rich, childless uncle. The 16 per cent discount, nearly £23 a case, brings it in at only £9.99 a bottle. A lovely wine. Now the reds. The Maison Mayol Merlot 2007 (3) is yet another example of the fantastic work being done in the Pays d’Oc. (This is so called because its inhabitants used to say ‘oc’ instead of ‘oui’. It’s as if Scotland were called the Land of Aye.) The wine is soft, smooth, velvety and thick with berries and spice. Absolutely luscious. Reduced by 14 per cent to £5.99 a bottle, or by just under £12 a case. Finally, the Ch. Pervenches Puy Arnaud 2004 (4) from the Côtes de Castillon is a superb wine. It seems to almost leap out of the glass. The flavour manages to be rich, mature and complex, including vanilla and blackcurrants, yet it never overwhelms. The kind of wine of which one glass is never enough. The 23 per cent reduction brings it down to £9.99, a saving of almost £36 a case. Fantastic value. D
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