6 MAY 1989, Page 45

SPECTATOR WINE CLUB

Bath time in Jermyn Street

Auberon Waugh

or all the angry noises I make against the Burgundians these days, young David Miller of Châteaux Wines has still been able to find a thoroughly decent white burgundy at under £4.50. This Macon Villages from Delaunay()) has all the con- centration of an Australian or Californian chardonnay, with a good strong finish, even if it lacks the touches of honey and cream and melon fruit which excite me so terribly in the colonial wines. Many peo- ple, of course, prefer their chardonnay fruit more astringent. They will find this a powerful, long-lasting example — nothing waterish or slight — with a strong, full and correct taste. After the gross delights of last month's Pokolbin Chardonnay from Hungerford Hill, this wine should bring us to our senses. At £4.48 it is a pleasure to be reminded of them.

Sharp-eyed punters will spot that this Year I have dropped the Rosemount Show Reserve Chardonnay which normally fea- tures in the Châteaux Wines offer. It is still an excellent wine, but I judged that the latest price rise, taking it to £7.15, put it beyond the pale of Spectator readers who were spoiled by that magnificent Pokolbin Chardonnay at £5.85 only last month from Corney and Barrow. Moreover it is a bit babyish to keep offering chardonnay as if it were the only white grape available. This Rosemount (dry) Semillon(2) at £5.22 is an interesting wine with a strong and particu- lar taste which many will find delicious. It has little or nothing to do with any of the semillon tastes one associates with France, and may prove a little perfumed for some, but the predominating taste is one of grapefruit skin, with a touch of the same bitter tang at the end which I found not Only interesting but even exciting. Some enterprising chemists in Jermyn Street, called Czech and Speake, make a grapefruit-flavoured bath oil. Perhaps one should try that first. I love them both (the Oil and the wine, not Czech and Speake, Whom I do not think I have had the Pleasure of meeting).

Now for the reds. We have a very good heavy style Julienas(3) called 'Les Envaux'

from Pelletier at £4.99 with a few gamay characteristics, being closer to a spicy, rich, old-fashioned burgundy than to beaujolais. It improves wonderfully in the bottle over- night, which, again, is not a characteristic of beaujolais. There are 30 cases of the

1987 available which might easily be enough without moving on to the 1988. I

tasted them separately, and after a gap of

several weeks could remember nb differ- ence. They are both excellent examples of

the heavy, rich beaujolais style which used to justify the claim that it was a poor man's burgundy. At just under £5, it is a treat. As readers will have deduced, the 1982

Château Musar(4) has finally arrived in this country. It is paler than usual and has fewer of the 'medicinal' qualities which some find objectionable in this magnificent wine which continues to arrive, year after year, from the war-torn Bekaa Valley. By any standards other than those of Château Musar it is a stupendous wine at a laugh- able price. I tasted a barrel sample, for which one should make allowances, but to my taste it fell short of the massive concentration and glorious richness of the 1981(5), here re-offered at the slightly greater price of £5.22 the bottle. Some who are frightened of the ebullience of this amazing wine from the Lebanon may prefer the 1982, but I am not among them. The 1981 continues to go from strength to strength and is, quite simply, a stupor mundi. Finally, just to show we have not turned our back on Bordeaux irrevocably, a Cru Grand Bourgeois Exceptionnel from Moulis which, despite its hurtful price of £9.41 a bottle, strikes me as something of a bargain. Like its equally brilliant, more famous and more expensive neighbour Château Chasse Spleen, Château Poujeaux-Theil comes with all the accoutrements of a grand yin — in wooden cases, with corks as long as walking sticks. Unlike Chasse-Spleen, Poujeaux spends nothing on promotion or marketing, selling all its production at the château door. The Poujeaux-Theil 1983°) is a splendidly dense wine, like the Chasse Spleen 1983 which I tasted it against, but slightly more forward than its neighbour. Heavier and altogether more considerable than the delicious Chasse Spleen 1979, which is for drinking now, it came closest to the 1978, of which I happen to have five cases. According to Hubrecht Duijker, Château Poujeaux-Theil regularly beats the pre- miers crus at blind tastings. It is a miracle of concentrated fruit (35 per cent each of cabernet-sauvignon and merlot, 15 per cent each of cabernet franc and petit verdot) which could be drunk now, but which will develop subtleties and depths for another 15 or 20 years.

The mixed casem, two bottles of each, works out at £70.62 or £5.88 the bottle.