Wine Club

For paupers and plutocrats

Auberon Waugh

IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - one might almost say in celebration - of the depression, both the Christmas cases, for paupers and plutocrats, are much cheaper than they were last year, although the wine is generally better where it is not the same (e.g., Nobilo Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc £5.99 last year, £4.90 this year). Notable innovations this year are a cheap cham- pagne at £9.57 and a Spectator Club Red at the miraculous price of £3.45. There is twice the usual number to offer, and I must be brief.

( 1 ) The 1992 Undurraga Sauvignon Blanc from Chile; still a revelation at £3.75. Where three years ago I noted it as 'crude, flat, oxidised and tanky', this year's is

ORDER FORM SPECTATOR WINE CLUB cio Avery's of Bristol 7 Park Street, Bristol BS1 5NG. Tel: (0272) 214141 Fax: (0272) 221729

No. Code

Price No. Value 1. 433 Undurraga Sauvignon Blanc 1992 12 Bots. £45.00 2. 434 Undurraga Chardonnay 1992 12 Bots. £57.00 3. 435 Nobilo Marlborough Sauvignon

Blanc 1992 12 Bots. £58.80 4. 436 Tyrrells Old Winery Chardonnay

1991 12 Bots. £65.88 5. 437 Spectator Club Red 12 Bots. £41.40 6. 438 Undurraga Reserve Cabernet

Sauvignon 1987 12 Bats. £60.00 7. 439 Beaujolais Villages - Chateau

Bonnet 1991 12 Bots. £69.00 8. 440 Givry Thenard 1988 12 Bots. £105.60 9. 441 Santenay - Remoissenet 1978 12 Bots. £169.80 10. 442 Champagne St Honore a Vertus

Brut - Duval Leroy NV 12 Bots. £114.00 11. 443 Avery's Special Cuvee Champagne

NV 12 Bots. £143.88 12. 444 Mixed case 'A', 2 bottles each

of 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 and 10 12 Bots. £6440 13. 445 Mixed case 2 bottles each

of 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 11 12 Bots. £97.56 TOTAL (Cheque enclosed) Please send wine to: Own name & address, if different: NAME NAME ADDRESS ADDRESS POSTCODE POSTCODE Prices include VAT and delivery on the UK mainland. Payment should be made either by cheque payable to Spectator Wine Club or by Access/Visa order, which may be telephoned or faxed. This offer, which is subject to availability, closes on 31 December 1992, but for pre-Christmas delivery should be received before 1 December 1992.

Access/Visa No: Signature . Expiry date

strong, short and clean with a good grassy- nettly taste. Slight prickle. I find it irre- sistible anyway, and the price helps.

(2) Undurraga Chardonnay 1992 at £4.75. First really good Chilean chardonnaY I have found. Another strong taste - ripe, dry, pineapple, no oil, no butter, slight apple pip but nothing bitter - beautiful fresh drink, never cloys.

(3) Nobilo's Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc of 1992 at £4.90, which has come down in price so spectacularly from the 1990 we offered last year, struck us all as a seriously excellent example. My notes say 'excellently herbaceous. Long, deep, goose- berry leaf flavour.' Others simply wrote `Al', 'utterly delicious', etc. There seems nothing to add, except that the price is £1.09 the bottle less than it was last year.

(4) Tyrrells Old Winery Chardonnay 1991 at £5.49 the bottle is a wonderful example of the ripe, tropical Australian fruit, magnificently buttery but still fresh and bright with enough acid among the gar- lands of flowers to make a wonderfully opulent aperitif. I loved it. (5) The idea for a Spectator Club Red (at the unprecedented price of £3.45) was born in part of the recession, in part of my own enthusiasm for a spotlessly neat, clean, bright ruby-red table wine possessing all the characteristics of the very best table wine from a very famous wine area, except the price. I cannot reveal where this wine is from except that it is in the south-west of France. All I can promise is that it has been chosen with enormous care, and that as a carafe or ordinary drinking wine it is spot- less. I would like to say to all the shivering masses of the world that their wine prob- lems have been solved. With or without food, this Spectator Club Red should cause great happiness throughout the Christmas season. Now I will have to race through the more expensive stuff. (6) Undurraga Reserve Cabernet Sauvi- gnon 1987 at £5.00 is so good I seriously thought of putting it in the plutocrat's mixed case. Proper rich, cabernet smell, good, rich, well-structured taste - several classes above its price. Very slight boat- engine smell is rather pleasant. Seriously good for the price. (7) Beaujolais Villages Château Bonnet 1991 at £5.75. Pierre Perrachon's Beaujo- lais is not too fruity, pleasantly dry, rather pippy on the nose, fresh as a daisy, yearning to be drunk up as an aperitif or as an upmarket party wine - very healthy, verY clean. Belongs to a light school of Beaujo- lais which is fast disappearing and utterlY delicious.

(8) Baron Thenard's 1988 Givry - " Prefere du Roi Henri IV - was offered at exactly the same price of £8.80 last year when I bought three cases which I wiselY laid down. They are now wonderfully smoother and silkier — ready to drink now although I should gutless they will go on Improving for a year or two. It has already overtaken the 1985. The cheapest high- class burgundy from a first-rate year which is ready to drink.

(9) Remoissenet's 1978 Santenay at £14.15 replaces the 1979 which I offered last year at 15 pence more. As might be expected from a better year, the wine . is standing up well, a little brown at the edges, affording the wonderful authentic, unen- durably rare smell and taste of Old Bur- gundy as she always used to be. It is no good, however, pretending that the bottle we tasted had a tremendously long life ahead of it. Some examples from my own cellar are more robust, but I should aim to finish them up this Christmas to avoid pos- sible disappointments.

(10) The champagne St Honore at £9.50 the bottle is an excellently clean dry, light example in an elegant bottle — very respectable, very proper. Practically no bad champagne is made nowadays and this is better than most. It will give immense plea- sure to everyone so long as you do not drink it beside (11) Avery's Special Cuvee Champagne at £11.99, which the rich will recognise as quite easily the best bargain they are likely to find this Christmas. The qualities of this magnificent wine will be obvious to all who taste it, but I shall not enumerate them for fear of making the poor unhappy. (12) and (13) The pauper's mixed case works out at £5.37 the bottle; the pluto- crat's at only £8.13. They both include two bottles of champagne. There is not a dud wine among them. All are magnificent.