E l Vino has always been a wonderfully old-fashioned kind of
place — dark, leathery, the whiff of cigars and old claret. Go to the main branch in Fleet Street, near the law courts in the Strand, and you'll find it full of chaps in wigs and gowns celebrating a victory with champagne, or downing a consolatory glass of Château Thames Embankment. The 'new' El Vino, just north of Blackfriars Bridge, is frequented by journalists from the grander papers, if there are any such left.
Recently Anthony Mitchell has been trying to bring the old Firm up to date, bringing in wines from around the world. Women may stand at the bar, and men no longer need a jacket and tie. Even the food is more modern, though you'll still find smoked salmon and steak and kidney pie. It's a slow, ongoing, very un-New Labour sort of project. The hope is, perhaps, that the older customers will not notice things have changed. while the younger clientele will.
Take their labels. El Vino still bottle a lot of their own wine and the label with its crest (`Bottle, Case, Cask') and the curly writing — 'From the Famous El Vino Cellars' — is pleasingly antiquated, though even this has been gussied up and made simpler. It's a nice label for your table, speaking of wise cellaring. good value and years of experience in the trade. The firm celebrates its 125th birthday this year.
I love their Sauvignon de St Bris 2003(1), which we have offered before to much acclaim. St Bris is an island in the middle of Chablis territory, the only commune there allowed to grow Sauvignon Blanc. It's a lovely, refreshing, lemony wine, with the backbone provided by that chalky soil plus the juicy fruit of its grape. At £6.85 a bottle, it can easily hold its own against its New Zealand equivalent.
The Viu Manent Sauvignon 2004(2) from Chile is actually made by a New Zealander. At £5.80 it's slightly cheaper, but it has that full, lively, rounded, ever so slightly buttery flavour you'd expect from a New World wine. A wine to glug in quantity.
I told Anthony that I didn't greatly care for the label on the Spring Water Creek Chardonnay 2003 from McLaren Vale(3). It is yellow and rather minimalist. He said ruefully that he himself had designed it. I decided to stop digging, and tasted the wine itself, which is excellent — slightly oaked, but not enough to deaden the fresh savour of the grape, and with a long taste in the mouth, as we wine bores say. Excellent value at £7.80, and sealed with a screw cap, so there's no chance of it being corked.
Back to Viu Manent for their Malbec 20030/. This is a very special wine, and at £5.80 quite a special price. It's made from the same grape as the French Cahors, but much less tannic, being soft, rich, dark and chocolaty — a real winter-wanner of a drink and perfect to go with stews and casseroles.
My quest for good-value clarets — under
taken as the Bordelais begin grubbing up thousands of hectares of second-rate vines — brings me now to this Chateau Le Priolat 2001(5) from the Cotes de Francs, which is gentle and fruity and a very nice drop. At just £6.35, it's perfect if you want a good, agreeable claret for daily quaffing.
By contrast, El Vino's own-brand Barossa Valley Shiraz/Cabernet 2001(6) is a stonking great wine, stacked with flavour, as big and as open as Crocodile Dundee bellying up to a bar. An absolutely classic Oz red, and priced at only £6.75.
In the past we have offered El Vino's celebrated Velvin(7), which is sourced in Beaune and is overproduction from Burgundy. It's always been enormously popular, and at £4.50 is very cheap (not in the sample case).
All prices are discounted. Delivery is of course free; with the exception of Velvin, take another £1 per case off if you order two or three cases, £1.50 if you order four or more.
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