SIMON HOGGART
Last week someone published a list of the best-selling 'brands' of wine in the UK, and depressing reading it made. At No. 1, Blossom Hill, from California; at 2, Australia's Jacob's Creek; 3, Gallo of California; and at 4, heaven help us, Stowells of Chelsea.
I don't want to be snobbish, and some of these companies make a few half-decent wines. But mostly they are mass-produced, heavily promoted rubbish, put together by chemists to fill the gap in the market created by the admen. People buy them because they are a little afraid of wine; these must be OK, they think, because they sponsor fashionable shows such as Will and Grace and Frasier,
This is sad, because it's so easy to buy first-rate wines, wines made with care, love, and even passion. Since you're not indirectly helping to pay Kelsey Grammer's huge salary, they're much better value too.
All this month's bottles come from Adnams of Southwold. As usual Alastair Marshall and Rob Chase offered me too many marvellous, distinctive, lovingly made wines, so I have felt obliged to choose eight. You can order each by the case — delivery is free, as always — or buy one of two sample cases, an excellent one and a super-duper one. All prices are discounted by between £.4 and £6 a case.
The Touraine Sauvignon 2003(1) is a terrific example of a 2003, bursting with fruit and last summer's sun. It's made specially to Adnams' specifications, and it packs more flavour into one sip than Blossom Hill does in an entire bottle. Marvellous value at £5.34.
White Rioja used to be a pretty feeble, emaciated partner to the red, like a wispy wife teamed with a jovial husband, No longer. This 2002 from Bodegas Bagordi(2) is rich, rounded and fleshy. It would go well with food, but it's also a party wine. And because people will sip it slowly, it will save you money too.
Adnams' own selection Macon Chardonnay is also from the fabulous 2003 vintage(3). In effect it's a glossy white Burgundy at a supermarket price. Paul Talmard makes this as a virtually organic wine; at £6.25 you can afford lots of it.
The Pouilly Fume Caillotes 2002(4) is an intriguing wine. It has a New World style, developed in France to meet the powerful challenge from the Antipodes. It's all a matter of 'canopy management', I gather: deciding how many leaves to prune to let the optimum amount of sunshine hit the grapes. A sumptuous wine, it has all the flavour of New Zealand yet with the elegance of the Loire. Reduced to £8.50.
Now the reds. For £5.34, the Navardia Rioja 2003(s), also from the Bagordi cellars, is smashing. It is smooth and creamy. It spends just three months in oak, so it has real depth without tasting at all woody.
Portuguese wines are suddenly immensely fashionable, and this Quint° do Crasto
2001(6) from the Douro will show you why. This is a delectable, dark and potent drop, very much like a glass of vintage port, only dry. And only £6.50, too.
If I were an Italian winemaker I would be petrified by the arrival of the Ceravolo Sangiovese 2002(7) from the Adelaide Plains. You will be astonished by the fabulous, bursting flavours of fruit, of cherries, plums, blackcurrants. It's also beautifully balanced. Reduced by £7 a case to a frankly unbelievable £7.46.
Finally, a wine we have offered before: the Domaine Richeaume 2002(8) from Provence sold out immediately when I introduced it at an Adnams lunch in Southwold a year or so back. At £9.96 this is made mainly from claret grapes, and would cost at least twice as much if it came from Bordeaux. Scented, exotic, all the aromas somehow both mingle and separate on the tongue. I love this wine, and so will you.
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