SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Before the great Christmas rush starts I thought I would have another look at the remarkable Montes series of Chilean wines which proved so popular last year, and at anything else which Hedley Wright had to show. This is a distinctly cheap offer, work- ing out at under £5 the bottle for the sam- ple case, despite the inclusion of the seri- ously excellent Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 1987 (6) at £8 the bottle. An exciting innovation is the New Zealand Chenin Chardonnay 1990 at £5.25. I hope it does as well as it deserves to do.
These Montes wines from Chile have been winning so many gold and silver medals at international exhibitions that it would be tedious to list them. Sufficient to say that we are not alone in our apprecia- tion of them, but mercifully the price has not yet caught up with the general acclaim. First, the Montes Fume Blanc 1990 (1) at £4.65 the bottle. At last the Chileans seem to be learning about new, clean oak. I tast- ed this wine against a 1989 Pouilly Fume in Thy cellar and it beat it into a cocked hat. It Is a really high class sauvignon with ripe gooseberry leaves, good oak taste, the tini- est touch of sweetness on the finish, right up with the best from Sancerre, and at Scarcely more than half the price. The label is uninspiring, but there is a certain snob- bish pleasure to be had from producing good wine out of improbable bottles. The label on Southern Cross's Chenin Chardonnay (2) might be described as farouche or even as hideous. You will be laughed at if you serve this wine, with its stars on a blue background, but it is utterly delicious at £5.25. Others must have thought of mixing the Chenin blanc with the chardonnay grape before, but I have never consciously tasted such a successful blend. Like Eldridge Pope's Savennieres Clos du Papillon 1989 which is now the crowning glory of the Beak Street Acade- my, this has a solid, rich ripe fruit smell with a touch of buddleia to it (wags will detect Kiwi fruit), turning into a full and interesting wine. There is not a tremendous 'mount of acid in it and I am not sure how it will shape in the future, but it is delicious now as an autumnal and winter white wine.
Now for the reds. The Cuvee du Champfleury (3), shipped by Nathaniel Johnston et Fils from Bordeaux, was extremely popular last October, when it cost £3.50; then one member of the panel found a touch of nettles and cigars, but the rest of us found it a good, strong, clarety, Ordinary wine with nothing spiky, crude or nOpure. It is a de-classified Bordeaux, in a dignified bottle, an unimpeachable wine for daily drinking at £3.75, with less of the mer- lot taste in it than there was in the equally delicious Le Decanter from Baron Frederic de Luze a few months ago. The Villa Montes Cabernet Sauvignon
Jumping in at the deep end
Auberon Waugh
1989 (4) won a gold medal at the huge Vin- expo exhibition in Bordeaux. It is a strong, full cabernet, plenty of fruit, not too much tannin, plenty of bite; I would have thought it might be too pure for some French tastes, who like their cabernet to have little hints of mushroom or sheep mess so that they can talk about its complexity, but at £4.10 this wine is a cleansing experience.
Some who order the Montes Merlot 1990 (5) may be surprised to find that it is labelled 1989, but I am assured that this is an error and the wine is really from the 1990 vintage. Chilean merlot is not at all like young French merlot, rather more like the richer sorts of colonial cabernet: good deep ruby colour, on the damson end of the damson-blackberry-raspberry-blackcurrant spectrum. It is a deeper wine than No.4 with more staying power and possibly some hidden depths. Not many of us, a few years ago, imagined laying down Chilean wine, and there is certainly no need to lay it down, but at the give-away price for a yin de garde of £4.55 it would be worth trying.
Finally, the showpiece of the offer. The price of the Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvi- gnon 1987 (6) is an awkward one, because £8 a bottle is proper money and nobody wants to spend £96 in a hurry for some- thing from the third world which only seri- ous wine drinkers will really appreciate. With a touch of incense or cedarwood on the nose — some would call it eucalyptus — it has enormous length on the palate, ending on a note of plums, violets and the very best cigars. It is a seriously good, seri- ously expensive experience from beginning to end. Some will be tempted to lay it down, but it is so lively, so vibrant, so com- pletely delicious now that I would be fright- ened of its going to sleep. In ten years' time it might be a bit more refined, smoked and porty, but why wait? Timid punters will wait until they have tasted it from the sam- ple case, but by then the trade will be caught up with Christmas. I would advise them to jump straight in the deep end.
The mixed case works out at £4.95 the bottle.
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