SPECTATOR WINE CLUB

First come, first served

Auberon Waugh

An enviable characteristic of this offer is the amount which Lay & Wheeler have been prepared to knock off their list prices to secure the custom of Spectator Wine Club members and deliver the wine (with the greatest efficiency of all our suppliers, I feel) to their homes. The first wine('), a sauvignon from the Herault, has the excellent, full, fresh, grassy, slightly obvious taste of the French sauvignon, but struck me as exceptionally refreshing with it. At £4.75, it has been reduced by 54p the bottle, or £6.48 the case, before it reaches you.

The next wine(2) may be harder to sell at £6.85 (reduced from £7.54, a reduction of 69p, or £8.28 the case) simply because of the new snobbery against Australian wines from people who have bought badly. This wine is very Australian, but it is also superbly fruity, with hints of peaches and cream and pineapple. Timid people will fear being laughed at by their friends, but it is a delicious, concentrated, quite complex wine, to be drunk as an aperitif or with fish, cheese or practically anything. It has no cardboard, no glue, no diesel, no over-oak- ing. Try it and see.

Third, a Sancerre (Chavignol's Les Comtesses)(3) which has been reduced by more than a pound, from £8.99 to £7.95. This is an excellent example of the fuller Sancerre, soft rather than steely, but clean as a whistle and very nice at this reasonable price.

The Bordeaux Château Tour Chapoux 1993(4) has also been reduced by a pound from £4.99 to £3.99. At first appearance it seems too pale, but after a bottle or two one realises that it is superbly good light claret. Its greatest advantage is that it tastes like claret, it is claret, in the lighter style infinitely more drinkable than the heavy merlot-scented beverages from the right bank which pass as good ordinary claret. This really is good ordinary claret, and it may come as a revelation to many people. I am only sorry that Lay & Wheeler cannot offer more than 200 cases. First come, first served.

Claret may be for boys, but anybody would be happy to be a boy in company with the Tour Chapoux. Next we have a Spanish red(5) which I would characterise as being especially suitable for teenagers of both sexes. The Senorio de Nava from Ribera del Duero is nice and easy, full of fruit, almost sweet and nice enough to make teenagers drunk without making them obstreperous. Real winos will knock back bottle after bottle of the Tour Chapoux at £3.99 without the need of Company to share it with, but the Nava is more of a social wine at £4.35 (reduced from £4.99). Finally, the 1988 Musar at last. I defy anyone to offer this wine cheaper deliv- ered. The price of £7.25 delivered repre- sents a cut of £1.82 on the admittedly rather absurd price of £9.07 which applies elsewhere. It was largely on the strength of their generous offer over the Musar pricing that Lay & Wheeler secured this offer in addition to their usual one in December, and I strongly advise people to take advan- tage of it.

The 1988 Musar is moving further away from the Medoc where the 1986 and 1987 seemed to be heading, and back towards the southern Rh6ne. But the taste of this amazing wine from the Lebanon is unique, as previous purchasers will know. The 1988 is perhaps a tiny bit of a carica- ture of the Musar style, but aficionados will love it, as I did. It is very forward and ready for drinking now, delicious and full, unlikely to improve, with a faint hint of cigars in its strange, dark-skinned oriental package. At £7.25 it is almost literally being given away. Anybody with any money left in the bank should spend it on this, as I have done. The mixed case works out at £5.86 the bottle.

ORDER FORM SPECTATOR WINE CLUB

c/o Lay & Wheeler Ltd,

6 Culver Street West, Colchester, Essex CO1 UT. Tel: (01206) 767670 Fax: (01206) 560002

Price No. Value White

Sauvignon Domaine La Fadeze,

Vin de Pays, 1993 12 Bois. £57.00

Tilly's Vineyard Semillonl

Chardonnay Henschke, 1993 12 Bois £82.20

Red 4. Sanceire Blanc Les Comtesse, 199312 Bots.

Château Tour Chapoux Bordeaux, 1993 12 Bots. f95.40 £47.88

Senorio de Nava, Tinto Joven

Ribera del Duero, 1993 12 Bots. £52.20

Château Musar, Lebanon, 1988 12 Bois. £87.00 Mired 7. 2 bottles of each 12 Bots. £70.28

TOTAL (Cheque enclosed)

Please send wine to: Own name & address, if different: NAME NAME ADDRESS ADDRESS POSTCODE POSTCODE TELEPHONE TELEPHONE Prices include VAT and delivery on the mainland. Payment should be made either by cheque, payable to Spectator Wine Club, or by AccessNisa, which may be telephoned or faxed.

This offer, which is subject to availability, closes on 30 June 1995.

AccesssNisa No.

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