SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Excellent overlooked clarets
Auberon Waugh
The last Wine Club offer of the year concerns itself exclusively with mature clarets from years which are seldom, if ever, described as classics. It proved im- possible this year (as I feared it would) to make up an offer of mature burgundies at reasonable prices. In fact, I fear we have seen the last of them, although I shall continue to search for parcels of mature burgundy so long as I live. Even mature bordeaux is hard enough to find at non- satirical prices. My search for good wine among the unfashionable years ended up with two 1977s, two 1973s and two quite exceptional 1972s, all of which struck me as being at their peak for present drinking, and very good bargains indeed at the reduced prices which Berry Bros have given us. By buying good wine from unfashionable years, one is cashing in on all the wine snobbery and semi-informed ignorance of the new wine drinkers, as well as making fools of the wine investors who will never touch these years, while happily spending three, four or even ten times the amount on indifferent wine from officially approved vintages, like 1975 and 1970. Château d'Angludet(1) is an unclassified but famous Margaux owned and run by Peter Sichel. The usual complaint about 1977s is that they are stalky and green, but this example, English bottled by Berry Bros, has a nice, elegant smell and nothing nasty in the taste. Perhaps the taste is a little subdued by comparison with greater years, but at £5.95 it is a very, very proper bottle of bordeaux.
Château Palmer needs no introduction. Everybody swears it should be reclassified as a first growth, and the prices it com- mands generally seem to assume that it has been. In 1977 it produced a wine with a lovely nose which is quitp delicious, in its modest way a stunner/ At £11.95 the bottle(2) or £23.90(3) the magnum it offers an opportunity to taste a grand yin at its peak which, so lo g as it is not tasted beside the wine o a great year, will give as much satisfact. n.
The year 973 produced soft, flabby wines in Bordeaux which for the most part are now descending rapidly. Only the best wine-makers were able to make anything which has stood the course, and these need hunting out. My own success with a Beychevelle from Reid Wines of Hallatrow egged me on, and I honestly think that these two are exceptional bargains. The Cheval Blanc(4) is a beautiful wine, smooth as butter, more obvious than the Haut Brion(5) but with a lot of interest in it. It lacks depth vis-à-vis the great vintages of 1966 and 1964 and certainly cannot be compared with the incomparable 1947, but it has all the tastes of a premium grand cru A St Emilion, slightly subdued. Similarly, the Haut Brion 1973 is a beautifully made, beautifully balanced wine with the utterly proper premier cru taste of toasted gravel. At £49 the magnum neither of these wines can be faulted except on oomph — and more oomph, in the context of a classic year, would cost another £100 the mag- num.
Neither of the 1972s can be faulted on oomph, and even if the Beychevelle(7) can be faulted by the pernickety on balance, I feel they are the best bargains. Gazin is not a château I have ever held in particular regard, but this example) is quite simply stunning. I would not have been surprised to hear it was a 1961. At £7.80 it strikes me as the best buy of the lot, with its lovely rich merlot nose and good, strong taste which follows through all the way to a triumphant finish. Nobody would expect it of an indifferent château in a frankly poor year, but the Gazin jumped out from the rows of 1972 and knocked me sideways. I have offered the Beychevelle 1972 before, when it won loud praise. Nobody will believe me when I say I think it has improved in the last 12 months, and I agree it seems unlikely. Despite its lovely deep colour and rich, burned caramel nose, it may need drinking. It is not totally ba- lanced — one almost fears it will grow a turban — but it is a terrific, thick wine, deep and old and thoroughly mature. At under £10 the bottle it would make ideal drinking on Christmas Day, holding its own even against the Christmas pudding. I doubt if I shall be able to offer them again, but Berry Bros still have plentiful stocks of all these wines (except the magnums which may run out). The important thing, in any case, is to get orders off as soon as possible to ensure that the wine has time to recover before Christmas.
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