SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
SIMON HOGGART
Once again we return to our old friends at Corney & Barrow, home of the fabled Brett-Smith Indulgence. The wines are already discounted, delivery is already free, but thanks to the Indulgence you can knock yet another £6 off each case if you order for the same address three or more (or just two if you live in C&B’s delivery area, within the M25).
I hesitate to suggest cheating, but you could save some pretty decent sums by beefing up your order with the cheaper bottles, such as C&B’s excellent house wines the white1, which is already immensely popular with Spectator readers, and is full, flowery and lemony; and the red5, which is fruity and silky. You can get these excellent wines for only £4.52 a bottle, and put your savings towards even finer ones. Or buy one of our two sample cases.
I loved La Tour de Monestier 20022 from Bergerac, where increasingly the growers are rivalling their neighbours in Bordeaux. This is lovely, rounded, crisp and even fat, if that’s not a silly word to use about a wine. I think it’s sensational value at £6.03 — that’s before the Indulgence — and will be laying in supplies.
White Rully can sometimes be disappointing, but the name of Olivier Leflaive, the celebrated Burgundy négociant, always means that the wine will be somewhere between first-rate and excellent. This Rabourcé 1er Cru 20033 is very good indeed. I love quoting the French experts because they go wildly over the top, though it’s hard to argue with much of this: ‘notes of hedgerow flowers, or acacia, honeysuckle, very delicate elderberry, violet, white peach, lemon and gunflint, often mixed with honey and buttered toast’. That’s not a wine; it’s a bodice-ripper. You and your inamorata are enjoying breakfast in a flower-decked room, when suddenly Sir Jasper bursts in with his flintlock....
Spectator readers hardly need telling about the Ch. de Sours Rosé 20044; you’ve been buying it now for four summers. It’s really a claret, a red Bordeaux from which the skins are whisked out after a short time, imparting the flavour of a claret but leaving a fresh, fullbodied pink wine. Just right for the excellent coming summer, ideal on its own but also well able to stand up against red meats. Just £8.32, before the Indulgence.
The Blouvlei red 20036 is from South Africa and I think it’s sensationally good at the price — a mere £5.53 with the Indulgence. It’s made from the same grapes as claret, blended smoothly together, and has more flavour and sheer whoomph than many wines at much higher prices. It’s made by an all-woman co-operative, a fact which may not impress Spectator readers but naturally impresses us Guardian writers. It’s perfect for parties, and for the kind of spring meal which involves opening several bottles.
Friuli, in north-eastern Italy is, you might say, a promiscuous wine-growing area. They will try anything — any grape, any style. They don’t care. But they do make some startlingly good wines. The Colli Orientali DOC in Friuli is small, but you’ll find 17 different grapes grown there, including Cabernet Franc. This is usually the bridesmaid in Bordeaux, the original 10 per cent grape (Château Cheval Blanc apart, of course), but in this La Tunella 20027 it comes bursting out of the bottle. It tastes of bruised damsons, which is a lot nicer than it might sound. Gorgeous and rich.
Finally, the Ch. La Croix-Canon 19998 is from Canon-Fronsac near Libourne. It’s more than four-fifths Merlot, making it resemble a fine Pomerol or St. Emilion deep, cedary, mature and certainly ready to drink now. Hachette rates it one of the best half-dozen grown in this small and distinguished appellation. It’s an old-fashioned wine in some ways, and none the worse for that. All prices below are pre-reduction for Indulgence.
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