SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Grand cru giveaways
Auberon Waugh
THIS would have been a very cheap offer indeed if I had not recklessly decided to add a grand cru St Emilion and a premier cru burgundy at the end. In fact, both of these are extraordinarily cheap by their rat- ings, especially the claret. The point I am trying to make is about the 1994 vintage. This, in my experience, is superior to the 1993s in Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhone, and superior to the more favoured 1995s for current drinking. For some rea- son I do not understand, the trade is selling the 1994s comparatively cheaply. As I say, a sound grand cru St Emilion at £8.33 is given away, and even the Mercurey at £9.08 provides a delicious burgundy taste for the money. So I don't think the mixed case average of £6.15 is excessive, and don't think it necessary to provide two mixed cases, one for paupers, one for plutocrats. Now for the wines. Those who think it smart to groan at any mention of Aus- tralian chardonnay should go straight to jail without passing 'Go'. This example (1) is bright and fresh with only a touch of honey to betray its colonial origins. It is not oppressively varietal and some might have difficulty in identifying the grape, but it is a good, solid, fruity wine, particularly excel- lent when drunk slightly cooler than would be normal for a white burgundy, and cheap at £4.75 for a reserve chardonnay, or any wine of this class.
Bollini's pinot grigio of 1996(2) had everyone raving about its taste of the sun, its touch of incense. Even I, with an inbuilt Prejudice against Italian whites, found it a pleasant and dignified wine for summer drinking, and was prepared to forgive a slight dustiness on the nose. At £5.23 it will make a change, and many will adore it. There is a similar resistance to muscadet among Spectator readers — chiefly, I think, on class grounds — but they do make some splendid wines at Sevre et Maine, wherever that may be, and this special selection(3), aged on its lees, is a prime example at £5.31.
Now for the reds. We first tasted the 1994 Cotes du Rhone from Serignan and we all fell over ourselves with excitement, thinking we had found another Cailloux. The 1995 which replaced it almost immedi- ately is a good, light Rh8ne without the depth or roundness of the '94, but very well priced at £4.18.
The 1994 Château St Christophe, Grand Cru St Emilion(5) (which replaced the 1993) is a good, ripe claret, ready for drink- ing, but will keep a year or two. It has a proper merlot taste without any of the mud or vegetables which sometimes attach to older St Emilions, and should impress guests, especially if you make my little speech about the superiority of the 1994s.
Now for the Mercurey(6) at the disagree- able price of £9.08. This is a very pale wine, a classic example of the new light red bur- gundy which is deliciously easy to drink and very elegant. Colonials and third-worlders are beginning to master the heavy pinot taste — in north-west America, California and Australia, if not quite in Chile or Argentina — but only the New Zealanders have produced good, light pinot noir, and it is quite different.
The mixed case, as I have said, works out at £6.15 the bottle. It might be the best way to approach the two expensive reds. The three whites, in their different ways, are quite exceptional.
Previous page
