SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Staying with the French
Auberon Waugh
AN all-French offer of country wines aver- aging £4.74 a bottle on the mixed case. It does not celebrate that the Brits have been driven out of the classic regions of Bur- gundy and Bordeaux (although we have, of course) so much as that the minor French wine areas, especially in the south, are now making some seriously good wine. Only two of the six are appellation control& Chateau Pechaurieux, which is Bergerac when red and Montravel when white. I thought them so good that I have decided to offer a separate case, six,bottles of each. But they are all good wines, and nearly all £5 or under.
The white Pechaurieux 1995(') moved up in the markings the more we tasted it. At 65 per cent sauvignon and 30 per cent semillon, the sauvignon is still very much on top, making it a full, long, surprisingly grand taste at £4.72 delivered. It ended with very high marks indeed and a strong recommendation from the panel.
The Domaine de Gourgazaud's 1995 chardonnay(2) was good on first tasting, rather better the day after it was opened, after a night in the fridge, which is always a Positive sign. At £5.23 a bottle it is the most expensive wine in the offer, but it is becom- ing hard to find a decent chardonnay at less than this, even from the colonies. This one is definitely French — melony/lemon smell, no oil, not much acid.
The rosé from St Martin de la Gar- rigue(3), in the village of Montagnac, between Sete and Pezenas, had the importer, Simon Wrightson, raving and drooling with excitement. It is very pale, a mixture of Provençal and Rhone grapes syrah, grenache, mourvedre, cinsault with 20 per cent merlot. The panel found it a perfectly correct example of the sort of rosé people used to 'discover' on holiday in the South of France. It is suitably alcoholic at 12.5 and may be just what they need in Darlington and points north as they impa- tiently await the spring.
The Syrah Le Midi 1995 from the Vignerons des Trois Terroirs(4) is also memorable for being the sort of red wine people used to talk about finding in the South of France — deep, deep purple red, sticking to the teeth like black glycerine but is much more delicious, I feel, than anything Keats wrote about. It has a lovely, strong, young syrah smell, and tastes tan- nic, strong and full of fruit. A wonderful accompaniment to strong beef stews or venison, it needs to be drunk soon after opening as it had lost most of its fruit next day. At £4.02 the bottle delivered, I see it as a welcome and unusual addition to any- one's collection.
Next the Pechaurieux Rouge 1992 from Bergerac(5), which would strike me as a seriously good bargain at £5.50 or even £6, let alone the asking price of £4.70 deliv- ered. An elegant, slightly brown colour is no preparation for a truly wonderful, rich cabernet smell. The taste lives up to it. Per- haps this wine is a freak in its year and provenance, but people would be mad not to snap it up. It has an elegant, dignified label, too. The two Pechaurieux are defi- nitely the stars of the offer, with the funny, black Syrah Le Midi(4) nuzzling up behind.
Which is hard luck on the Domaine St Martin de la Garrigue 1994 Rouge(6), from the HerauIt. This is a much darker colour
and altogether thicker than No.5, with more merlot in it than cabernet. It may well turn into something seriously good in a year or two, when the furry tannin has sub- sided and the high concentration of taste has settled down. That will be our next les- son, as we get poorer and poorer and see all the classic wines of France snapped up by Dutch teachers, Belgian ticket inspec- tors and now even Russian currency specu- lators.
We must learn to lay down strange, thick, funny red wines from unknown villages in places where English families once went on holiday to find the natives quaint and unspoiled. In a way, it may be more fun to chance your arm at £5.08 a time and wait a couple of years than it is to buy a known Bordeaux at £10 or £12 and wait ten years in confident expectation. I do not know. The sample case, as I have said, works out at £4.74 the bottle delivered, and there is an extra opportunity to buy six each of the two Pechaurieux at £4.70.
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