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Spectator Wine Club
Auberon Waugh
Last month I promised to move down- market and recommend some cheaper wines and so I have, but the unexpectedly enthusiastic response to the offer of the Nuits St Georges Roncieres 1969 at £8.45 convinces me that Spectator readers' hearts are in the right place, and we are all really interested in the best. Stocks of the Ron- cieres ran out, but Avery's agreed to pro- vide more expensive wine in its place at the same price, and I hope everyone was satisfied.
The trouble with recommending an or- dinary table wine is that there is plenty of it around already at competitive prices. The best I could find under £3 was a Cotes du Rhone Salavert of 1979 which is fuller and better than any of the other Cotes du Rhone I have tried. It also comes in rather a pretty bottle and is certainly good enough to serve at informal luncheon parties. At £2.76 a bottle, I don't think you can find a better French red wine any cheaper.
There have also been murmurs that I should give claret drinkers a look-in. The trouble with claret is that unless you are prepared to root around among bin-ends, everybody knows the form, largely thanks to Hugh Johnson's indispensable Pocket Wine Book (Mitchell Beazley £3.95) and the more you pay the better the wine. The small château next door to Lafite producing equally good wine at a quarter the price is a myth. The nearest I could get to it was a Vrai Croix de Gay 1976 from Pomerol. Vrai Croix de Gay may be next door to Château Petrus, the king of the region, and it is a good, firm wine with all the fleshy characteristics which one expects, but I am not prepared to say it might be mistaken for
a Petrus in the dark. Johnson awartisktil three stars in a box, which is better thaa' gives its other neighbour La Croix-40'6AI' and the next best thing to Petrus, the -: Pomerol to receive four stars. The loll claims I would make for it are that at it tastes considerably more expensive th'fis. is; that it is elegant enough and fairl°0v enough to serve at the most Porinl°,4: dinner party; and that it would he hard indeed to find a better wine frog' known château of this year at anYthill like £5.69. Next comes the wine about which PI!, really excited, although it is bound tool'o. sales resistance. In the last offer I mellti°0. ed the advantage of buying named harg"ei. dies, English-bottled by a reputable chant before the Common Market reSti'1. tions came into force. After that sad evellet. a few merchants continued to buy the 001, production of the famous BurgundY munes but being unable to describe Pees, fully, they gave them brand ha,°10 Bourgogne Rouge 'Simon d' ArtignY' example. All I can say about this wine is that it; the product of a single vineyard, and:rd viously from one of the better-fav%6 Burgundy regions. Some may think 1.'0ng recognise its superb silky finish, but so ,.0 as they are paying only £5.69 a bottle tb' e, will simply have to shut up about what A twill think.' It drinks magnificently now, arl'ars. probably go on improving for ten Y!_,.ve The year 1976 is generally agreed to Bain been a once-in-a-generation experietie0 Burgundy, although I have not yet enough to be sure, and it is all horriblY,Iie pensive. This is a wine connoisseur's ve for those who are not ashamed to seri bfi magnificent bottle of wine vvhose nobody will recognise. For my Part' I ini-PI) I will remove the labels and serve 4 5411:it as an old burgundy, as they do in Frarle less would be easy to pay £12 or £14 for a ,101. good burgundy of this year. If SPeel°10 readers prove up to the challenge, I ,,Y; tO suggest other oddly-named burgun'hotii succeeding months, as I believe this is 3'1916 the only way one can stock up with burgundies before they all disaPPetedlY
Unfortunately, snobbery undoti",,in
plays a part — and an honourable Part 001 the enjoyment of wine. Otherwise we 80001 all turn to Spain. For those wh° quite bring themselves to make that .1000. into the unknown, I suggest a 19724 70. It thelie — again Bristol-bottled — at L" roe is a good wine, even if it lacks the soF8.45, urbanity of last month's Roncieres at will and I don't think that good burgunclYe.IL be available much longer at this Prictocks comes in rather an ugly bottle and ss too are limited. Those whose order arrive ,n its late will be sent the 'Simon d'Artign?!.„. at Psie place, unless they specify to the conto_IvLie am really much more concerned thoro, give these mystery labels a try. The „ate thelie is a good wine from a good conTsur, in a good year, but it does not have th,,iied prise quality of the single vineYard 'Simon d'Artigny'.
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