SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Simon Hoggart
I WAS discussing the present disturbing times over lunch with my old boss, Ian Aitken of the Guardian. 'What should we do to keep ourselves cheerful and sane on such dark days?' I asked. 'I believe,' he said gravely after some thought, `that the answer lies in alcohol.'
He's right. Obviously, just getting drunk is no solution, but the comfort and solace to be found in a good wine, enjoyed at home with friends or loved ones, is not to be underestimated. I think that any of the bottles in this month's offer will help to raise our spirits at a recession-proof price.
To assemble the offer, I headed north to the village of Manfield in North Yorkshire, where Simon Wrightson conducts business from his splendid Georgian house, Manfield Grange. In the dining-room, surrounded by portraits of his ancestors (and some perhaps-ancestors), with the sun gleaming on the rose garden outside, we tasted a great variety of delightful wines. Once again, the choice was so wide and so difficult that I have selected seven of them, and the tasting case again contains 15 bottles.
First is a deliciously fat, crisp and juicy Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, Tierra Arena 2000(1). The vineyard there is particularly sunny and you can really taste the consequent richness. It's a very fine buy at £4.50.
Next is a wine of, I think, quite remarkable value. At only £6, the Vouvray Le Clos Vigneau 19990 is delicious. All Vouvray is made from the Chenin Blanc grape. In the New World this can make for thin, insipid fluids, but in the Loire valley it produces a full, round, honeyed wine with flavours of orange and melon and grapefruit. Vouvray has not been all that popular lately, being a bit too sweet for some palates, but this would make a gorgeous aperitif or the perfect accompaniment to a dessert of fruit. Please do try it, if only in the sampler case.
South African wines have improved hugely since the end of apartheid. One of Simon's craftiest discoveries is the Deetlefs Estate in the Breede Valley near Cape Town. Their Sauvignon Blanc 2000(3) is left 'sur lie' — on its own lees — to give it a richer, plumper flavour. It has the new-mown grass and gooseberry flavours of a Sancerre or New Zealand equivalent, but it is creamier, almost like a Chardonnay. A very refreshing change, and well worth buying at £6.46.
The Domaine de L'Arneillaud 2000( is an amazing wine made by Nick Thompson, who used to be an engineer on Teesside. Made from Grenache, Syrah and the once despised but now cherished Carignan grape, it's bursting with wonderful, powerful flavour. It needs a bit of air or decanting to bring out its strength, and it's a snip at £4.25.
So is the Parra] 2000 from Argentina(5) costing a most reasonable fiver a bottle. This is made from the light and fresh Tempranillo grape, plus a local variety, Bonardo.
It has yummy flavours of mint and cedar and chocolate, and would be good ever so slightly chilled. A case would be perfect for a long-lasting, boozy lunch party.
I find the phrase `good, ordinary claret', which appears on many bottles of red Bordeaux, deeply depressing. 'This'll do, for want of anything really worth drinking,' it seems to imply. But Château Pasquet 1996(6) is good,
extraordinary claret and remarkable value at £6. Five years' maturing has given it the leathery, cigary whiff of a Bordeaux costing at least half as much again.
Back to Deetlefs for our final choice. Pinotage is South Africa's native red grape, being a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault. It can have rather a muddy taste, which aficionados enjoy; sometimes the fans, like dirty old men in a porn shop, mutter to their merchants, 'Have you got anything . . . muddier?' But this Pinotage(7) is much nicer than that, being rich and juicy and full of delicious burgundy-style flavour, at a much lower price — £7.20. And 1 per cent of that goes to abolishing landmirleS, offering you a sense of virtue to go with the inner glow induced by the wine.
All bottles are discounted on the list price, some quite heavily, and of course carriage is free. There is a further 5 per cent discount if you buy five cases or more. The sampler case(8) contains two of each wine, though three of the Tierra Arena, and that is also further discounted and works out at only £5.28 the bottle. I think they'll cheer us all up.
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