SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Wonderful discoveries in Bristol
Auberon Waugh
An excellent pre-Christmas offer from Avery's this year, for which they have given Spectator readers the most generous discounts. I see from my files that it took the panel three months to settle on these wines from the huge choice of excellent wines on offer, with four separate tastings.
First the Macon Blanc Villages 1985 from Mommessin at £5.17 the bottle(1). Some may remember the 1983 example of this wine which I offered early last year and served over luncheon at my daughter's wedding. The 1985 has a nice, gentle, soft flavour, good nose and is already well- balanced. Nobody could possibly dislike it or disapprove of it in any way. A thorough- ly well-bred example of a minor white burgundy, the exact antithesis of the noisy but delicious Australian chardonnays I have been celebrating all this year. I do not imagine I will be buying — or even offering — any white burgundy from within a 20-mile radius of Beaune in the forseeable future, but these white maconnais are still just about affordable and much better value for money. Avery's have reduced its price from £5.90.
At less than £1 extra (but sadly over the £6.00 barrier) Noel Pourantru's 1985 Chablis(2) is firmer and crisper than the Macon Villages with a good appley nose. It is an altogether more decisive wine and a credit to the name of chablis. I was surprised to find a chablis of this quality able to be offered at £6.07 (Avery's have reduced it from £6.83) and do so with pride, against the firm prejudice of those who believe that anything called chablis must, by definition, be overpriced.
Next my last Australian wine of the year. Rouge Homme's 1984 Cabernet Sauvignon(3) from Coonawarra, arrives co- vered with gold medals and trophies in what was a classically excellent vintage for dry reds in South Australia. Obviously it will gain complexity with age, but already it has the overpowering blackcurrant smell and hugely concentrated rich, almost `sweet' taste of pure Australian cabernet at its best. I am sorry there are no clarets in this offer. This cabernet from Coonawarra, at £5.56 (miraculously reduced from £6.13) beat them all into a cocked hat.
Next, my chief delight of the offer. All this year I have been searching for really good, old-fashioned burgundy which I could buy in huge quantities to see me through the next few years. Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace. This Givry(4) from Remoissenet will jump out, waving its arms, at any tasting. It may be some sort of fluke. I have drunk earlier vintages of Remoissenet's Givry from the Domaine de Baron Thenard, also known as Le Prefere du Roi Henry IV and always
thought them good, but never felt the need to sing about them before. This is the true, the Bristol Hippocrene: lovely dark colour, Avery's smell, deep, long-lasting burgundy flavour such as one practically never finds nowadays. I believe huge stocks of it have gone to the Garrick Club, where those who disbelieve me can go and taste it. At £6.45 the bottle I ordered five cases as soon as I had tasted it and will probably have ordered another ten by the time you read this, if I can get the money together. Anybody who under-orders and misses the closing date for re-ordering will have to pay the list price of £86.25 the case or £7.19 the bottle — still a bargain, I would judge, but rather less of one than getting it now for £6.45.
The next wine is another good red Burgundy — yes, perhaps slightly fuller
than the Givry — chosen from many hundreds of these attractive, forward 1985s. Henri Clerc's red Puligny Montrachet(5) is cheap by the standards of other Cote de Beaunes, but it is still nearly £40 the case more expensive than the Givry, and I am afraid this removes much of the gilt from the gingerbread. Anyone who has attended enough 1985 burgundy tastings will know that £9.75 is a very reasonable price for a wine of this quality, but I cannot really sing about it when the Givry is so much cheaper. For those who are too grand to buy their burgundy from the Cote Challonaise, this is the best I have been able to find under £10.
Finally, Avery's have agreed to repeat , last year's special price of £99 delivered for their Avery's Special Cuvee Champagne. This represents a saving of nearly £1.25 a bottle on the list price. At £8.25 the bottle (against £13.45 for Lanson Black Label, for instance, which is much less good) it must prove irresistible to the many Specta- tor readers who flocked to buy it last year.
I have warned them to expect a rush. My own, post-tasting order, if anyone is in- terested, was for five cases of the Givry, two of the Rouge Homme Cabernet and one of the champagne. The last is already finished and Christmas still coming.
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