SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
More reasonable with age
Auberon Waugh
To my amazement, I discovered that the last Spectator Wine Club offer from Berry Bros was nearly nine years ago, in 1988. It was all French, all from classic areas, all red, announcing itself as the last opportunity to buy mature claret at reason- able prices — a Beychevelle and a La Mis- sion Haut Brion (admittedly of 1972) and old-style burgundies for laying down. Two classic premiers crus of 1985 were offered. The six wines averaged out at £11.58 the bottle.
Such offers were never to be repeated, of course. Nine years later, the six wines aver- age £5.91 the bottle — scarcely more than half the 1988 average. None of the wines has a famous name, but I maintain that the English wine-drinker is better off today than he was ten years ago. It is this secret, unacknowledged feel-good factor which drives people to the folly and extravagance of voting Labour.
If the Spectator Wine Club carries any of the blame for our future suffering, I can only make appropriate gestures of peni- tence, but I have to admit that of the wines in the new Berry Bros offer all are ready to drink now, none is overripe or tired and all are delicious, in their different ways.
First, the Doornberg Steen(1) from the Breede River Valley at £4.40. Steen, I should explain, is South African for the chenin blanc of Anjou and the Loire. One member of the panel seemed to be describ- ing this full peachy wine as `actressy' but I think she may have wanted to describe it as citrusy. Everybody liked it and thought it a bargain at its price.
Next a classic white Bordeaux from Graves(2) reduced to £6.25 from £6.95. The 1995 Château L'Etoile shows very little oak, I was pleased to observe, but has a wonderful, expensive taste and smell which last a long time — say three or even four days in the fridge after opening.
Now for the reds. The 1993 Château Chevillon(3) was specially chosen for Berry Bros by Mr Anthony Barton, from some- Me — I'm just a flower seller '
where or other in the Medoc. It comes in the pretty, old St James's Street label, showing that Berry Bros was first estab- lished in the 17th century, and at £4.70 the bottle might convince people that nothing much has changed. A very decent, quiet claret, not shouting around or showing off but homely and comforting and kind.
The Corbieres(4) came down from £5.55 to £4.95 and the G5tes du Rhone(5) from £6.50 to our price of £5.95. I was so appalled by the original prices that I tended to mark the wines down as a result. In fact, the minor wines of the southern Rhone have been improving even as the grander ones, like Chateauneuf and Gigondas, have been following their Burgundian cousins into the quagmire of overpricing. This 1992 Cotes du Rhone(5) from somewhere called St Esteve d'Uchaux is a thoroughly good wine for which one must expect to pay £6. It is also an observable fact that many minor vineyards in southern France pro- duced exceptionally good wine in 1994. Hence the Corbieres(4), which is a bargain, allowing for our iniquitous Eurosceptic' wine duties, at £5.
Finally, a Spanish wine which is not even from the Rioja (of which most of us have heard) at the abominable price of £9.20 the bottle. I can tell you nothing about Ismael Arroyo's 1990 Crianza from the Ribera del Duero(6) except that I could only get its price down 50p the bottle. For some reason the whole panel fell in love with it, declared it to be overpoweringly grand and the essence of the best Spanish wine. Carried away, I bought a case of it and have since drunk three or four bottles with enormous pleasure. Everybody to whom I have given it has been polite, even enthusiastic, but I have told no one how much it cost.
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