SIMON HOGGART
First, an apology. Again. The Lay & Wheeler offer two months ago was so popular that Spectator readers cleaned out all the Chateau Musar available in the UK. Fresh supplies have been earmarked in Lebanon, but they take time to arrive. Perhaps I could write the blurb that would cause you to buy the right quantity (`Chateau Musar: it's not bad, I suppose') but that would be silly. People buy the stuff simply because it's delicious. All I can suggest is that you get your orders in early — you never know which wine might cause the next run.
Such as the remarkable Blue White Chenin Blanc 2002(I) from South Africa, presently home of the finest-value wines anywhere. Chenin Blanc can be a weedy grape, but not this. It's made from vines on average 30 years old, meaning that yields are small but intensely flavoured. There's even a touch of the noble rot here, which will — I am told — develop in the bottle and add layers of complexity to an already delightful, perfumed, fruity and fleshy wine. And reduced to £5.20. Incredible.
In the not too distant past, shippers bottled their own wines under their own label. This practice is not to be confused with, say, generic supermarket brands. When one of our best known merchants — such as Tanners of Shrewsbury, who are making this month's offer — stick their name on a bottle, it's because the contents are first-rate. You wouldn't expect plastic luggage at Louis Vuitton, or Gucci-brand chewing gum. In the same way. Tanners' own white Burgundy 2001(2) is the goods. As they rightly put it, 'could be confused with a "baby Meursault" at a third of the price'. A lovely drop: all that buttery richness combined with minerals a fine French Chardonnay brings. It's reduced to an amazing £6.85.
A reader recently wrote to me from Wales, asking where he could buy Cloudy Bay. I don't know. This Churton Sauvignon Blanc 2003(3) from Marlborough, New Zealand, is made near to the more famous vineyard, and is quite as good, at the far lower price of £7.75. Sam Weaver takes grapes from three different soil types in his vineyards, and the result blends richness with dry grasses and subtle tropical fruits. Yum.
In my ceaseless quest to find Spectator readers a claret that won't strip the money from your wallet or the roof from your mouth. I now offer the Chateau Cru Cantemerle Bordeaux Superieur 2000(5). It is 88 per cent Merlot and only 12 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, which means it is soft and velvety rather than sinewy, unlike some of the flabby, chalky stuff often sold as Bordeaux, costing more than this excellent £6.85.
Tanners' own brand, Rhone Valley Red 2001(6), is also gorgeous. A great Rhone has
a sort of light, heady, perfumed aroma, and this does. I was reminded of perhaps the finest of all red wines from that neck of the woods, Cote Wane. While it isn't quite that good, at a discounted seven quid, who cares?
The last red is a terrific treat. I know many Spectator readers like full, weighty wines with
attitude, wines offering a real snoutful of ripe flavour. The Memorias 2000(7) from the Maipo Valley is a claret-like blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Carmenere, and is a memorial to Jean-Paul Valette, who used to make Chateau Pavie — one of the great wines of St-Emilion. He returned to his beloved Chile to make this but died during the harvest, so will never enjoy what he created. But you can savour the powerful blackcurrants, cherries, chocolate and coffee flavours which make up this astonishing wine—reduced to a tenner.
Finally, and not included in the sample case, is the incredible Viognier 2002(4) from the By Farr vineyard in Victoria. I have not tasted a Viognier as good from anywhere except the tiny Condrieu appellation in the Rhone. Tanners have knocked off £1.80 a bottle, so at £17 it's expensive but sensationally good.
Delivery, as always, is free, and you can take another £3 a case off if you buy three cases or more.
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