SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Clean, stark and handsome
Auberon Waugh
However I decided not to try any chenin blanc from the Loire on Spectator readers for fear they decided I had gone mad. The best dry chenin blanc, in my experience, comes from South Africa, while the, swee- ter varieties are a particular taste which May appeal only to repressed sadists and those With emotional problems. My first, a Provençal white called Com- manderie de la Bargemone(I) is typical of no particular grape, but it excited warmly approving notes and high marks from the panel: 'Clean, stark and handsome'; `Clean, crisp, a few nettles but full and lovely,. Good smell'; 'Could sink a bottle in 20 minutes'; I can't remember what qUality it was in particular which made us all so enthusiastic, but it was chosen from a big group So it must have had something. ObviouSly not a memorable wine, but at P.9$ quite a heavy, alcoholic drink to be taken with a meal. Macon Blanc Villages(2) is an excel- lent example of. what these southern bur- gundies should taste like: light and fruity With a touch of honey, plenty of apples and flowers and sunshine. I. thought it delicious and jumped at it when I saw that at £4.69 it was still appreciably under the dreaded £5 barrier fot White burgundy.
Sancerre seldom features in these offers, partly because new cold fermentation 'tech- niques• mean that other areas — notably Bergerac, Graves, Entre-Deux-Mers and New Zealand — can now make excellent dry sauvignons, and partly because the Parisians' loyalty to sancerre has kept Prices high. But this example from the Domaine de Villots(3) is the best I have tasted for ages — a 'classic sancerre which puts the best of Pouilly Fume to shame. Nettley with the faintest scent of flowers, it explains why Parisians have a passion for it, and might even persuade some English- men to share this passion despite a price of £5.78, which makes it £1.09 more expen- sive than the chardonnay from Macon Villages. I can't really defend the price, except to' say that you won't find bad sancerre much cheaper, and this is good. The main point about my first red(4) is that it costs only £3 and does not come from Bulgaria. Everybody knows what these ventoux from the RhOne taste like. This is a very proper example. It is a good, cheap red wine vinified en café for early drinking. Next a classic* grand rioj,a(5). — barrelly, rude, with a plummy smell and plenty of vanilla, all rescued by an agreeably' tart ending which still leaves it fine for gulping. Riojas are growing more sophisticated and European in style, but this is a splendidly hairy, short-legged example with swagger- ing, low-slung bottom and eyebrows that cross over each other. There are those who buy rioj a as their ordinary drinking wine because it is so cheap, but this is not for them (nor do I recommend it for pregnant mothers unless they want babieS covered in black, curly bristle). This is for those who
like to have different wines available for every mood. Just occasionally one yearns for the thick, oaky taste of unregenerate Spain when the Caudillo was still alive. Admittedly the old boy had been quietly mouldering for six years in his Valley of the Fallen when this wine was made, but a little of his aroma still lingers. An evoca- tive occasional experience at £4.82.
Finally, a burgundy which proves my point that one should never pay the slight- est attention to the label when buying burgundy. The 1982 vintage is universally described as thin and pale, fruity at best but flaccid, without either acid or tannin to give it bite, generally characterless and destined for a short life. In 1982 Gevrey from Jaboulet-Vercherre(6) has intense concentration and stings like a viper. Although paler than I like, it is much less pale than most burgundies of the year. Its heavily packed multiplicity of tastes is only beginning to resolve itself, and the wine should 'not really be drunk for another three or four years at least. But it will be a winner.
I suppose I taste an average 120 red Burgundies for every one which I can buy or recommend to Spectator readers. Like a cat with a dead mouse, I lay it proudly at their feet, labelled £7.79. The sample case, two bottles of each, works out at £60.62 this time, or £5.05 the bottle.
Previous page
