6 JULY 1962, Page 37

Wine of the Week

Now and again, perhaps when 1 am a little starved of sugar, because of fighting shy of puddings, I fancy a sweet after-dinner liqueur rather than a brandy. Fortunately, there seems no end to their variety: after a recent Wine and Food Society dinner I came across Royal Combier for the first time, though I now learn that it is on the wine-lists of at least two of the great three-star restaurants of Paris- Lasserre and the. Four&Argent. It is a yellow, herb-flavoured liqueur, rather like yellow Char- treuse and very like . that excellent Basque liqueur, yellow. Izarra„ It, is said to be made from twenty-three different. herbs steeped in cognac. the resultant elixir being matured in oak casks, and is one of the stronger liqueurs 68° proof, the'saiitt as- Grand Marnier and ktimmel, cornPared with' the•.42°-44° of most cherry brandies,''the'64'-bf yellow lzarra and the 75' of yelloW Clitirtrense,.Retailers can get it from H. D. Davies of Bishopsgate, and will charge yous.,a, ia0tLi.p, for it. As Royal Com- bier is made at Sattmur., the home of the French cavalry school, its label bears the picture of a curveting high-school horse.:. •this must not be taken as indicating the effect on dumb animals or what is in fact a partIcitiarl..bland and leni- tive liqueur.

C. R.