SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
Early drinking and a stake in the future
Auberon Waugh
This month we return to the southern Rhone, partly to accommodate those tradi- tionalists who are simply not prepared to make the leap to Australia, but also because the southern Rhone continues to make excellent, fruity, soft wines for early drinking which have not yet been subjected to the horrible price increases elsewhere. This Coteaux du Tricastin (I), from the producers of St Pantaloon-les-Vignes shows that in the south, at least, 1985 produced beautiful, clean, forward wines, noticeably less hard than the 1984s. For such a young wine, it is extraordinarily smooth with no punitive elements whatev- er. Nobody can possibly dislike it; it has all the qualities necessary in a daily drinking wine which one can go on drinking without boredom or disgust for many months. The Lirac(2) from Roger Sabon was extremely popular with the panel, scoring an average of nine out of ten. Although the proportion of syrah to grenache is probably no higher than in the previous wine, the taste is distinctly more syrah-like, the fruit stronger. Good acidity means it will keep longer than the Tricastin but it makes very pleasant drinking now.
Both the previous wines are too young to have much smell. The Visan0), with another four years of bottle age, makes up for this with a proper smell which prepares you for a really well-bred wine of great lenght and fruit. It must be rare to find such elegance in a Cotes du RhOne Village.
I was highly impressed and awarded it ten out of ten at its price of £4.66 the bottle. This seems to me exactly the sort of price-range where we should be looking for good wine nowadays. It is easy to find wine which is cheaper and which caters for particular tastes — like my own for Zinfan- del — but this is a high-class wine by any standards anywhere, and it is one which has not yet priced itself beyond the reach of middle class Englishmen. Roger Combe's Vacqueyras(4) is strong, leafy and stalky, needing three or four years, I should judge. Combe is a good wine maker and I have no doubt it will turn into something very good, or I would not offer it. His price of £5.06 is not much to pay for a yin de garde, but it is no use pretending it tastes very nice now. Usseglio 1984 Chateauneues) is included really for the benefit of those who like good Chateauneuf but cannot quite afford the Beaucastel(6). The Usseglio looks just as grand, in its papally embossed bottles, and has the additional chic of a small wine grower producing thoroughly sound wine, but Beaucastel is emerging as the Latour of Chateauneuf: a really think wine of great complexity which, surprisingly enough, is absolutely ready to drink now. No doubt it will keep for forever — I have never drunk a Beaucastel so old that it has gone over the top. When I tasted it I did not know the price, but decided I would offer it if it was under £132 the case, or £11 a bottle. At £103.27, or £8.60 the bottle, I judge it very reasonable. Beaucastel is the grandest of all Chateauneufs, and this rich, fruity 1980 example is miraculously accessible now. It arrives in wooden boxes, like the great wines of Bordeaux. I do not know why, but it always makes me very happy when wine arrives at my door in wooden boxes. One feels one has a stake in the future. Apart from the Beaucastel, my own pick of the bunch this time is the Visan, which struck me as a seriously excellent and elegant wine, but they are all pretty good, and there is no need to apologise for any.
So huge has been the demand for Au- stralian wines — there will be at least three other offers 'this year — that stock of Kalimna Bin 28 Shiraz 1983 and Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 1982 are ex- hausted. The 1984 vintages, which I tasted in Adelaide, will be arriving in May. I have proposed a Koonunga Shiraz Cabernet 1984 to replace the Kalimna; it is a few pounds cheaper. But the Bin 389 is irre- placeable. Those who applied must decide whether to wait or take their money back. They will be hearing from Alex Findlater. That offer is now open until 30 March.
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