Wine Club
June Wine Club
A visit to the London International Wine Fair is, paradoxically, a sobering experience.
A visit to the London International Wine Fair is, paradoxically, a sobering experience. With about 30,000 different wines on show, it is impossible to sample more than a minuscule number — the worst anyone can be accused of is binge-sipping. The stallholders want you to try all their wines, even if there are a dozen of them. My technique: ‘I’m in a great hurry. Let me try your best wine’, was usually met by ‘All ours are excellent. Now, I will start at the beginning...’
I acquired a list of all the best-selling — by value — alcoholic drinks in the UK. You may be surprised to learn that the top booze brand of all is Stella Artois, on which we spend an average £10 million a week. The leading wine brand is Hardy’s — £254 million a year, with the Americans, Gallo and Blossom Hill, close behind. There are around two dozen wine brands in the top 100, and I’m proud that I have never recommended any to you. Some do produce good wines — Lanson, Moët, Oyster Bay, Wolf Blass, etc. Pondering others, we will calm our queasy stomachs and turn away.
Which is why we try to choose from independent, picky wine merchants who have direct contact with the growers, many of whom produce wonderful wines in modest quantities. Several have been collected here in an offer made by Hedley Wright, an enterprising wine merchant based in Hertfordshire. For example, the Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine, the Domaine des Chezelles 2007 (1), is a fine example of what is coming from the less fashionable areas of France. It is crisp, dry, yet with an irresistibly fruity flavour. Tasting blind, you would put it as a rather agreeable Sancerre — without the Sancerre price tag. At an informal tasting on a sunny summer evening, it disappeared down grateful gullets in no time. Reduced by a pound from £7.49 to £6.49.
The next wine is more of an experiment. It is made in South Africa by the Rustenberg people from a little-known grape, the Grenache Blanc, but it’s lovely — and exclusive to The Spectator. The 2007 (2) is slightly musky, herby, spicy but with a citrus tang, which makes it perfect for summer parties. If you fear it might be a little exotic, try it in the sample case — you may very well want to order more. Reduced from £7.99 to £6.99.
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August Spectator Wine Club
Simon Hoggart's latest selection for the month of August
July Spectator Wine Club
Simon Hoggart's latest selection for the month of July
May Wine Club
I’ve been reading an intriguing article by Miles Thomas in the Psychologist magazine. It’s called ‘On Vines and Minds’, and it discusses many of the ways in which our brains determine the experience of drinking wine.
April Wine Club
The budget has hit wine merchants and drinkers quite hard.
February Wine Club
Time for our annual offer of Château Musar from the excellent folk at Wheeler Cellars, sister company to Lay & Wheeler.
January Wine Club
I love Stone, Vine & Sun of Winchester. They keep winning awards for best independent wine merchant; they have a knack for finding delicious wines at excellent prices from places you haven’t heard about yet but very soon will.
December Wine Club
This is our positively final offer for Christmas, and it’s terrific. Thanks to Lay & Wheeler we have half a dozen French classics, all of which would be very welcome on the Yuletide dinner table, or at a memorable party. What’s more, every one is generously discounted. They are not cheap wines, but they are tremendous value.
NOVEMBER WINE CLUB
I cannot imagine anyone who looks less like Father Christmas than Adam Brett-Smith, the managing director of Corney & Barrow. Adam is slender instead of fat, his face clean-shaven rather than covered in a fluffy white beard, and he would no more wear a red fur-lined suit and a silly hat than you or I would go to work dressed as Ronald McDonald.
