Simon Hoggart

Simon Hoggart presents the Spectator Wine Club's offer of the month for February 2009...  

Our last offer was entirely composed of red wines (deliveries, I fear, were inevitably slowed by the awful weather). So this week we have four whites and only two reds. They are from Private Cellar, a company which specialises in excellent French wines direct from the producers. All are discounted, some quite substantially, so again it’s an excellent chance to stock up before the plunging pound pushes prices back up.

Our first white is La Monastière 2007 (1), and with a 19 per cent reduction down to £5.85 a bottle it is pretty well unbeatable value. It’s a Bergerac from Guy Cuisset, who creates the lovely Château Grinou, and it’s made with that highly successful blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. The Sémillon gives body and richness, the Sauvignon provides a powerful backbone. This is what we in the trade call ‘balance’, and while nobody ever laid down a wine for their daughter’s wedding because it was well balanced, there’s something very satisfying about such a nice, neat combination. Really scrummy. The discount is £16.50 a case. Buy lots.

There’s a similar reduction on the Pinot Grigio from Gregoris 2007 (2). Pinot Grigio can include some pretty awful, drizzly sort of wines, but those are often from co-ops where all the grapes go into the same hopper. The growers’ names aren’t attached, so they have scant commitment to quality. But when it comes from a specific estate like this one, you can be pretty sure that the wine will have that lovely, fruity, zesty tang of the best Pinot Grigio. Which is why they serve it on the Orient Express. Recreate for your friends the ambience of table lights, piano music, shimmering crystal, clattering tracks — well, you get the idea. The discount brings it down to a remarkable £7.60 a bottle.

Now a really nice sparkler, made by the traditional champagne method even though it isn’t champagne. The Varichon et Clerc NV (3) is lively and fresh and perky and fizzing and all the things you want in a bubbly. It’s made from two rare Savoie grapes, but don’t let that trouble you. The modest £8.15 per bottle price is a reduction of over £16 a case. What’s not to like? Perfect for demonstrating that you can throw a great party even in these cash-strapped times.

Finally, a superb wine: a Meursault in all but name. The Domaine Matrot 2006 (4) is one of the leading properties in that great Burgundy patch, and Thierry Matrot makes this with grapes from his younger vines, plus others from — quite literally — across the narrow road from the limits of the appellation. Thanks to the (rightly) ferocious French wine laws, he can’t call it Meursault, but to all intents and purposes it is. Even his ageing is slightly obsessional: before he will use oak barrels, he lends them out to a friend and neighbour for two years so they are mature enough to hold his wine. That’s slightly spooky. It is terrific, and the modest £10.95 price ensures a saving of almost £20 a case.

And another underpriced classic is our first red. The Ets. J.P. Moueix Bordeaux Supérieur 2005 (5) is made by the winemaker of Château Pétrus. All right, it’s not quite as good as that, but then it doesn’t cost thousands of pounds a bottle. It is, however, a very good claret indeed, being mainly Merlot plus some Cabernet, warm and smoky and savoury and cedary and leathery. The £7.85 price is a reduction of nearly £17 a case. Private Cellar have a small stock of magnums (which tend to have a fuller, richer flavour) and you can buy one at £18.62 if you buy two or more full cases of any wine.

Finally the Château Beauchêne Premier Terroir 2006 (6) is just a lovely rich, spicy Côtes du Rhône. It’s grown inside the old Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation and some of the grapes come from vines more than 90 years old. For Rhône fans, this is all your Christmases at once. The £21.60 per case saving brings it down to just £8.95 a bottle.

Delivery, as always, is free, and there is a sample case containing two of each wine.

Prices include VAT and delivery in England and Wales. Please telephone for a quotation for other destinations. Payment should be made either by cheque with the order, payable to Private Cellar Ltd, or by debit or credit card, details of which may be telephoned or faxed. This offer, which is subject to availability, closes on 20 March 2009.