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Australian wines now firmly lead French in British off-sales
Australian wines now firmly lead French in British off-sales; but apparently we still prefer French wines in restaurants. My guess is that there is a race on, as some superlative wines made in the more obscure French regions compete with the best from the New World. Sommeliers, or whoever they have in the kind of eateries that do not boast sommeliers, will find themselves saying, ‘Ahem, I think Sir will find that the Costières de Nîmes is quite as robust as the Margaret River Chardonnay.’
Some Oz wines are not very nice (I name no names, but the Jacob’s Creek people know who I mean). Some are much more than OK, and I’ve offered many in this column. But others are truly first-rate wines that have a degree of extra depth and power. These, from Victoria, seem to me to have that often elusive quality. They are imported by Graham Mitchell, who specialises in finding small, unsung but very high-quality Australian vineyards. He buys a lot from Red Hill which is, he tells me, a stunningly beautiful estate on the Mornington Peninsula, just south of Melbourne.
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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.
