Wine Club 8 September

We were going to run an entirely French offer this week courtesy of FromVineyardsDirect, but I couldn’t resist the 2017 Esterházy Estoras Grüner Veltliner (1) from Austria. I used to drink buckets of GV with my late godmother, the novelist and sometime contributor to this magazine, Sarah Gainham. I’ve never lost my taste for it.

This example, produced for the Esterházy princes in Eisenstadt by the celebrated Joseph Pusch, is well up to snuff and my godmother — who single-handedly (apart from my occasional help) kept her local winzer Josef Pimpel in business — would have loved it. It’s crisp yet creamy with a whisper of pepper, spice and nuts, and is delectably food-friendly. It whisks me right back to happy days by the Danube. £11.45 down from £11.95.

Regular readers will know that I’m a slave to white Rhône wines and — brazen pushover that I am — I was all too easily seduced by the 2016 Secret de Famille, Paul Jaboulet Aîné (2). A scrumptious blend of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Viognier and Bourboulenc, it has all the quality and style that one might expect from one of the region’s most august producers (they make Hermitage La Chapelle after all). It’s beautifully rounded with enticing notes of honeysuckle and fresh white-stone fruit and I couldn’t get enough of it. £11.95 down from £12.95.

The 2016 Saint-Véran, Pierre Janny ‘Merloix’ (3) is an old favourite and I remember that when we offered a previous vintage many moons ago — the 2012 I believe — it promptly sold out. This current vintage is a cracker and shows what great value the wines of Saint-Véran can be. It’s FVD’s best-selling white burgundy and easy to see why: great purity of fruit, hints of honey, crisp mineral core and an extremely reasonable price.