July Wine Club | 23 July 2015

We seem unusually focused this week — never an easy task after one of our Wine Club tastings — with all six wines coming from France. We didn’t plan it that way. It’s just the six bottles that shone brightest and sang loudest to us were all French: three from Bordeaux and one each from Burgundy, the Rhône and Provence.

FromVineyardsDirect are absolute masters at tracking down small parcels of this and that from classic regions and great vintages. Some wines become stalwarts of their list and some are gone in the pop of a cork, so small is the number of cases they get their hands on. The selection below is a fine representation of what FVD are about and since they trade on very fine margins indeed, discounts are hard won. But, dear reader, Esme Johnstone capitulated over a glass or so and I’m delighted to report that he has generously agreed a significant discount on every bottle. Thanks Esme!

So fine a reception did a previous vintage of the 2014 Château Bauduc, Bordeaux Blanc (1) get at a reader tasting last autumn that we offered it in these pages in November and it went down a storm. As I mentioned then, both Gordon Ramsay and Rick Stein think highly enough of it to serve it as the house white in their restaurants. Made in the Entre-Deux-Mers from 100 per cent Sauvignon Blanc, it’s purity itself — crisp, clean, zesty, refreshing and precise. £9.45 down from £9.95.

As a complete contrast there is the 2012 Graves Blanc (2). Also from Bordeaux, albeit the Graves rather than Entre-Deux-Mers, it’s much more rounded and weighty in style. Made by the white wine master himself, Denis Dubourdieu, at his finest estate, it boasts some Sémillon alongside the Sauvignon Blanc and spends a short time in oak.