June Wine Club II | 25 June 2015

We’ve a selection of simple summer quaffing wines this week, full of bright flavours, courtesy of our old chums Tanners of Shrewsbury. I am confident that you will find the wines as amenable and easy to get on with as I did and that you will find them very keenly priced.

Indeed, there must have been something of a heatwave in Shropshire because Tanners’ private sales director, Robert Boutflower, has clearly had too much sun. With barely any recourse to thumbscrews or water-boarding, he offered generous discounts on the already remarkably modest RRPs, ensuring that every wine is well under eight quid. This means that the mixed case comes in at paltry £89, delivered. A bargain!

The 2014 La Cabane Reserve Marsanne/Viognier (1) from the Languedoc is right up my street and, I hope, up yours too. A blend of gently pressed Marsanne and Viognier, it’s crisp and refreshing with hints of peach, pear and apricot leading to a rounded, supple and satisfyingly savoury finish. It’s perfect summer fare and ideal for those who are bored with Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay and still seek wines of character. The point is that it’s extremely well made thanks to an expert winemaking team headed by Xavier Roger, son of the celebrated Jean-Max Roger of Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé fame. £5.99 down from £6.99.

The 2014 Gandarada Dão Branco (2) will also please those seeking a temporary alternative to Savvy Blanc and Chard. A blend of Encruzado, Cerceal Branco (yep, both completely new to me too) and Malvasia Fina from the mountainous DOC region of Dão in central Portugal, it’s deliciously lemony and crisp with an underlying mineral character.

And, since you ask, the wine gains its name from the fact that winemaker Nuno Cancela de Abreu’s great grandfather — José Ferreira Tavares — fought alongside General ‘Black Bob’ Craufurd in the Peninsular War, becoming great friends with him and treating his wounds sustained at the Battle of Bussaco at Gandarada House.