September Wine Club | 3 September 2015

It’s back to Tanners this month, whose offer in June was such a great hit with readers. We’ve another fine selection this time too. There is no theme as such — these are simply the wines I liked the most and they’re jolly well-priced too, with only one over a tenner. Discounts are hard to come by but I’m delighted to report that Robert Boutflower, private sales director at Tanners, cracked in the end and gave us up to a quid a bottle off.

We’ve offered a couple of reds from Sicily over the past few months, but never a white and I’m delighted finally to redress the balance with the easy-going 2014 Preciso Grillo (1). Complex and intricate it ain’t, but light, juicy, refreshing and deliciously undemanding it is, extremely quaffable with a long lemony, melony finish. Sicily’s wines are increasingly well-made and attractive and this example is ideal for an Indian summer evening in the garden. £6.25 down from £6.80.

I love Gascony more than anywhere else in France, with the possible exception of Alsace. I love its sunflower fields and its unspoilt villages; I love its crazy style of bull-fighting known as Course Landaise, in which foolhardy youths vault and somersault over charging beasts instead of trying to kill them as they do farther south; I love its grub — duck in all its forms, plus the scrumptious apple croustade — and I love its Armagnac. I also love its table wines and, on tasting the 2014 Tanners Gascony Dry White (2) from the Béraut family of Domaine de Pellehaut, I was whisked right back to an early summer break in the heart of d’Artagnan country. A bracing blend of Colombard, Chardonnay, Ugni Blanc, Gros Manseng and Sauvignon Blanc, it’s full of zesty citrus notes and fragrant white flowers and is one of those wines that tastes just as good at home as it does by a French pool en vacances.