Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Wine Club 18 September

We had the first of our new season’s Spectator Winemaker’s Lunches last week and what a rip-roaring, shirt-popping success it was. Held in the Jacobite Room of Boisdale Belgravia (our extremely congenial temporary home while the unfortunate flood in our boardroom dries out), it featured the extraordinary wines of Joseph Phelps Vineyards in California and was beautifully curated by Laura Taylor, marketing director of Private Cellar.

Nobody likes a show-off and I hate to brag, but we knocked back five gloriously tasty wines including the 2018 Joseph Phelps Freestone Chardonnay, the £200-a-bottle 2010 Joseph Phelps Insignia and the 2018 Joseph Phelps Insignia, surely one of the finest ever incarnations of this striking Bordeaux blend. What’s more, we were the first in the world outside of the States to taste the latter wine before its release.

Little wonder that, with reach like this, Private Cellar has such a following. PC specialises in featuring boutique, family–owned estates, and the wines below — all new to their list — are perfect examples of what they’re about. There are real people behind these wines rather than vast anonymous brands and I doubt very much you will find any of the bottles anywhere else, least of all down the supermarket.

The 2020 Grüner Veltliner Wagram Klassik, Weingut Mehofer Neudeggerhof (1) is a wonderful example of this increasingly trendy Austrian grape. Light and fresh with spicy white fruit and a gentle creaminess, it finishes dry to off-dry and, being low in alcohol (it’s just 10.5% vol), it makes the perfect lunch wine. £12 down from £12.50.

The 2019 Rijk’s Touch Chenin Blanc (2) from Tulbagh, South Africa, is made from 100 per cent Chenin, a portion of which is barrel-fermented. It’s soft, smooth, creamy and, although dry on the finish, is full of ripe baked peaches, honey and buttered toast.

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