Wine Club 19 January

Well, I’m glad that’s over. Christmas and New Year’s Eve that is. What a ghastly palaver. It went on for months and even though it’s finally done and dusted, we’re still picking pine needles out from under the blasted sofa and ploughing our way through seemingly endless bowls of defrosted stilton soup. And what on earth prompted me to make so much red cabbage and then go and freeze all that was left? I’m sick of the stuff.

Still, I drank long and deep during the festivities. Rather too long and rather too deep, if I’m honest, and I’m now clinging by my fingertips to the water wagon if only to prove to Mrs Ray and my boys that I’m not a complete and utter lush.

Happily, I managed to sample this very tasty selection from Mr Wheeler before the shutters came down and it’s only by recalling how much I enjoyed the wines that I’m able to keep going through the alcoholic wasteland that is January.

The 2017 Carlomagno Fiano (1) from the Salento peninsula in Puglia — you know, the so-called boot of Italy — is utterly charming. Named after the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, and produced by the celebrated winemaker and consultant Stefano Chioccioli, it’s light and fresh and full of sun-baked melon, banana and citrus fruit. In other words, perfect vinous fare for a British winter. £8.25 down from £8.75.

The 2016 Les Vignes des Deux Soleils, Les Mattes Blanc (2) is 100 per cent Chardonnay grown in the Languedoc, some ten or so miles from Montpelier. It’s bakingly hot here in summer and the large stones that litter the vineyards retain, then reflect the heat of the sun onto the ripening grapes at night, prompting locals to talk of the ‘vines of the two suns’.