This is being written before the budget and goodness knows what the Chancellor has in store for wine lovers. Yet another bashing, no doubt, hard on the heels of the chief medical officer’s doleful pronouncement in which she slashed the recommended number of units of alcohol per week we should all be consuming.
Happily, Esme Johnstone of FromVineyardsDirect has promised that should duty go up, he’ll keep his prices firmly as they are for the duration of this offer. Not only that, even though FVD is celebrated for its cut-to-the-bone pricing, Esme has generously lopped a bit off the RRPs just for us.
The 2014 Domaine de la Chesnaie, a simple, undemanding but deliciously satisfying Sauvignon Blanc from Bernard Chereau in the Loire Valley. Chereau is best known for his first rate Muscadets, which, unusually for that appellation, bristle with character, and here he’s cannily combined freshness, fruit, complexity and balance in a wine of very modest price. Add to it the fact that the alcohol level is barely 12 per cent and you have an excellent wine for carefree, everyday drinking. £8.05 down from £8.45.
The 2015 Château Bauduc is FVD’s bestselling white wine by far and we’ve previously offered two previous vintages in these pages very successfully. Made from 100 per cent Sauvignon Blanc by Gavin and Angela Quinney at their 200-acre estate in the Entre Deux Mers, some 15 miles south-east of Bordeaux, it’s an old favourite of mine. Oz Clarke and Jancis Robinson have written of it glowingly and both Gordon Ramsay and Rick Stein like it enough to have it as their house wine. I reckon the 2015 is their best vintage yet. £9.65 down from £9.95.
We have offered the glorious, salmon- pink-hued Mas de Cadenet Sainte Victoire Rosé here before too. A rosé of real style from the foothills of Montagne Sainte Victoire in the Côtes de Provence (as famously painted by Paul Cézanne), it fair flew out the door, so no apology for giving readers the chance to get their hands on the 2015 vintage, which has just arrived in the UK. A blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah, it might look unassuming in the glass but it has plenty of weighty, wild strawberry fruit, a touch of peppery spice and a long, dry finish and is as good with grub as it is on its own. £10.45 down from £10.95.
The medal-winning 2012 Rioja Vega Crianza is wonderfully meaty, juicy, jammy and fresh. A blend of Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Garnacha (a.k.a. Grenache), it’s crammed with fresh fruit flavours – cherries, raspberries, blackberries – and has just a hint of spice and liquorice on the finish thanks to 18 months in oak barriques. Rioja Vega might have been making wine for more than 125 years but this is resolutely new wave in style — vibrant and fresh, rather than vanilla-rich and mellow. £9.55 down from £9.95.
The 2009 Château Calet from Blaye in the Côtes de Bordeaux is an extremely tasty claret from a first-rate vintage. And, being seven years old, has a decent amount of bottle age and is pretty much at peak maturity. A blend of 90 per cent Merlot and 10 per cent Cabernet Franc, it’s soft, smooth and savoury with perfectly measured dark plum fruit. £9.65 down from £9.95.
Finally, the scrumptious 2013 Château de la Négly from the highly regarded family-run estate near Narbonne in the Coteaux de Languedoc. A classic mix of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan — with many of the vines over 50 years old — it’s nothing if not mouth-filling and concentrated. Wines like this are right up my street: big and bold, with buckets of character and plenty of ever-changing, complex flavours in the glass. It’s great now but certainly has the oomph to keep for a few years. £10.45 down from £10.95.
The sample case has two bottles of each wine and delivery, as ever, is free.
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