The disarming thing about Jason Yapp is that he’s always on such good form. I can’t remember meeting anyone who loves his job so much and who brims with quite so much bonhomie.
We tasted the wines for this offer a few days before he headed to Vinisud, the vast Languedoc-Roussillon wine fair held each year in Montpellier, and he was as excited and as waggy-tailed as a truffle hound on the trail of its first headily scented tuber of the day.
Nobody knows the French backwaters better than Jason, and Yapp Brothers thoroughly deserve their status as the International Wine Challenge’s specialist merchant of the year for Languedoc-Roussillon, the Rhône and regional France.
The following selection draws on that expertise. It also draws on Jason’s aforementioned goodwill to all men, the result of which is a healthy £1 off every bottle’s list price, plus loose change lopped off the mixed case to bring it in at exactly £112.
The 2014 Château Roubaud, Cuvée Passion (1), is something of a rarity: a white wine from Costières de Nîmes, an underrated region where over 90 per cent of wines are red or rosé. Legionaries were granted land here after service to the Roman empire and the region has produced wine ever since. Made from old-vine Grenache Blanc and Roussanne, planted on the edge of the Camargue delta, this sees no oak and is fresh and herbal with hints of wild flowers on the nose and a creamy texture. £10.75 down from £11.75.
We offered the previous vintage of the 2014 Saumur Blanc (2) a couple of years ago and readers loved its clean, racy charm. Made from Chenin Blanc by the highly regarded Cave de Saumur co-operative based in Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, it’s fresh, crisp and fruity and a real crowd-pleaser. Jason calls it ‘the perfect standby kitchen white for upmarket weekday drinking’. £8.95 down from £9.95.
The 2013 Château d’Abzac (3) is a Bordeaux Supérieur grown on gravelly soil about six miles north-east of Pomerol, where the d’Anglade family have made wine for two centuries. 2013 was a tricky vintage and they pretty much halved their harvest in order to get the fruit quality they wanted. 100 per cent Merlot, it’s a light, easy-going, quaffable claret rather than a deeply coloured, intense and concentrated one. A gold medal winner at last year’s Concours de Bordeaux, I thoroughly enjoyed its uncomplicated charm and delicacy. £10.95 down from £11.95.
The 2014 Le Petit Caboche (4) is a jaunty, juicy blend of Grenache, Syrah, Marselan and Caladoc (yep, new to me too) made by the erstwhile mayor of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the appropriately named Jean-Pierre Boisson. It’s only a humble Vin de Pays de Vaucluse but it fair bursts with warm, ripe, spicy, succulent red-and-black berry fruit and shows just what value there is to be had in the southern Rhône. £8.50 down from £9.50.
A year or so ago, the 2014 Grignan-les-Adhémar, Le Grand Dèves (5), would have been a Côteaux du Tricastin, but local wine-makers didn’t like the association with the Tricastin nuclear power station and applied to have the appellation changed to Grignan-les-Adhemar. The power station remains, parmi les vignes (along with a local crocodile park, bizarrely enough), and the wines now boast an unwieldy moniker.
Made by the Vignerons Ardéchois co-operative, an excellent source of well-made, well-priced wines, this spicy, peppery, herby Grenache/Syrah blend is a fine example of what can be found here. £8.25 down from £9.25.
Finally, from the same producer and the same two grape varieties (but with more Syrah and less Grenache), the 2014 Côtes du Vivarais (6). It’s got the same ripe spiciness as the previous wine, but with a touch more robust, earthy dark fruit. It has a wonderfully long finish and there’s plenty of bang for your buck. Indeed, if this and Le Grand Deves were in the Côtes du Rhône appellation, they’d be several quid a bottle more. £8.95 down from £9.95.
The mixed case has two of each bottle and delivery, as ever, is free.
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