Wine Club 4 February

Phew, done it! Dry January, that is, and 31 whole days on the wretched water wagon, clinging on by my fingertips. Well, 31 whole days apart from a two-day, champagne-soaked trip to Pol Roger (about which more anon on our Spectator Wine Club website) and three days with the missus in the Loire Valley (ditto).

But having spoken to my legal advisers I understand that I’m in the clear. Apparently, because I was drinking outside UK jurisdiction, it doesn’t really count and I can still claim to have had a dry January in this country. Doncha just love lawyers?

As a result, I — and I’m sure scores of similarly virtuous Spectator readers — am raring to go now we’re in February, a dreary time, known appositely to our Anglo-Saxon forebears as ‘Mud Month’.

And what better way to ease oneself off the wagon than with this sextet of wines from Private Cellar? Private Cellar’s Laura Taylor, who put up the wines for selection, has been equally abstinent and if anyone understands our predicament, she does.

The 2015 Domaine Laguille (1), an Ugni Blanc/Colombard blend from the heart of d’Artagnan country in Gascony, is deliciously light, fresh and fruity with a welcome dry finish. It won a silver medal at Decanter magazine’s 2015 World Wine Awards and makes the perfect first drink of the year, being a mere 11.5 per cent alcohol by volume. £8.40 down from £8.80.

Goodness me, I loved the 2013 Château de Fesles (2)! An unblended old-vine Chenin Blanc from an 11th-century vineyard in Anjou, it’s full of quince, peach, citrus, honey and something savoury I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The wine spends a short time in large oak vats and then six months on the lees, which adds just a touch of body.