Whoop! Whoop! Hang out the bunting, clear out your cellars, dust off your corkscrews: it’s the highlight of many a wine-lover’s year and time for our annual offer of ‘defrocked’ clarets from our confrères at FromVineyardsDirect.
I know you know this but I’m going to remind you anyway – these wines come from the most famous of all Bordeaux estates, the absolute top. They are the excess production or the wines made from younger vines that don’t suit the estates’ grands vins. They are made in the same cellars as the grands vins, by the same winemaking teams and with the same devotion, and although they might not quite have the same depth and concentration as the grands vins, they boast the same impeccable pedigree and at knockdown prices.
I’m not allowed to name the estates in question, but I can hint at them with the hidden clues below and, being the intelligent, canny Spectator readers that you are, you can easily identify them.
The 2020 Saint-Estèphe (1) is my one naughty treat really, of serious excellence. It was hugely enjoyable when we offered the same vintage last year and that enticing juiciness remains, along with that characteristic Saint-Estèphe earthiness. But that slight austerity I detected last time has softened over the past 12 months and the wine has developed beautifully and will continue to do so. £22 down from £23.95.
The 2021 Saint-Émilion (2) is a frightfully impressive, generously expressive artful claret. It comes from a stellar château whose winemaker hosted a memorable Spectator Winemaker Lunch in the boardroom last year and whose grand vin sells for just shy of £400 a bottle. With rich, plentiful bramble fruit, the softest of tannins and whispers of spice, this Merlot/Cab Sauv/Cab Franc blend gets better and better as you go down the bottle. £23 down from £24.95.
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