A very tasty offer this week from guest partner Honest Grapes, the multi-award-winning online merchant founded five years ago by Nathan Hill and Tom Harrow, aka ‘Winechap’, celebrated as the nattiest dresser in the wine trade.
HG is the antithesis of the aloof, pin-striped wine merchant of yore and the boys are whatever the diametric opposite of fuddy–duddy is. The Honest Grapes’ mantra is Down with Elitism, Join the Revolution! Since these are volatile times, let me reassure you that they’re talking about revolutionising the world of wine, nothing more incendiary than that.
I met Tom thanks to a shared passion for Franciacorta, the sublime fizz made near Lake Iseo in Lombardy. He and I had a pleasantly bibulous trip there and I was struck not only by the titanic amount we drank but also by Tom’s knowledge about — and enthusiasm for — Italian vino. How appropriate, then, that this offer comes entirely from that beguiling country.
The 2018 Vette di San Leonardo (1) is a 100 per cent Sauvignon Blanc from Trentino and the ancient vineyards of the San Leonardo monastery in the Dolomite foothills. Produced by the Guerrieri Gonzaga family, it’s crisp, clean, fresh and lively and its quality is immediately apparent. There’s white stone fruit, herbs and citrus on nose and palate and, as Tom says, it has both the elegance of the Loire and the feistiness of Marlborough. £17.60 down from £18.60.
The 2018 Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi (2) from Piedmont is as fine a G di G as I’ve had. Made from 100 per cent Cortese, it comes in a bottle based on Roman amphorae, the remains of which they stumble upon in the vineyards, and is delicately scented (honeysuckle, herbs and ripe pears) and full and rich on the palate.
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