Also worth having a look at my lists of recommendations:-

Recommended Médoc & Graves
&
Recommended Right Bank

These lists are updated whenever I get a moment. They are intended to be for the drinkers who want to put these wines away for future drinking pleasure rather than with an investment eye, but there’s not much point in buying wines en primeur if they will be available at the same price later, so I try to restrict to wines I think either need to be bought now because they will simply not be available later, or for wines which will be more expensive to buy further down the line.

Another major Pessac-Léognan Haut Bailly (£580) has also entered the fray, but although the prices for these reds are well down on 2009 and 2010, they are still above the prices of comparable older vintages and it is difficult to make a compelling case for any need to buy them now.

Also out today is Canon la Gaffeliere (£430).

Finally we have a release which I at first thought a joke, but apparently not. Malartic Lagraviere has released it’s 2011 red and white, at 27€ for the red and 42€ for the white. The négociant I was speaking to as I got the first email on he subject was able to tell me that he has in stock the 2003 and 2006 reds at 25€ and 23€ respectively, and the white in no less than four vintages, 2000 (25€), 1999 (22€), 1998 (22€), 1997 (20€). So this is obviously a screaming en primeur must buy. Sadly it illustrates all too well the extent to which the very high prices achieved in 2009 and 2010 have gone to the heads of those who set the prices.

This afternoon has see the release of Montrose (£780) and Lagrange (£300), and their second wines Fiefs de Lagrange (£155) and Dame de Montrose (£250).

Montrose rated for me as one of the wines of the vintage. Lagrange I rated (a rare circumstance for the vintage) the same as I rated the 2010 en primeur (93/100).

It seems that Bordeaux have decided that it’s simpler just to dump all the wines on the market and let everyone sort it out for themselves, so here we go – not much we can say about each one individually, there simply is not time. In amongst this list are everything from the rare and expensive such as La Mission Haut Brion and Haut Brion, as well as Calon Ségur which is normally difficult to buy en primeur and worth getting in the queue for (quite apart from being a good buy in its own right) right down to some of the best value wines of the vintage from Denis Durantou, including the Montlandrie we wrote so much about last year, and La Petite Eglise and la Chenade, les Cruzelles and Saintem. If you are interested in whites at double the price of a top Montrachet, then we can help with the whites from Haut Brion and la Mission, please ask.

Please consult the website for background info – there are many critics’ notes on the individual wine pages.

Some at the lower end of the price spectrum offer reasonable value to the drinker. Since they are not ‘speculative’ wines, the advantage to buying them now lies more in the fact that the margins taken ‘en primeur’ are smaller all round, so that they will be cheaper now than if you wait to buy them on arrival, but do not expect to be able to sell them for a vast profit on arrival, this is just a good way to make sure the cellar stays stocked with solidly good wines.

In amongst the huge number of wines out today, we recommend these as wines which will offer good value drinking:-

2011 CHÂTEAU FERRIÈRE 3ème Cru Classé Margaux £220
2011 CHÂTEAU HAUT BAGES LIBERAL 5ème Cru Classé Pauillac £255
2011 CHÂTEAU GLORIA Cru Bourgeois Saint Julien Château Gloria £245
2011 LACOSTE BORIE du Château Grand Puy Lacoste Pauillac £155

We are big fans of Claire Villars who makes Ferriere and Haut Bages Liberal. These wines are serious, gutsy wines which give much of what is on offer from wines and more than twice the price.

Robert Parker says of Margaux: ‘It rivals what they achieved in both 2010 and 2009, which is virtually impossible to contemplate given the quality of those two vintages’.

Julia Harding MW (www.JancisRobinson.com) describes Palmer as ‘Cool and utterly long and clear. Tannins are very hard to describe because there is a dry finesse but also a creamy roundness that comes later in the mouth. No spicy exoticism in this vintage, plenty of classicism. 2021-2035   18.5′.

Also available are the second wines, again both serious wines in their own right, Pavillon Rouge (£945) and Alter Ego (£430) and the extraordinary Pavillon Blanc (£515 per 6), one of the great dry whites of this vintage.

For the other releases of the day please see the ‘recent releases’ page of the website as wines are coming on the market so think and fast it is hard to keep up.

Along with Lynch come its second wine ‘Echo’ at £250, and the white Blanc de Lynch Bages, which relative to quite a lot of Cru Classé Graves offers a way of buying into what is a top vintage for white Bordeaux at a price level which is not dotty. (£120 per case of six bottles). I really liked the freshness of this wine.

Also out today are d’Issan (£360), Lascombes (£470), Marquis de Terme (£265), and Gloria which looks a potential buy at a reasonable £245.

Tricky vintage. Singed or scorched (cramé or échaudé, take your pick) grapes. Rotten grapes. Grapes which had failed to turn colour properly. All needed to be sorted out.  In Bordeaux there has been much experimentation with sorting in different ways, and all the properties do it – to a greater or lesser extent. Some are downright maniaque, but very often it is they who have made the best wines.

The French verb is trier, to sort, the noun un tri, so in Sauternes you perform multiple tris, to select in the best, most rot-affected grapes each time your go into the vineyard. In red wines, the selection is more or less the other way round, to select out anything that is not a perfect ripe black grape.

The vendange verte is really the first step in the process. In July the viticulturalists pass through the vineyards cutting out the bunches which are the last to turn colour – so as to force the vines to concentrate their energy on those that remain.

At the harvest, the grapes are picked by hand (in the crus classés at least). These days they are normally harvested into small cases so as not to crush grapes under the weight of others. There will already have been a first selection by the pickers, and a secondary one either at the end of the rows or on arrival at the chai. At Château Margaux they picked any parcels affected by the ‘échaudage‘ of June twice, so as to completely separate any singed bunches from the very start. When these were picked they were sorted as berries and some did go into the ‘Pavillon‘ (the second wine).

Once in the chai procedures vary. We were told of one machine which, after destemming passed the berries through a kind of air blade, which blows with sufficient force that anything that is not round (bits of stem, rotten or squashed grapes), will be caught by the blast and blown out. More normally there will be vibrating tables, manual selection (sometimes two teams, one after the other, or before and after de-stemming, to remove anything that is pinkish, or bits of stalk, and so on. But as one winemaker said, ‘it’s all very well for the first hour or so, but people get tired…’. One solution that has been in place for several years is the circular specially designed sorting table at Château l’Arrosée, which requires the sorter to actively pick up the grapes he wants and put them into the hole in the centre – a selection ‘in’ rather than a selection ‘out’.

Optical Sorting
This year’s big story was about the new optical sorting machines. Bruno Eynard at Lagrange has had one for three years, and described it as nothing more than a ‘gadget’ in 2009 and 2010 when the grapes were so healthy it was not needed, ‘but in 2011 it really came into its own – even after the manual sorting it removed around 3%’. He went on to emphasise that it’s all about how these machines are set up as to how much they remove. He was pleased to announce that from next year he will have the second generation version, with three cameras instead of just one. These machines can be set to detect colour variations which are invisible to the naked eye. This video gives an idea of what is going on. (Those with Celtic ancestry will feel at home with the soundtrack).

At Mouton, Philippe Dhallouin produced some extraordinary statistics: the new machine has removed 8% of the harvested grapes, and that when they looked at what had been rejected, they found it had a potential alcohol of only 5%, and nearly 10% acidity. So just as well then!

At Pichon Baron Jean-René Matignon said that even in 2009 and 2010 the optical sorter had removed 2-4% (across all their vineyards including Pibran), but that in 2011 it had removed 10% even after 5% had been discarded before the de-stemmer.

These machines cost €100,000 or more but the feeling amongst most users is that they pay for themselves very quickly in a year like 2011. If you don’t want to buy one, you can always rent – as the Bartons did at Mauvesin Barton in 2011 – their first harvest on this property which they only took full contol of in August.

Bon Pasteur in Pomerol at £395 (whatever nice remarks Robert Parker may make about Dany and Michel Rolland, the owners) does not benefit from quite the same strength of brand and looks pricey at this level. Malescot Saint Exupéry in Margaux (£370) has come down by a bigger percentage, but it’s a wine which did not make the cut into my offer and not one I can get too excited about, but still available to order if there are any fans out there!

Also out today is Grand Corbin Despagne, an honest wine at a sensible price, but I preferred its neighbour Corbin as mentioned yesterday.

Altogether one might have hoped for a bit more action today, given the shortness of the week. They know what they’ve got to do, so why not get on and do it?

Belgrave is the property I wrote about in my harvest stories blog, which used a cover-crop technique from Brazil to help preserve moisure in the soil. It seems to have worked here.

Pedesclaux is the second property bought by the Francois and Jacky Lorenzetti in 2009, after they had bought Lilian Ladouys in 2008. 28 hectares of vines overlooking the river at the hamlet of Pouyalet just north of Pauillac, much of which has had to be replanted, and a 14 hectare plot between Lafite and Mouton on the other side of the road. Altogether there will be 36 hectares of planted vineyard. The régisseur Catarina Freitas gave us a fascinating insight into how the vineyard is slowly being consolidated through swaps and sales and purchases. This part of Pauillac, like Saint Estèphe, had a very strong co-operative movement, which encouraged (allowed) families to go on splitting little parcels of vines between their children long after there was a commercially viable area if they had to vinify the grapes themselves. Catarina is right at the cutting edge of wine-making, and no expense is spared. The grapes are picked into small cases and then stored 24 hours in a cool room at 3C (a first as far as I know), before the sorting and de-stemming. They are given as much as fifty days of pre-fermentary maceration (this really is taking things to extremes). This property is coming up very fast and is definitely one to watch – and offers great value.

Corbin has been making very appealing wines for a number of years now and the 2011 is no exception – a lovely, value for money drinker in a supple unforced style.

See the website for todays other releases – a couple of good ones which risk getting trampled by the big beasts, so if you are after drinkers do look out for Pedesclaux and Marquis d’Alesme.

It is no particular secret that Robert Parker tends to like the lush, ripe, dense, sweet style wines like La Tour Carnet made by M. Magrez, (who also owns Pape Clement, and many others) while some ‘old school English’ have been rather shocked by them. On the other hand the rather dry and intense style of Tronquoy Lalande (£220) which appealed to me a lot this year seems to have had an almost identical reaction from Neal Martin. Not sure there is a ‘right’ here, and we can offer La Tour Carnet at £225. But go back and have a look at the notes on Lilian Ladouys (nearly half the price of either if these) and Les Ormes de Pez too.

From the Delon (Las Cases) stable we have the first ‘junior releases’ of Fugue de Nénin and Potensac.

But a bit like Lafite, its got a story, and that story is Asia, where this is a very strong brand for the sake of the ‘Dragon Boat’ label. Consequently at £495 ib en primeur it looks quite a deal when the cheapest deliverable vintage on the market is around the £600 level.

As one of my sinophile customers remarked a couple of months back, ‘I wouldn’t trust the Chinese to remain interested in anything for more than five minutes’.

If the Chinese market stays strong, this looks like a possible deal (but bear in mind you would pay commission on the sale). Seeing as this is otherwise a pretty dull wine at a bubble price, the question is do you fancy your luck?

Well do ya?

Also out this morning is Rouget in Pomerol, which Robert Parker liked quite a lot.

We announce today the contents and pricing of this year’s LEA & SANDEMAN mixed Sauternes case (£350 in bond – same price for either 12 bottles or 24 halves) comprises 4 of the very top wines of the vintage. We have limited stocks available at this price so please respond quickly to avoid disappointment. Please note these mixed cases are only available for eventual delivery duty-paid as we mix them up ourselves on arrival).

2011 CHÂTEAU RIEUSSEC 1er Cru Classé Sauternes
“So balanced and long. We will see what is better — Rieussec or Yquem? 96-97″ (James Suckling)

2011 CHÂTEAU SUDUIRAUT 1er Cru Classé Sauternes
“A powerful wine that will age for decades. Drink 2025-2047 18.5/20″ (www.decanter.com)

2011 CHÂTEAU DOISY DAËNE 2ème Cru Classé Barsac
“it reminds me of a top-flight Mosel Auslese, but what a fabulous Barsac from
Denis Dubourdieu! 95-97″ Neal Martin www.erobertparker.com

2011 CHÂTEAU DOISY VÉDRINES 2ème Cru Classé Barsac
“Seriously long, with lovely lacy detail already showing on the finish. Should be long-lived.   94-97/100″ James Molesworth, the Wine Spectator

So, Robert Parker’s notes and those of Neal Martin are published (on www.erobertparker.com), and an interesting comparison they make as always, with what seems to me to be a clear divide along stylistic grounds. I seem to be more in the Martin than Parker camp on most differences, but this will be one to explore further.

This morning has, as predicted, seen a number of wines put on the market following the French May Day celebrations.

First off the blocks was Fonplégade, a Saint Emilion under American ownership, Michel Rolland as consultant, and Parker as cheerleader (92-94 points no less). I have to admit to tasting this once only and finding it oaky and blocky, but others (all Americans) have liked it more. If Parker points are it, then this offers high points for modest price and I promise not to think less of you if you follow his advice here.

Second up is Château Labégorce, a resurgent Margaux which we recommended last year, and which has continued in the same vein this year, and which is therefore recommended again. The price is not dramatically lower (£183 last year), but then it was a bargain last year too and the quality is similar: ‘supremely focused with a delectable, feminine poised finish that is fresh and natural (91-93 )’ says Neal Martin (www.erobertparker.com). Interesting we both used the word ‘natural’ to describe this wine. £159 does not feel like too much for this.

The response to Château du Tertre seems to be a broad consensus, if with slightly grudging ‘points’ from Robert Parker. It is, as always, a solid value lower-end Cru Classé in a modern style. It is down 12% in Euro terms on the 2010 price.

The Bartons have bought a new property, Château Mauvesin Barton, a Cru Bourgeois in Moulis, and this is offered at £112 per case. This may be a reasonable price compared with some other Moulis wines, but, as a relatively unknown quantity it does make it more than some top-performing Haut-Médocs like Cambon la Pelouse which may seem safer bets. Quite fun to have the first vintage of a new property all the same.

It seems I am the one slightly out of step on Château Monbrison, the other notes are consistently slightly better than mine so this may be worth a look.

At this time of year, while we expect to hear of the odd devastating hail storm ravaging vineyards in the south of France, we have normally already turned our attention to drinking Rosé in the spring sunshine, and sales of our MIP* Made In Provence outstrip every other wine in our stores. But not this year, and who can blame anybody except the weatherman (or ‘global warming’ if you must).

Still, there are plenty of great value, fruit driven and warming reds to consider for a wet May ahead of us, including two of which I have recently been enjoying on a daily basis, being Peter Bright’s brilliant value ‘Alfrocheiro’ from Portugal’s Alentejo, and Jean Royer’s fabulous declassified Châteauneuf du Pape ‘Le Petit Roy’.

I am still drinking my way round many of the delicious red burgundies that have suddenly become available, the latest being Domaine Huguenot’s 2009 Marsannay, which offers a lot of wine under £20 bottle, although the biggest treat of the week-end was a stunning ‘accidental’ bottle of Perrot-Minot’s 2009 Morey Saint Denis La Rue de Vergy, which I saved from being entirely poured into the gravy by my darling daughter who opened it by mistake!

The long range forecasters predict a ‘sizzling June’, (when our rosé sales will go through the roof?), but we have heard all that before, and in the meantime I’m sticking firmly to red. In fact I’m even heading off to taste Australian red wines today.

Its been a busy week for releases, although you might not know it because a lot of ‘filtration’ has been going on at our end so that we offer on only the wines which look interesting. But the idea that this was going to be over quickly seems to be fading.

One might hope that ‘Bordeaux’ is slowly coming to its senses and that those responsible for setting prices might realise that what we as the trade have been asking for, namely releases (significantly) below the currently market price of comparable vintages, is the only way that the campaign is really going to get going. Of course there is more than a little reluctance actually to make this leap.

This afternoon will see the release of Robert Parker’s scores for the vintage, (www.erobertparker.com) and Neal Martin’s notes will also be published on the same site. We hear that Bob thought the wines ‘better than expected’, but we do not think that anything we says will change anything in the preceding paragraph. Maybe next week will see some releases that will ignite things.

Today’s big release is the gorgeous wine of Climens, and like the other Sauternes, this is offered in cases of 12 halves at the same price as cases of six bottles. Also out is Bernadotte, a good value if slightly strait-laced Haut Médoc from the Pichon Lalande team.

Also on the market today is Cantemerle, but I’d still rather have Clos Manou or Les Ormes de Pez for less. Or Le Boscq, another good St Estèphe at a sensible price. As a real cheapy Sénéjac would repay those with big enough cellars to store it in on arrival. On the other side of the river we have the first releases from the Perse stable, Clos des Lunelles, Lusseau and Monbousquet. This last is a good effort considering that it is on sand and gravel, so really suffered from the drought, and the rain came at the worst possible moment, so they must have worked like the devil.

All in all its a day to sit on your hands and wait… for the offer of Super-Italians coming your way soon from Patrick! Jean-Guillaume Prats himself told Patrick, on his recent visit to Cos d’Estournel, that in the Asian market he did not fear the competition of Burgundy, since there is such limited supply, but that the next big thing would be top Italians.

The other side of the river sees the release of Beauséjour Bécot at £385. This is down by a substantial amount from its 2010 release at £565. I still cannot quite see that it is a compelling primeur buy – but I did like the wine quite a lot.

In Sauternes the other Doisy, Denis Dubourdieu’s Château Doisy Daëne, is also out. I liked this a lot, it’s true to its fresh lemony Barsac style, but if you are buying just one Sauternes this year, the choice would have to be Doisy Vedrines for me. Also available now is the rarissimo super-cuvée from the same estate, l’Extravagant de Doisy Daëne, available right down to one half-bottle at a time.

Click the wine names to see other critics’ notes.

Bargain Buy
In the Sauternes the wine which will almost certainly prove to the value buy of the year, Doisy Vedrines, is out at a sensible £225 per doz, or £112.50 that for 6 bottles, and the same for 12 half-bottles. Same deal as last year:- no supplement for Sauternes and Barsacs bought in cases 6 bottles or of 12 half-bottles (or cases of 6 magnums either). Of course its worth putting a couple of boxes away, it’s the last real great wine bargain in terms of sheer quality/price ratio.

Also out today is the 1er Cru Classé Suduiraut, one of my very top wines of the vintage, and also Lafaurie Peyraguey which did not quite make it into my selection, but which is available if requested at £140 per six bottles.

At today’s exchange rate of 1.22 (a 20 month high, so not actually what most people will be budgeting at), this gives a cost to us in Bordeaux of £1062.20.

We are offering Cos at £1200 per dozen. It is also available at £600 per six bottles. L&S offers primeurs in bond, the price includes delivery to the UK and onward delivery to our customers in our selling price, unless IB delivery is required in which case we levy a fee of £15+VAT (current rate) for the under bond transfer to the customer’s bonded account, a fee which covers all that customer’s purchases of this vintage of Bordeaux en primeur.

If you see wines being offered cheaper and are tempted to buy, do at least ask yourselves whether there may be hidden charges that will come along later (like per case delivery charges) and also the likelihood that you will have your wine delivered in two years’ time, and reflect that if you pay a little more now to buy from a reputable merchant with a good track record and a good underlying business, you may avoid the pitfalls of the customers of these businesses.

Above all, buy your primeurs from L&S!

Jonathan Maltus, based at Château Teyssier, which is in the plain of Saint Emilion, also makes a range of wines from better sites on the plateau and the côte, including Châteaux Laforge, Le Carré, Les Astéries, Vieux Mazerat and Le Dôme. He tentatively likened 2011 to 2001. ‘Not 2008 with its high acidity – 2011 has good acidity but it’s not exceptional.’ 2011 was a hot growing season thoughout with 40 degree spikes in late June and early July which burnt the grapes. They normally do two de-leafings, one end of June and the other in July, but this year (and here Jonathan gives the credit to his viticulturalist Olivier Darcy) they took the decision not to de-leaf and he thinks this a decisive factor in the quality of his result this year. There were problems with rot but the fine weather at the end dried this up and it was easy to sort out at the havest. Up to the end of July they all thought that the harvest would start around the middle of August, but then the rain came and they needed to wait, and in the end the Indian summer lasted long after the picking was over. I liked all the wines in the Maltus range this year, but there’s no doubting they are in a dense style.

Basile Tesseron, in his first year fully in charge at Lafon Rochet, was having coffee on the terrace at eleven in the morning of the 1st September when he saw the thunderstorm heading his way. He and Lucas, his chef de culture, had been discussing how, after a difficult summer which required a lot of work in the vineyard, things were looking pretty good. Twenty minutes later there was a scene of devastation, all the leaves smashed off the vines, half the production lost, and hailstones blocking some of the drainage ditches, so that parts of the vineyard were lakes of water. They called everyone back and that afternoon started work to save what they could. The system of working here means that each plot is looked after all year like a garden by an individual, who naturally feels responsibility for it and really does not want to see a year of work wasted. They picked some on the 3rd, but then were able to hold off until after the 6th.

At Belgrave at the end of the week we learnt about some of the work that had gone into what seemed to us to be the most successful wine in the Haut Medoc, Moulis and Listrac tasting. This included a technique learnt from Brazil (Brazil, for goodness’ sake!), where a temporary cover crop of (mostly) barley with peas and wheat is sown in early spring, and then, instead of cutting it, which would make the roots hungry to regrow (and suck up moisture from the soil), they use a roller which flattens and bunches-up the straw stems, creating a cover which retains water as well as reflecting heat. Frédérique Bonaffous, the man responsible, told us that they did not do a traditional éffeuillage, but rather an éclairage, which involves removing new leaf growth after the flowering; once the grapes are set, the vine grows secondary leaves within the existing structure, and it is these they remove, leaving the big first leaves in place which better protect the grapes. Much more arduous work.

At Château Margaux, Thibault Pontallier told us that the échaudage had particularly affected the Cabernet Sauvignon on the best terroirs – which tallied with what we were told by the always straight-talking Bernadette Villars-Lurton at Château Ferrière. Bernadette said that at Ferrière the normal qualitative pecking order of the parcels was quite different in 2011, with some parcels which never normally make the first wine producing the best grapes, while some that always go into the first wine were excluded. The order in which each parcel reached maturity (determining the picking date) was also all over the place. In the end they were so confused by the way the different parcels had performed they did the blend by blind tasting with their consulting oenologist Eric Boissenot. The Merlots seemed not to have a lot of character – thin and with acerbic tannins, but by contrast the Cabernets were fine. Merlot press wines were not good – too bitter.

In Saint Julien we found the only properties which were prepared to show us their 2010 and 2009 wines alongside the 2011. These included the Barton properties, Langoa and Leoville, as well as  Branaire, Talbot and Lagrange. As Jean-Dominique Videau of Château Branaire Ducru put it, ‘it’s not as exceptional, but the little brother is from the same family’ – and so it proved when we tasted. They made lower yields in 2011 – 37 hl/ha compared to 47 in 2009 and 42 in 2011. Jean-Dominique also added that ‘there were some Merlots which were rather flat, lacking aromatic appeal’. He also confirmed the thoughts of Bernadette Villars in Margaux. ‘The drought was very selective. Some parcels which are normally excellent were too dry, while others that are often too wet were perfect.’

The story of the the 2011 harvest began with the dry Indian summer of 2010, which stayed fine long after this fine harvest was in the cellars. The winter was very dry, so that the water table was low.

A covering of snow in January was unusual and decorative but did little to help in terms of moisture.

The warm early spring meant that when we tasted the 2010 primeurs in the first week of April, there was three inches and more of leaf growth on some vines. This extraordinary precocity actually accelerated in the hot April and May, so that by the time of the flowering in mid-May, and taking the usual one hundred days from flowering to picking, the vendanges should have been in mid-August.

Mouton produced the most telling graph, which I hope they don’t mind my reproducing here (thanks and apologies, see below) comparing average rainfall 1961 to 2010 with that in 2011 – it really shows how dry the a spring and early summer were. The only point that rainfall was above average in the year was in the critical months of July and August.

The flowering was quick and even, apart from some coulure in the Merlot, and up to a point all was set fair, but for the lack of rain. The spring was exceptionally dry, and what rainfall there was came patchily and often in heavy dowpours which ran off rather than sinking in.

Slowly the vines began to suffer from the drought – and obviously the type soil takes on a new importance. Palmer said that the reason for their tiny yield was that the lighter soils of Margaux resisted the dought less well than the deep gravels of Saint Julien and Pauillac, especially where these have water-retaining clay deep underneath. On the other side of the river, it was the clay-limestone soils which did best, and vines on gravel in Pomerol, or on the sandier, lighter clays of some of Saint Emilion, really suffered. Everywhere the grapes remained small, and the vines began to slow.

In early June the temperatures were nearer to normal. A serious hailstorm hit Margaux on the 4th, causing loses of up to 80% of potential yield in some places. There was a series of very hot days, and on the 26th and 27th the temperature surged up to near 40C in the Médoc (38.8C in the shade at Palmer, for example) and a staggering 42C in the Graves. This year we learnt two new French words: échaudage and cramé, which describe the effect on the water-starved grapes which were singed or scorched. At Calon-Ségur I asked Vincent Millet what cramé meant, having heard it the evening before from the maitre du chai at La Mission Haut Brion. Vincent laughed and said cramé was pejorative, and that at Calon they speak proper French and say échaudé. Either way, these burnt grapes stopped developing, and either self-aborted or had to be removed in a green harvest, immediately or at the time of the véraison (when the grapes turn colour and it is clear which will ripen and which will not). In the Médoc this sunburn particularly affected the Cabernets, and is cited a reason for less Cabernet in the proportions of many blends.

There were also some disease problems, and oidium, not usually a problem in Bordeaux, needed looking out for.

July started cloudy and not particularly hot. In the second fortnight there was the first extended period of rain since Easter, and the vines began to grow again, and the grapes swelled a little. In these conditions the véraison (when the grapes turn colour) was very slow and extended over the whole month of July. This seems to have been an issue at harvest too as many properties reported problems in sorting out imperfectly coloured grapes despite having performed a vendange verte to remove bunches that had failed to turn colour at the end of July (it is a normal procedure in the top estates to manually remove the last bunches that have not colour – it makes the vines concentrate on fully ripening the remaining, more advanced, bunches and makes for a more even ripeness at harvest).

August was also cool (not really cold) and a period of real, wetting rain got the vines growing again. In the ideal season, a shock of heat and lack of water at the time of the véraison is what is wished for for, so that the vines stop growing and concentrate on ripening the fruit. In 2011 almost the opposite happened. The 20th and 21st were two scorchers (all too literally, weakening the fruit still more), hitting 40C at Latour.  The problem with the timing of the rain was that small hard shot berries can swell rapidly and burst if suddenly fed a lot of water, and burst berries are prone to rot which can spread fast. The warm damp conditions were perfect for botrytis, which, while welcome in Sauternes, is a real threat to reds. In some earlier-ripening terroirs it was also perilously close to the time of harvest, and so far from ideal, while for later-ripening terroirs and varieties it was probably the saving grace, bringing a little juice to the wines. (Worth also looking at Pierre Taïx’s comments in the Harvest Stories piece).

The final shocking weather surprise was a catastrophic hailstorm which swept through parts of southern Saint Estèphe and northern Pauillac on the first of September. No property in Saint Estèphe was completely unaffected, but the size of the stones and the consequent damage was at its worst in a swathe which ran through Lafon Rochet and Cos d’Estournel. Lafite also had four hectares in the affected zone, a little part of their vineyard for which they have a derogation which allows it to be included in Lafite (ie sold as Pauillac).

The picking of the reds began as early as the 3rd September in Saint Estèphe in the wake of the hail. Elsewhere the picking dates seem to have been chosen as much for the sanitary state of the grapes as the level of ripeness achieved, but everywhere it was a very early harvest, with much variation and many stories as to why this or that date was the best.

All in all, you have to be thinking of small bunches of small grapes, some because of coulure on the Merlot, but mostly because of drought. A potentially record early harvest made a little later because of the vines shutting down as a result of drought (blocage de maturité, as they say). Then a cold July so that some of the bunches pass the important véraison (colour change) phase of maturity early in July, but others do not pass it until fully a month later – so there is a distinct lack of homogeneity in the grapes to be harvested in September, and the pressure of rot means there will be no time to catch up. It does not sound like a recipe for grapes that would be easy to make wine out of, and so it proved, even if there are always exceptions to rules, and even if, in this age of wonders, silk purses can be made from sows’ ears.

Sorting, of course, was vital, see Sorting it Out, and all the other stuff you can get up to in a well-equipped winery nowadays (see In The Cellar). But make no mistake, some did make excellent wines despite all the headwinds.

One of Charles’ new finds in the Rhône valley, from a relatively unknown and very small producer in Châteaneuf (although they do make it into Bob Parker’s Wine Advocate), ’Le Petit Roy’ is simply a Vin de France because it is made up of eveything that does not make it into the Châteaneuf cuvées, and as such carries no vintage on the label, only ’11eme année’ which is a clue I guess.

It is deceptively easy to drink, packed with ripe peppery fruit and a lovely, almost old-fashioned, ‘liquidity’, making it so very gluggable. In fact it was only having finished the bottle and looking over the rather quaint and old-fashioned label that I noticed that it is 14.5%. This really is streets ahead of the mass produced super-market Châteaneufs, and I will be drinking this rather a lot over the coming barbeque season.

It makes you sleep very soundly too!

This year, however, we have a double agenda as we have chosen to redecorate our Fulham Road shop (and office). This meant removing stock on (Maunday) Thursday afternoon and early evening, which caused considerable consternation as many of our local customers rattled on the door, not only to buy last minute wines for the holiday, but also to seek reassurance that we were not closing down.

I can assure you that we will be open for business again from Tuesday, although we have to put a staggering number of bottles back onto the shelves – well over 2000!

As you can see from these pictures taken earlier today, the decorators are well ahead of the game, and we will be in early to have eveything even more shipshape and attractive than before. Having said that, I bet that most of our customers will not even notice the difference. But we will.

A selection of fabulous drinking Pinot Noirs as selected by the Wine Gang in their March report.

‘This was in fact a tripartite tasting, with a substantial Nebbiolo flight between the Pinot Noirs and the Sangiovese, but we’re putting the spotlight on the latter two this month and will cover the Piedmont reds in a forthcoming report. The Pinot Noirs, all young vintages, were from Burgundy, New Zealand and Argentina and the standard was high. We like the way Lea & Sandeman chooses producers and wines that express their vineyards and regions so clearly. The Sangiovese came in the form of Brunello di Montalcino from two estates – so, a small flight but, again, impressive. Burgundy and Italy are undoubtedly strengths of this very good merchant which now has four shops in London, from Fulham Road westwards’ www.thewinegang.com

UNDER £15 -and let’s not kid ourseleves, as there is not a lot of Pinot Noir worth drinking under £15 (though Remy’s 2009 Bourgogne Rouge is another fabulous exception at only £10.95) but we love these.

CANTERBURY Pinot Noir 2010 The Crater Rim £12.95 (£11.75 when you buy a case)
The cheapest of the three Crater Rim Pinot Noirs from different regions of the South Island. Fruity aromas of plum, cherry and apricot with touches of bergamot, fresh herbs, sweet earth and truffle. The palate is soft, supple and polished. A tad oaky perhaps, but good value for Pinot Noir of this quality.

BOURGOGNE ROUGE 2010 Domaine Fernand et Laurent Pillot £13.95 (£12.75 when you buy a case)
The style here is purity almost to the point of austerity at present, with minerally, spicy red fruit underpinned by tannin and acidity, but there’s a persuasive floral, red fruit fragrance and we think the palate will flesh out over the year.

BOURGOGNE ROUGE 2010 Domaine Nicolas Rossignol £14.95 (£13.75 when you buy a case)
Fragrant, fresh Pinot Noir sweetness on the nose and a palate of cherry fruit, crystalline minerality, gentle rounded texture and an overall impression of balance and clarity.

MORE THAN £15 but UNDER a PONY and exceptional value.

BOURGOGNE ROUGE 2010 Domaine Francois Raquillet £15.75 (£13.95 when you buy a case)
Fragrant, fresh, sleek and elegant, with perfumed cherry fruit, a delicate nuttiness and a hint of incense. Very seductive. Just what you hope for, but often don’t get, from basic Bourgogne rouge.

BODEGA CHACRA 2010 Pinot Noir £18.95 (£17.95 when you buy a case)
Wonderfully, fragrant, with rose and pot pourri and just a suggestion of sweet, smoky bacon and salted caramel. The palate is effortlessly elegant, light and silky, yet with layers of flavour. Get to know these Bodega Chacra wines if you don’t already. You owe it to yourself.

GIBBSTON 2010 Central Otago Pinot Noir The Crater Rim £17.95 (£16.25 when you buy a case)
A youthful, but expressive and sophisticated Pinot Noir from from the wetter, western part of Central Otago. Sweet, fresh, raspberry-scented fruit, some chocolate, mocha and vanilla notes from the oak and a soft, clean, satiny texture. The oak is still quite prominent, but it will recede as other flavours emerge.

MARSANNAY 2009 Domaine Huguenot £18.95 (£17.50 when you buy a case)
Attractive sweet earth aromas and an equally appealing, authentic earthy sweetness complementing the juicy, black, summer berry fruit and spicy notes. Good weight, nicely rounded, characterful Marsannay Pinot Noir from a 23-hectare estate – quite sizeable by Burgundian standards – which was certified organic in 2010.

MERCUREY 1er Cru Combins 2009 Domaine Theulot Juillot £22.50 (£19.95 when you buy a case)
Considering what voluptuous Pinot Noirs the 2009 vintage produced this is quite muscular and mineral, but it is Mercurey after all, so you’re not looking for Burgundy at its most delicate. It has plenty of stuffing, dark fruit, savoury mineral flavours and quite chewy tannins, but it’ll come round. Give it another year.

FIXIN Petit Crais 2009 Domaine Huguenot £24.95 (£22.50 when you buy a case)
Alluringly perfumy but also meaty and savoury on the nose. The palate, similarly, starts lush and sweet with black fruit, but then reveals Marmitey, liquoricy, earthy notes. If this is beginning to sound like anything but Burgundian Pinot Noir, we’re giving the wrong impression. It really couldn’t be anything else, but it’s on the fuller, riper side, which good Fixin is, and it’s from a ripe vintage. It’s also organic.

POMMARD Tavannes 2009 Domaine Fernand et Laurent Pillot £24.95 (£22.50 when you buy a case)
A mouthfilling, perfumy Pinot Noir from the village of Tavannes in Pommard. Winning cherry fruit, spice and mineral flavours framed by grippy but reassuringly fine tannins. Good length too. Might be one to consider if you’re trying to convert a devotee of big reds to the pleasures of Burgundy.

OVER a PONY and well worth the treat.

BLACK ESTATE 2009 Pinot Noir, Waipara £26.75 (£23.95 when you buy a case)
This full, flavoursome and characterful Pinot Noir was fermented with wild yeasts in open-top fermenters. Truffle and game add richness and a bit of wildness to the ripe black-cherry fruit, spice and chocolaty oak; acidity and tannin promise a good future.

GEVREY CHAMBERTIN Le Crais 2009 Domaine Huguenot £31.75 (£28.75 when you buy a case)
On the basis of the four Pinot Noirs we tasted here, we’re pleased to have made the acquaintance of Marsannay-based Domaine Huguenot. The style is generally rich, ripe and savoury, but it’s not an over-arching house-style: the terroir is allowed to talk. In this velvet-textured Gevrey, there’s a mouthwatering stony minerality cutting through the succulent black fruit and ripe tannins.

BUY a MIXED CASE made up of one bottle of each of the above for the ultimate Pinot Noir treat. Priced at £221.55 including delivery to your door.

Please note that both our BRUNELLO OFFER and POL ROGER 2002 OFFER close on 31st March 2012

ORDER on line or call any one of our shops.

Harper’s magazine is the wine trade’s leading review and at their recent annual champagne summit awards Lea & Sandeman were announced as the Independent Champagne Retailer of the Year.

We are delighted with this accolade, since we take great care in our selection of champagnes, from our house label Benedick, through our range of excellent quality growers champagnes, to our careful selection of Grandes Marques.

Unfortunately we do not have a photo of either Charles or me collecting the award, since although we had been told we were nominated, neither of us made it on the day which was a little embarrassing. Still, it saves us the blushes and spares you the discomfort of looking at Mr Lea or Mr Sandeman on your screen!

Often quoted as the most photographed vineyard in the world, Rippon’s Central Otago vineyards, running down to the shores of Lake Wanaka and the magnificent mountains beyond, are the source of possibly the most beautiful and drinkable wines New Zealand has to offer.

‘If you want the world to move for you, drink Rippon’ Matthew Jukes

Nick Mills has taken over full control from his mother Lois, who founded the vineyard on the family farm, back in 1982, with his late father Rolfe, and converted the fifteen hectares to full biodymanic viticulture. His extensive experiences in Burgundy have brought to Rippon a real sense of making wines that speak of the ‘terroir’, or place, rather than just the grape variety, which is why his wines are so often written about as being different to other offerings from New Zealand and even Central Otago.

With its high content of Silica, Quartz and Mica, Rippon’s schist based soils produce, as the texture of the rock itself would suggest, wines which are luminous, layered and complex; wines with lift rather than weight, precision rather than opulence, finesse rather than fullness, and this is reflected equally in the white and the red wines.

The white wines in our opinion some of the most enjoyable and expressive examples of these varieties you can find: dry Riesling that is both expressive and easy to understand (drink), Gewurztraminer that is brimming with fruit but does not rely upon residual sugar, and Sauvignon that puts almost all others into a cocked hat far and far out to sea in the South Pacific, as well as giving much of the Loire a run for its money, albeit in a very different style.

The reds may be influenced by growing techniques from Burgundy, but this is not Burgundy - as Nick puts it “it’s schist, mate”, not Burgundy limestone, but like Burgundies they have their sense of place and are miles away from the ‘fruit bombs’ that are so common to Central Otago (mostly off young vines under eight years old), which is why Nick has finally put ‘mature vines’ on his label. The luminosity and purity of these wines is clear to see and taste, both in the glass and after you have drunk them.

2010 RIESLING £19.95 bottle £17.95 by the case

The fruit is from Rippon’s mature vines, whose root hairs have invaded the schist rock below. Lurking towards the end of the first mouthful is substantial phenolic power and it soon starts to take charge of the wine… and give it its sense of place. You will never again say that you don’t like Riesling!

 2011 GEWURZTRAMINER £19.95 bottle £17.95 by the case

Delicious dry Gewurztraminer that does not rely upon sweetness, just wonderful definition, minerality and expression of fruit. Given a slow, whole bunch pressing the wine undergoes extended lees contact giving depth of flavour and texture.

2011 SAUVIGNON BLANC £16.95 bottle £15.50 by the case

What sets this wine apart from the ever increasing number of Sauvignons is the fabulous balance of ripeness, texture and minerality. 40% of the blend was fermented in old French barrels, not for the oak, but for the form of the vessel itself. We think that this is quite the best vintage of Nick’s Sauvignon that we have tasted. It is a mindblowing Sauvignon with fabulous fruit and awesome length, which is more in line with a Chablis than a tropical New World Sauvignon. An incredibly exciting and vibrant wine, we urge you not to miss it.

‘I can’t remember the last time sniffing a NZ Sauvignon Blanc made me sigh with happiness, but it happened with this wine, and I’m only aware of it because my friend who brought the wine over picked up on it! But I guess that just goes to show what a stunner of Sauvignon Rippon has made this year. What’s so lovely is that although you can tell it’s a NZ Sauvignon Blanc, it also has a softness on the nose and the palate which make it an especially sublime wine; the nose is elegant rather than purely super-charged in tropical fruit, and even though the citrus and tropical fruity notes dart about the palate – as they should on such a young and vibrant wine – the deftness of touch on the minerality balances the whole thing out to such a degree you’d be seriously hard pushed to find another NZ Sauvignon Blanc with so much going on at such a price.’ Jane Parkinson www.janeparkinson.co.uk

2009 PINOT NOIR ‘Mature Vines’ £31.95 bottle £28.75 by the case

‘This is one of those blow-away Pinots that reminds you just how serious NZ Pinot Noir can be. Headily scented with aromas of roast tomatoes, beetroot and even a savoury salty whiff of soy sauce. The palate is confident and rich, yet it still has the unmistakable prettiness of Pinot too thanks to the vibrant red fruit which follows on to a sophisticated earthiness on the long finish. This is a hugely inviting wine that’s a joy to drink, even at this price!’ Jane Parkinson www.janeparkinson.co.uk

‘Aromas of red cherries and red currants with some Mediterranean herbs, damp earth and black truffles. Medium bodied with silky tannins, it has well balanced medium-high acid and plenty of earthy berry flavours that linger long into the finish…Though this estate may be somewhat under the radar, it comes highly recommended by me!’ Lisa Perrotti-Brown, eRobertParker.com

‘Rippon is one of the most lauded names in New Zealand for pinot noir right now and as soon as you smell, never mind taste this wine you can see why. Made by Nick Mills, a one-time national level skier, it combines self-assurance, focus and composure with the pinot noir flair we all fall for. The roasted fruit Central Otago hallmark is there, but it’s not overbearing. Superb.’ Victoria Moore, The Daily Telegraph

2009 PINOT NOIR ‘Emma’s Block Mature Vines’ £44.95 bottle £40.75 by the case* (Limited stock)

Emma’s Block faces east on the Wanaka lake front where clay reefs run laterally through fine schist gravels. The block is named after the great-great-great grandmother of the current generation of the Mills family. Nick Mills says ‘this is more sleeky-slidey texturally than the pure schist wines [Tinker's Field Mature Vine Pinot, Mature Vine Pinot] because the soil has more clay. The soils are still schist gravels but with sausages or lenses of ancient lake bed clays. Emma’s Block is like a sewing machine oil in that it is so super fine you can’t even feel that the oil is on your fingers, but it lubricates.

‘Delicate red berry and red rose aromas over notes of white pepper, tree bark and underbrush plus a hint of mace. Tight knit and crisp on the palate with a medium-firm level of grainy tannins, it offers excellent red berry and earthy flavor concentration, finishing long…. These wines (Rippon Pinots) really open-up after a few years in bottle, developing gracefully into some of the longest living Pinots currently coming out of New Zealand.’ Lisa Perrotti-Brown, eRobertParker.com

2009 PINOT NOIR ‘Tinker’s Field Mature Vines’ £51.50 bottle £46.50 by the case* (Limited stock)

Nick Mills says ‘Tinker’s Field is a gentle, north-facing slope formed by an ancient ejection cone of coarse schist gravels.’ Tinker’s Field contains Rippon’s oldest vines which date back to 1974 and is named after Rippon’s founder, Rolfe Mills (1923-2000; Tink to his friends), who planted them. Mills says ‘This is more precise, more layered and more detailed than Emma’s Block because it comes from pure schistous soils, and without the lenses of clay. It is not a barrel selection and we only bottle part of the wine from this block so as not to remove a whole block of vines from the Rippon farm voice [which is encapsulated in the Rippon Mature Vine Pinot Noir].’

‘Fabulously complex Pinot Noir – a harmony of sweet and savoury, fruit and mineral,tight structure and intensity of flavour, fine-as-dust tannins and silky texture. It comes from the oldest vines on this biodynamic, long-established estate.’ www.thewinegang.com

ORDER any of these wines online, by email or from any one of our shops. Any combination of twelve bottles or more will be charged at the case prices.

Pol Roger have, after nine years of cellarage, at last released their fabulous 2002 vintage, a vintage that follows in a great line up of ripe vintages; 1959, 1982 and 1990. What sets a vintage champagne apart is the balance of the right blend of healthy grapes, potential alcohol and correct acidity in a single year, and the wines capacity to age. Those who buy the 2002 and have the patience to age it will be rewarded with a much more complex and richer wine.

Released in very limited quantities, in bottles, magnums and a few jeroboams, Pol Roger 2002 is made up of the traditional house blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from twenty Grands and Premiers Crus vineyards in the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Blancs.

Pol Roger’s official launch has only taken place this week and there are as yet no published tasting notes or scores available from the wine writers. However, suffice to say that we tasted and were hugely impressed, rating the 2002 as one of the best vintages we have tasted from Pol Roger, a house that we have tremendous respect for. Their own MW, James Simpson, noted it as follows:

“Pale yellow gold with a fine stream of steady bubbles. Still very young and understated on the nose but some autolytic development and huge potential. Great weight and power on the palate with a creamy, rich structure, fully balanced with very poised acidity. Very fine and very long. Tremendous potential for mid and long term ageing.”

OPENING OFFER – POL ROGER 2002 VINTAGE – prices include duty.

Bottles £240.00 ex Vat per 6 bottles (£288.00 / £48 bottle inc. Vat)* minimum order 12 bottles

Magnums £267.00 ex Vat per 3 magnums (£320.40 / £106.80 magnum inc. Vat)

Jeroboams £290.00 ex Vat per Jeroboam (£348.00 Jeroboam inc.Vat) *Very limited stock.

OPENING OFFER: These offer prices are valid until 31st March 2012, subject to availabilty of stock, at which stage the offer will close.

TO ORDER: Please email your order with final delivery instructions or call any one of our stores.

It shared a page with the latest Bugatti Veyron – but how much more affordable!

“I went to a brilliant  Lea & Sandeman Wine tasting the other day, focusing on only three red grapes – pinot noir, nebbiolo and sangiovese. It was a rare treat to be allowed to concentrate on such a tight bunch. Rather than blurting out a shopping list of my favourite wines, I thought I would limit myself to just one incredible one today. – this very special red Burgundy. A new Domaine to me, Douaix is owned by a Belgian father and son team. Keen Burgundy fans, Mark and Gilles Moustie have rented a gite for many years in the hills behind the town of Nuits-Saint-Georges. They finally realised their dream of making their own wines when they bought two beautiful parcels of vines in Corgoloin – one with 35-year-old vines, and another whose vines are over 60. Son Gilles is on site and Mark slaves away as a management consultant, presumably paying the bills. They must be very proud of work becasue this delicious 2009 is finer than an CdNV I have ever tasted. Poured blind I would swear it was an established well-known Domaine’s wine from a redoubtable vineyard and with a price tag nearer £50 than £20″

Matthew Jukes, Money Week. 2 March 2012

Brunello di Montalcino has enjoyed a recent run of great vintages, but never had two such great consecutive vintages as it did with 2007 and 2006. The release of both the 2007 vintage of Brunello, and the fabulous 2006 ‘Riserva’ is an exciting double, for both Italian and French wine lovers alike. The question is, which is the better vintage?

Roberto Fuligni says ‘it is difficult to say that either one of these five star vintages is better than the other, only that they are different’. And so they are, the 2007 wines being immensely complete and elegant, difficult to resist even now, while the 2006 wines are more vibrant, with higher acidity and mostly in need of longer bottle age.

James Suckling states the ‘2007 Brunello di Montalcinos are Superlative Quality’, and that he is ‘incredibly impressed with the richness of the wines. They are wonderfully fruity with a purity of ripe Sangiovese that is seldom seen from the vineyards surrounding the hilltop town of Montalcino. The bright fruit in the wines overshadowed their firm tannins and fresh acidities, yet they remain agile with tension…it’s never been a better time to buy and drink Brunello.’

He goes on to say ‘I view the current release of 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Riservas as yet another chance to buy and drink more extraordinary Brunellos from an extraordinary vintage. The 2006 Brunello di Montalcinos remain my favourite Brunellos ever despite the 2007s being so wonderful. The 2006s have a little more freshness, a little more subtlety, and a little more class. I love the richness yet tension to the 2006s. I love their vibrant acidity and energy. They challenge you with their complexity and structure. They intrigue you with how they change in the glass.’

Both Fuligni and Collemattoni have released fabulous wines, and customers who have bought in the past will know how well they improve with bottle age, and what delicious drinking they offer as they reach maturity. These are outstandingly good wines and offer fantastic value for money, especially when you consider what you might buy in Bordeaux at equivalent prices, even this year.

OPENING OFFER – these offer prices are valid until 31^st March 2012, at which stage the offer will close. The wines will become available for delivery during the month of April 2012.

COLLEMATTONI
Collemattoni’s wines, once rather rustic by comparison, have improved immeasurably and are no less fine, only fuller bodied and richer and more easily approached in their youth.

2007 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO Collemattoni
Full bodied and ripe. with dark fruits and fine tannins this drinks well immediately and will be good over the next five years and more. As ever great value too.
£250.00 per dozen bottles ex Vat (£220 In Bond)
£49.00 per single magnum* ex Vat (£49 ex Vat/£45 In Bond)* Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Dark crimson. A bit of balsamic on the nose so a teensy bit chunky but overall fine and savoury and elegant and polished though with quite an undertow. Good acidity. Racy and sinewy. Very appetising. (Tasted October 2010) 17 points.
Jancis Robinson MW OBE – www.jancisrobinson.com

Dried dark fruits, with dried tannins on the nose. Full body, with fine tannins and a balanced, pretty finish. Bright and clean. 92 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

2006 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO ‘Vigna Fontelontano’ Riserva Collemattoni
Another fabulous effort from Marcello Bucci, the 2006 ‘Fontelontano Riserva’ is an exciting wine. Richly textured and full of stuffing, yet with all the racy acidity of the vintage making it a wine that will be worth holding onto for a few years before drinking, and capabale of ageing a decade thereafter.
£430.00 per dozen bottles ex Vat (£400 In Bond)
£80.00 per single magnum* ex Vat (£75 In Bond) * Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Transparent yet lively ruby. Very meaty and lively. Real lift and meatiness and liquorice to this. Exciting stuff. Very dense and deliberate. Rich, dusty and quite youthful. Blustering for the moment but it should shed its puppy fat and become much more rewarding. (Tasted October 2010) 16.5 points.
Jancis Robinson MW OBE – www.jancisrobinson.com

Subtle aromas of meat, berries and earth follow though to a full body, with soft and silky tannins and a fruity finish. Delicious now. 93 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

Eredi FULIGNI
Fuligni’s wines are among the most ‘aristocratic’ in style, tight and linear when youthful and immensely fine and elegant with bottle age.

2007 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO Fuligni
A fabulously complete and expressive Brunello with ripe tannins, succulent fruit and lovely finish. This will be more immediate drinking than the racier 2006, but have no doubt about the fact that it will also age very well in bottle for a decade and more.
£330.00 per dozen bottles ex Vat (£308 In Bond)
£60.00 per single magnum* inclusive ex Vat (£55 In Bond) * Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Black cherry and black tea aromas follow through to a full body, with velvety tannins and a succulent finish. Wonderful combination of bright acidity and savory fruit. Will age wonderfully. Better in 2015. 95 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

2006 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO Riserva Fuligni
 With all the vibrancy and purity of the 2006 vintage, the ‘Riserva’ is all the more concentrated and mucular with a tremendous life ahead. A stunning wine which should be cellared for a decade and more.
£500.00 per dozen bottles ex Vat (£470 In Bond)
£89.00 per single magnum* ex Vat (£85 In Bond) * Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Very perfumed aromas of ripe fruit such as strawberries and blackberries. Turns to flowers and incense. Full-bodied, with fine tannins and a bright, citrus aftertaste and ultra-clean fruit. The purity and focus of the wine is spellbinding. Better in 2015. 96 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

From tank (Oct 2010). Dense, savoury and liquorice on the nose. Exciting and lean and lively. Racy. Filigree. Transparent and with great life. Racy and thoroughbred. Promises very well. The muscular build of a great Côte Rôtie. 18.5 points.
Jancis Robinson MW OBE – www.jancisrobinson.com

OPENING OFFER: These offer prices are valid until 31^st March 2012, at which stage the offer will close.

TO ORDER: Please email your order with final delivery instructions.

DELIVERY: The wines will become available in April and May and delivered shortly thereafter.

BOND DELIVERIES: Please specify if you are ordering In Bond, together with your account details. All Bond orders will be subject to a £15 documentation and delivery charge, except for Elephant Storage account holders.

LEA & SANDEMAN
170 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9PR
T: 020 7244 0522
F: 020 7244 0533

sales@leaandsandeman.co.uk

Tim Atkin MW published his take on the 2010 Burgundies last week (while I was scooting about the Languedoc unearthing new jewels (of which more later) and attending the ViniSud wine fair in the not so romantic expo park next to Montpellier airport, so there’s been a small delay in passing on his recommendations. You can buy and download his full report from Tim Atkin.com – and have a look at some of his great photos while you are there.

There are a good number of wines from among the L&S offerings, for which our thanks to Tim. His notes can be found below.  Chablis from Boudin and Moreau-Naudet, and three wines each from Lamy and Jobard are picked out as the bargains they are. In red the Cotes de Nuits Villages from Domaine de la Douaix gets another boost (we’d already mailed about Neal Martin’s take on this wine), and there are huge reviews for some of Yves Confuron’s wines, from both Domaine Confuron Cotetidot and Domaine de Courcel where he is also manager, as well as for a couple of the Drouhin reds where we still have some stock.

All the same do bear in mind that while we try to  bring you all the critics’ views and recommendations, in the end it is we ourselves who put our money where our mouth is and actually buy these wines, and present them to the critics to taste, so it is worth reading what we have to say too – have another look at the offer!

2010 CHABLIS 1er Cru Homme Mort Domaine Adhémar et Francis Boudin
Despite the evocative name of this Premier Cru, there’s nothing remotely tired or even moribund about the wine, which is honeyed, complex and unoaked. On the ripe side for Chablis, but with a bright, focused finish. 2012-15 (91/100)

2010 CHABLIS 1er Cru Vaillons Domaine Moreau-Naudet
Incredible value at less than £150 in bond, this oozes sophistication and poise, combining concentration and focused minerality. Yeasty and fresh with a buttery mid-palate and a stony, dry finish. 2013-18 (93/100)

2010 CHABLIS 1er Cru Forêts Domaine Moreau-Naudet
Stéphane Moreau’s wines have a ripeness that is almost exotic in 2010, with notes of peach and white flowers. But the underlying minerality and freshness reflect the vintage, too, giving the wines great length. 2013-17 (91/100)

2010 CHABLIS Grand Cru Valmur Domaine Moreau-Naudet
This is a little more restrained than the Vaillons from the same producer, with an overlay of oak and oyster shell minerality. The wine should fatten out in bottle over the next year or two as the oak recedes. 2014-20 (93/100)

2010 POUILLY FUISSÉ Alliance-Vergisson Domaine Daniel Barraud
The Mâconnais is the source of some great bargains in 2010, with wines that have more vivacity than the 2009s. This is rich, peachy and honeyed, but with sprightly acidity and a fresh finish. 2012-16 (90/100)

2010 SAINT AUBIN 1er Cru Frionnes Domaine Hubert Lamy
Olivier Lamy crafts some of the best wines in the under-rated village of St Aubin. This south-east facing site produces rich, concentrated wines with chalky minerality and attractive peachy fruit. 2013-18 (92/100)

2010 SAINT AUBIN 1er Cru Clos de la Chatenière Domaine Hubert Lamy
Another value for money St Aubin from the talented Olivier Lamy: taut and focused with impressive palate length, well integrated oak and beguiling freshness. 2013-20 (92/100)

2010 PULIGNY MONTRACHET Tremblots Domaine Hubert Lamy
I’d happily fill my cellar with the 2010 whites from Olivier Lamy. Like his St Aubin wines, this is expressive but not clamorous, with subtle oak, elegant pear and cinnamon fruit and a fresh, chalky persistence. 2014-19 (93/100)

2010 BOURGOGNE BLANC Domaine Rémi Jobard
If you want to drink good generic white Burgundy, find a good producer of more elevated wines. This screwcapped example (actually it isn’t screwcapped – Tim saw a sample which had a special plastic cap closure. It will be under cork. Ed.) is focused and bright with citrus peel and pear flavours and palate-tingling acidity. 2012-15 (89/100)

2010 MEURSAULT Narvaux Domaine Rémi Jobard
A Meursault which doffs its cap to Puligny, this is rich and concentrated, with flavours of hazelnuts and stone fruits, polished oak and tangy, palate-tingling acidity. Great white Burgundy at an affordable price. 2014-20 (93/100)

2010 MEURSAULT Chevalières Domaine Rémi Jobard
Even more minerally than the Narvaux from the same producer, again showing notes of citrus rind and cashew nut. The concentration is understated, but it’s there all right, supported by the stony finish. 2016-22 (94/100)

2010 PULIGNY MONTRACHET 1er Cru Champ Canet Domaine Jean-Marc Boillot
Yields were even lower than normal in 2010 in this vineyard because of a spring frost. The result is a rich, powerful wine with opulent, almost exotic flavours of peach, quince and orange blossom. 2012-18 (94/100)

2010 POMMARD 1er Cru Charmots Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot
My favourite of the Pillot reds in 2010, this is a Pommard with some of the lightness of touch of a Volnay and none of the former’s growling tannins. Sweet, fine and well balanced with beguiling palate length. 2014-20 (92/100)

2010 POMMARD 1er Cru Arvelets Domaine J. Confuron Cotetidot
Sourced from very red soils – “the reddest I know in Burgundy”, says Yves Confuron – this is perfumed, yet almost austere, with focused, minerally fruit flavours of red cherry and raspberry and chiselled line and length. 2015-25 (94/100)

2010 BEAUNE Rouge 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Domaine Joseph Drouhin
It’s rare that I prefer the red Clos des Mouches to the white, but that’s the case in 2010, such is the quality of the Drouhin reds. Ten per cent of whole bunches adds a little extra structure to what is a smoky, finely textured wine. 2016-25 (94/100)

2010 POMMARD Vaumuriens Domaine de Courcel
This is a Pommard for purists, a wine that makes you want to beat your breast as you drink it. It’s a dense, sappy, even chunky wine with smoky blackberry and liquorice flavours and stemmy tannins. 2016-22. (93/100)

2010 POMMARD 1er Cru Grand Clos des Épenots Domaine de Courcel
Whether or not this vineyard is elevated to Grand Cru status in the future, it is producing some very complex wines, with more focus and depth than most Pommards. This is aromatic and well balanced, with blackberry and Morello cherries on the palate and a hint of stemmy concentration. 2015-22 (94/100)

2010 CÔTE DE NUITS VILLAGES Terres Nobles Domaine de la Douaix
Bargain time! This won’t last for a decade, but it’s delicious to drink now, showing the defining sweet fruit of the vintage, supported by a touch of oak. Puts a smile on your face. 2012-14 (89/100)
2010 VOSNE ROMANÉE Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg
The feminine touch (in the form of sisters, Marie-Andrée and Christine) is always apparent in these wines, even at village level. Perfumed and gentle, with no rough edges, subtle oak and a sweet finish. 2013-18 (93/100)

2010 GEVREY CHAMBERTIN 1er Cru Craipillot Domaine J. Confuron Cotetidot
This isn’t the showiest of Yves Confuron’s 2010s, but it’s one of the most balanced and refined. The whole bunch stemminess is less marked here, allowing the sweetness of the red fruits to take wing. Balanced, seductively oaked and very long on the palate, this is a wine I’d love to cellar. 2015-25. (95/100)

2010 CLOS DES LAMBRAYS Grand Cru Domaine des Lambrays
The influence of whole bunch fermentation may be too much for some, but if you like the style, this is a very polished expression of it. Sappy and slightly stemmy, with good structure and notes of forest floor and fresh earth. 2014-25 (94/100)

2010 CHAMBOLLE MUSIGNY 1er Cru Domaine Joseph Drouhin
The Drouhins blend five different Premiers Crus into this wine and the result is definitely more than the sum of its parts. Hauntingly aromatic, with sappy black cherry and raspberry fruit, a touch of liquorice and a tapering finish. 2015-22 (94/100)

The approach to Turin was breathtaking as our plane circled the snow covered mountains with the sun dipping behind them, but the drive to Alba was made longer by particularly bad traffic, so it was swift check-in at our hotel before walking into the centre of town for dinner. Lalibera is a modern trattoria of the sort that at once makes you feel that you have hit the jackpot, with an awesome wine list, incredibly reasonably priced, and simple but fabulous food. A bottle of Arneis (Vietti) with our starters was a perfect aperitif before an indulgent bottle of Elio Grasso’s 2005 Barolo ‘Runcot’, even if it was a little oaky in my opinion. My choice of homemade spaghetti with wild rabbit and artichoke ‘ragu’, however, was a triumph.

Snow covered landscapes and stunningly clear blue skies the following morning made one think of being in the mountains and skiing, but we turned our attention only to wine as made the short drive south to Bricco Maiolica and taste with Beppe Accomo. Beppe is the fourth generation to make wine at this property which is made up of just one large twenty-one hectare vineyard, sweeping like an amphitheatre around the winery. Traditionally Dolcetto was the most popular and widely grown variety of the region, but over the past three years has rapidly lost favour and Nebbiolo is now king, in more ways than one. After much discussion about the organic practices they use in the vineyards we headed inside for a tasting of the entire range of Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Chardonnay and even Pinot Noir made by Beppe. These are simple, but very expressive wines with an easy and pure approach. A great start to the day’s tasting.

The drive to Sottimano’s estate takes you over the hills to Barbaresco with breathtaking scenery all around. Andrea led us down a small back road to the tiny hamlet of Cotta’, where his father had bought the house when they started making wine, specifically for the old cellar beneath. Whereas it might once have housed livestock, today it is full of large oak barrels, although a suspected broken drain after the recent cold snap made the place still stink of ‘animal’. At Sottimano they only use 20% new oak, but even that is not a fixed rule, with only 10% used for the 2009 and up to 25% for the 2008, the wines undergoing malolactic fermentation on the lees for anything from eight to twelve months, before being racked off into older oak. Everything is done with the minimum of intervention, very little racking, and no fining or filtration so that the wines make themselves and retain the expression of each individual vineyard. This proved to be the highlight of the day and tasting the different ‘crus’ from both 2008 and 2009 vintages was stunning. While the rich and powerful 2009 vintage will undoubtedly have massive and broader appeal, I found the 2008s more nervy, making them exciting and expressive at the same time. I noted the Pajore as being particularly outstanding, but what perhaps surprised me most of all was Andrea’s Dolcetto 2010 ‘Bric de Salto’, a fabulously crunchy, juicy, almost austere light red that put one in mind of drinking it with salami and fresh parmesan. So, very much at Andrea’s insistence (he has no notion of a ‘sandwich lunch’) on to the local trat we went and each enjoyed a simple bowl of the most amazing pasta, apparently freshly made that morning, using thirty eggs per kilo. Andrea was quite disappointed that we did not have time for a main course too.

Typically, we were now running an hour late and the drive to Luigi Einaudi in Dogliani was not helped by our satnav insisting on taking us to the centre of the town rather than up the hill to the winery. It is immediately obvious that the Einaudi operation is not only well established and wealthy, but also quite large. They are one of the largest producers of Dolcetto (170,000 bottles, compared to 50,000 of Barolo), but as Matteo Sardegna explained this is the historical and quality production area for the variety, and they are famous for it. Like most others, the use of new oak here has been quite dramatically reduced over the past decade to make for more expressive wines. I have always enjoyed these wines, but only really when they have had bottle age (the 2004s are delicious now, as was a 1997 recently opened), and I found it hard work tasting the 2008 Barolos, which were tight and unforgiving at this moment in time. Matteo told us that 2009 was one of the best vintages ever in Dolgliani, and while the Dolcettos in 2011 were a disaster, the Nebbiolos were the healthiest he had seen. As we left the sun was setting behind the hills and it was clear that our final appointment in Barolo would be in darkness.

Andrea Oberto’s winery is housed in a large modern, purpose built building just outside the town of La Morra. They have sixteen hectares of vineyards across La Morra, Barolo and Roero (the latter being rented, although Fabio informed us rather glumly that they had just lost their rented vines in Brunate as Vietti had taken them back for their own use). Andrea was a passionate winemaker since he was young, but had to work as a long haul lorry driver until such time as he could afford to buy some vineyards and start making wine, two decades ago. Fabio has joined him but there is a distinct impression that Dad is reluctant to let go of the reins and is very much involved. In spite of their passionate and continued use of new oak barrels, with all the wines spending six months in new French oak before being transferred to Slavonian oak ‘botte’ for eighteen months, this was a fabulous tasting of expressive and very well made wines. The three Barolo 2008 ‘crus’ were hugely impressive, the Brunate being the most favoured (feminine and elegant), followed by Albarella (umami), and Rocche (muscular).

At the end of what was a long day of tasting it would have been lovely to slip back to Lalibera for a single course and hit the sack, but Fabio had other ideas and kindly took us to dinner at a rather smart restaurant inside a huge old castle, which dragged on, and on, and on…… I will spare the detail, but suffice to say it was the sort of restaurant where you just knew that the food will be over ambitious and overpriced and midway through dinner I just wanted to stand up and scream!

The following morning we to the North of Piemonte, and the little known region of Boca, to visit Christoph Kunzli and his Le Piane vineyards. This is something of a backwater, almost forgotten by time and with a feeling of untouched remoteness. Once one of the most densely planted regions of Italy, with more vines than the whole of Tuscany, there are today no more than thirty hectares, eight of which are Le Piane. The lowest of these vineyards, are planted at 410 meters, (which is where Barbaresco stops) and the highest up at 510. The soil here is deep red volcanic (porphyric), rich in minerals, very friable, and unique to Terlano, Gattinara and Boca. Although much colder than Alba, Boca is well protected by the mountains from cold North winds and the difference between the air and the soil temperature can be as much as ten degrees, which helps both the ripening and aromatics of the grapes. Nebbiolo historically comes from here, but the soils are almost too acid (compared to the chalk soil of Barolo) giving wines with less body and lower alcohol, though the later harvests give softer tannins. However, as Christoph explains, he is not looking so much for varietal typicity in his wines, as for an expression of the place that they come from. Thus, all of his wines are field blends, regardless of what is planted in them.

The oldest vines (three hectares) are up to one hundred year old, and more, and are planted with Croatina, some Nebbiolo and other varieties (including Erbaluce), in the ‘maggiorina’ style; three vines planted together and trained onto four poles and wires in a wide square. It is believed the system dates back to Roman times and survived up until mechanisation when most vineyards were either abandoned or pulled up. The new vineyards (five hectares) are all planted with Nebbiolo and Vespolina in more modern rows, trained in the ‘Guyot’ style.

After a couple of hours in the vineyards, where with warm sun on our faces and cold snow underfooot we really got a wonderful sense of the place, Christoph took us down to his tiny but beautiful winery where we tasted teeth-shatteringly cold barrel samples of 2011 and 2010 Croatina (‘rustic version of Syrah’), Nebbiolo and Vespolina (‘ an aromatic variety used to give more body to the Nebbiolo’). We then returned to the only hostelry in Boca, which serves both as an ‘enoteca’ selling Christophe’s wines and doubles up as his tasting room, for a magnificent tasting through La Maggiorina, Le Piane and Boca, including older vintages from his predecessor (Cerri) who had hoarded bottles dating back as far as 1955. With age these wines are totally different to Barolo or Barbaresco, taking on more of the aromatics of old Bordeaux and the flavours of Burgundy. Not only fascinating but fabulous too. The tasting was followed by yet another glorious plate of pasta (this time with dried tomatoes, clams and tiny broccoli) and a gorgeous ‘creme brulee’. A real surprise was Christophe’s Erbaluce ‘passito’ which had both Julia and Emily writhing with ecstacy, but is sadly not yet available commercially.

Although it is only a short drive from Boca to Turin airport (less than an hour) the contrast between natural wilderness and modernity is striking, and even a week later I can sense the unaffected wilderness of the place, and taste the naturalness of the wines. Wines which reflect another facet of Nebbiolo. Wines which deserve a far greater audience.

Brunello di Montalcino has enjoyed a recent run of great vintages, but never had two such great consecutive vintages as it did with 2007 and 2006. The release of both the 2007 vintage of Brunello, and the fabulous 2006 ‘Riserva’ is an exciting double, for both Italian and French wine lovers alike.  The question is, which is the better vintage?

Roberto Fuligni says ‘it is difficult to say that either one of these five star vintages is better than the other, only that they are different’. And so they are, the 2007 wines being immensely complete and elegant, difficult to resist even now, while the 2006 wines are more vibrant, with higher acidity and mostly in need of longer bottle age.

James Suckling states the ‘2007 Brunello di Montalcinos are Superlative Quality’, and that he is ‘incredibly impressed with the richness of the wines. They are wonderfully fruity with a purity of ripe Sangiovese that is seldom seen from the vineyards surrounding the hilltop town of Montalcino. The bright fruit in the wines overshadowed their firm tannins and fresh acidities, yet they remain agile with tension…it’s never been a better time to buy and drink Brunello.’

He goes on to say ‘I view the current release of 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Riservas as yet another chance to buy and drink more extraordinary Brunellos from an extraordinary vintage. The 2006 Brunello di Montalcinos remain my favourite Brunellos ever despite the 2007s being so wonderful. The 2006s have a little more freshness, a little more subtlety, and a little more class. I love the richness yet tension to the 2006s. I love their vibrant acidity and energy. They challenge you with their complexity and structure. They intrigue you with how they change in the glass.’

Both Fuligni and Collemattoni have released fabulous wines, and customers who have bought in the past will know how well they improve with bottle age, and what delicious drinking they offer as they reach maturity. These are outstandingly good wines and offer fantastic value for money, especially when you consider what you might buy in Bordeaux at equivalent prices, even this year.

OPENING OFFER – these offer prices are valid until 31^st March 2012, at which stage the offer will close. The wines will become available for delivery during the month of April 2012.

COLLEMATTONI
Collemattoni’s wines, once rather rustic by comparison, have improved immeasurably and are no less fine, only fuller bodied and richer and more easily approached in their youth.

2007 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO Collemattoni
Full bodied and ripe, with dark fruits and fine tannins this drinks well immediately and will be good over the next five years and more. As ever great value too.
£300.00 per dozen bottles inclusive of duty and Vat (£250 ex Vat/£220 In Bond)
£58.80 per single magnum* inclusive of duty and Vat (£49 ex Vat/£45 In Bond)* Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Dark crimson. A bit of balsamic on the nose so a teensy bit chunky but overall fine and savoury and elegant and polished though with quite an undertow. Good acidity. Racy and sinewy. Very appetising. (Tasted October 2010) 17 points.
Jancis Robinson MW OBE – www.jancisrobinson.com

Dried dark fruits, with dried tannins on the nose. Full body, with fine tannins and a balanced, pretty finish. Bright and clean. 92 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

2006 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO ‘Vigna Fontelontano’ Riserva Collemattoni
Another fabulous effort from Marcello Bucci, the 2006 ‘Fontelontano Riserva’ is an exciting wine. Richly textured and full of stuffing, yet with all the racy acidity of the vintage making it a wine that will be worth holding onto for a few years before drinking, and capable of ageing a decade thereafter.
£516.00 per dozen bottles inclusive of duty and Vat (£430 ex Vat/£400 In Bond)
£96.00 per single magnum* inclusive of duty and Vat (£80 ex Vat/£75 In Bond) * Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Transparent yet lively ruby. Very meaty and lively. Real lift and meatiness and liquorice to this. Exciting stuff. Very dense and deliberate. Rich, dusty and quite youthful. Blustering for the moment but it should shed its puppy fat and become much more rewarding. (Tasted October 2010) 16.5 points.
Jancis Robinson MW OBE – www.jancisrobinson.com

Subtle aromas of meat, berries and earth follow though to a full body, with soft and silky tannins and a fruity finish. Delicious now. 93 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

Eredi FULIGNI
Fuligni’s wines are among the most ‘aristocratic’ in style, tight and linear when youthful and immensely fine and elegant with bottle age.

2007 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO Fuligni
A fabulously complete and expressive Brunello with ripe tannins, succulent fruit and lovely finish. This will be more immediate drinking than the racier 2006, but have no doubt about the fact that it will also age very well in bottle for a decade or more.
£396.00 per dozen bottles inclusive of duty and Vat (£330 ex Vat/£308 In Bond)
£72.00 per single magnum* inclusive of duty and Vat (£60 ex Vat/£55 In Bond) * Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Black cherry and black tea aromas follow through to a full body, with velvety tannins and a succulent finish. Wonderful combination of bright acidity and savory fruit. Will age wonderfully. Better in 2015. 95 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

2006 BRUNELLO di MONTALCINO Riserva Fuligni
With all the vibrancy and purity of the 2006 vintage, the ‘Riserva’ is all the more concentrated and mucular with a tremendous life ahead. A stunning wine which should be cellared for a decade and more.
£600.00 per dozen bottles inclusive of duty and Vat (£500 ex Vat/£470 In Bond)
£106.80 per single magnum* inclusive of duty and Vat (£89 ex Vat/£85 In Bond) * Subject to minimum order of 9 litres from this offer.

Very perfumed aromas of ripe fruit such as strawberries and blackberries. Turns to flowers and incense. Full-bodied, with fine tannins and a bright, citrus aftertaste and ultra-clean fruit. The purity and focus of the wine is spellbinding. Better in 2015. 96 points.
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

From tank (Oct 2010). Dense, savoury and liquorice on the nose. Exciting and lean and lively. Racy. Filigree. Transparent and with great life. Racy and thoroughbred. Promises very well. The muscular build of a great Côte Rôtie. 18.5 points.
Jancis Robinson MW OBE – www.jancisrobinson.com

OPENING OFFER: These offer prices are valid until 31^st March 2012, at which stage the offer will close.

TO ORDER: Please email your order with final delivery instructions or call any one of our stores.

DELIVERY: The wines will become available in April and May and delivered shortly thereafter.

BOND DELIVERIES: Please specify if you are ordering In Bond, together with your account details. All Bond orders will be subject to a £15 documentation and delivery charge, except for Elephant Storage account holders.

LEA & SANDEMAN
170 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9PR
T: 020 7244 0522
F: 020 7244 0533

At the end of the article was a small list of ten producers ‘Jancis’ picks’, ‘who seemed to perform particularly well in 2010′, and singled out the Domaine Fernand and Laurent Pillot.

We have long been big fans of Laurent Pillot, whose wines represent particularly good value, and age well despite being attractively juicy when young. Laurent’s dynamism has made huge improvements here over the last decade and the wines really are better than ever. Not content simply to make wine, Laurent conducts the Chassagne brass band, keeps and hunts hawks, and flies a particularly sophisticated microlight all over France – on my last visit he was showing me how he does his flight plans on an iPad app.

Laurent’s 1992 Grandes Ruchottes came top of a tasting of wines of that vintage, ahead of some supposedly much ‘grander’ domaines, and his 2002 Pommard Rugiens surprised many to become the wine with the highest mark in a tasting for Bourgogne Aujourd’hui – Nicolas Rossignol, who was one of the tasters, remarked to me this year ‘un vin qui m’a bien bluffé’.

As a setting it is hard to beat, on the banks of the river Thames, with a wide open space looking towards Richard Rogers’ Architects building, and a bright airy room that is set apart from the main restaurant, but still enjoys the buzz of the open kitchen and the bustle of the dining room. There was a slight frisson of nervous excitement as one of my guests, a notable restaurateur (with four establishments and more than one Michelin star under his belt) arrived at the reception at the same time as A.A .Gill, who was lunching in the main restaurant. Having never set eyes on the man in person I could not resist venturing out to spot him, which was easily done once I had been warned of his dreadful suit, a suit which would have horrified even Bertie Wooster, and made my own tweed look positively demure.

Back to business, as the River Cafe produced a fabulous spread of Antipasti to go with the first pair of wines; both 2007 and 2006 Brunello. As Roberto says, it is difficult to say that one of these five star vintages is better than the other, only that they are different. And so they are, the 2007 being immensely complete and elegant, and so difficult to resist even now, while the 2006 is vibrant, with higher acidity and in need of more bottle age. Both fabulous wines.

The main courses were served alongside the soon to be released 2006 ‘Riserva’ and last years’s release of 2004 ‘Riserva’ (2005 was not a vintage for ‘Riserva’). The 2006 shares the same tone of vibrant and bright tannins as the ‘normale’ and will undoubtedly age gracefully to become a wonderful mature Brunello, while the 2004 is showing the beginnings of sweeter and softer tannins, but not without a great future ahead.

As an example of how these wines mature we then poured 2001 Brunello’ normale’ and 1995 Brunello ‘Riserva’ from magnum. Both wines still showed remarkable colour, in fact little different from the younger wines. The 2001 was a great vintage and the wine showed tremendous class, while the 2005 ‘Riserva’, albeit a lesser vintage, was really quite stunning and although showing maturity still had a good few years left in it.

One seasoned journalist, specialising in Tuscan wines, commented that Fuligni ‘makes very understated wines, that do not necessarily shine in blind tastings, but provide deliciously rewarding drinking over an hour or two, as ‘vini da meditazione”, while another, younger but experienced wine buyer referred to these wines as ‘aristocratic’.

These are not blockbusters, in spite of their relatively high alcohol levels (14.5% – 15%), because their acidity levels and judicious use of oak (no ‘barriques’ here) keeps them in check and allows the wines to be truly expressive of Brunello.

Rewarding drinking over an hour or two they most certainly are, and even after six different vintages one is left with a sensation of refreshing clarity and elegance on the palate that is quite rare when tasting such powerful wines as these. They are wonderful food wines, deserve to be cellared, and perhaps in years such as this, when the offerings from Bordeaux are likely to be of little interest, they might finally appeal to a broader audience than those who are already in the know and seek out these magnificent, aristocratic wines.

Our offer of Fuligni’s and Collamttoni’s 2006 Brunello ‘Riservas’ and 2007 Brunelli will follow in the next few days.

He selects his top 10 reds and whites from the London tastings, which include the wines below. Prices and terms as per our 2010 Burgundy Offer (all quoted excl. VAT), where all these wines are offered low ‘primeur’ prices.

Whites

Domaine Daniel Barraud, Macon-Vergisson La Roche per case £105 ib / £135 dpd
“What flowers and white fruit, fresh, fleshy minerality, lovely wine. Drink: 2012-14″

Domaine Paul & Marie Jacquesson, Rully 1er Cru La Pucelle per case £150 ib / £180 dpd
“Very expressive and has all the class of smarter wines from the Cote d’Or, a beautiful wine.Drink: 2013-16″

Domaine Moreau-Naudet, Chablis Grand Cru Valmur per case £249 ib / £282 dpd
“Dry honey nose, white fruits, great density and length, classic Grand Cru. Drink: 2014-20″

Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Vide Bourse per case £318 ib / £345 dpd
“Quite honeyed, better even than their excellent 1er Cru Morgeot, more precision, character and depth.Drink: 2014-19″

Reds

Domaine Francois Lumpp, Givry 1er Cru Clos Jus per case £186 ib / £216 dpd
“Succulent and exuberant for Givry and lots of youthful vigour and charm for Givry. – Drink: 2014-18.”

Pommard 1er Cru Grand Crus des Epenots Domaine de Courcel per case £528 ib / £555 dpd
“Stunning fruit, really good earthy spice, depth and length, very good indeed. Drink: 2016-25″

Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Beaux Bruns Domaine Thierry Mortet per case £471 ib / 492 dpd
Lovely lissom fruit, great purity of Chambolle-Musigny, great depth and terrific future. Drink: 2015-25″

Sarah Marsh, also in Decanter, says of the whites:
“Lovers of proper white Burgundy should not hesitate to snap up the 2010 vintage. The style is more classically Burgundian than 2009, driven by firm acidity, but also ripe. This equitable profile will hold much appeal, but there is precious little of it.”

Roll up Roll up – place your orders now to take advantage of the lowest ’primeur’ prices we will ever offer for these wines on the grand 2010 Burgundy Offer

Each of them writes independently for leading publications, and collectively they roam the wine regions of the world and the UK merchants’ tastings, publishing their findings on The Wine Gang website.

In the just released February report Lea & Sandeman is included among the merchant reports, and the Gang say some rather nice things about us which we are very happy to share:

‘The Lea & Sandeman tastings are among the highlights of the year, and what with their portfolio, Italian and en primeur tastings, they keep us on our toes as much as we imagine they keep their customers on theirs. Highlights remain in the classics of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, Champagne and Tuscany, while there’s much to enjoy from Austria and Spain too. This report coincides with their mouthwatering 2010 Burgundy en primeur offer, which is well worth an in-depth look.’

(NOTE that more wines have now been added to our 2010 Burgundy offer)

All prices quoted are for single bottles. Order any mix of twelve bottles or more and you will be charged the DISCOUNTED case prices on every bottle.

DELIVERY is FREE on all orders of £100 value and more.

WHITE WINES

Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot Puligny-Montrachet Noyers Brets 2008 13.5%abv £30.95
Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot Puligny-Montrachet Noyers Brets 2008This lovely white Burgundy displays a complex, nutty, intense aromatic quality with richly concentrated, nutty, green olive Chardonnay fruitiness underscored by a very full-flavoured ripe peach and pear fruit richness. Yet it finishes bone dry with a lick of salty, mineral acidity. 93 points.

I Clivi Malvasia 2009 13% abv £19.95
Made from old, low-yielding Malvasia Istriana, the distinctive fresh ripe apple and peach-like fruit is so juicy it’s almost bouncy in its lively textural, concentrated old vine fruit quality. Fine balance and complexing lees-derived character, and a mouthwateringly bone dry, mineral finish. 92 points.

Salomon-Undhof Grüner Veltliner Von Stein Reserve 2009 14% abv £23.50
Delicately aromatic dry Austrian white made from low yielding Grüner Veltliner producing a concentrated rich fruit quality, and great purity, with its opulent stonefruit richness moderated by a fine blade of natural acidity and an appetising mineral dry finish. 91 points.

Domaine Vincent Delaporte Sancerre Cuvée Maxime Vieilles Vignes 2009 13% abv £21.95
Made from old vine Sauvignon Blanc grown on limestone, this is delicately smoky in aroma with excellent fruit concentration, delicately spicy oak overtones and exotically rich full stonefruits and gooseberry flavours, finishing with a flinty dry acidity. Very much a food Sancerre rather than a patio sipper. 91 points.

I Clivi Ribolla Gialla 2010 11.3% abv £16.75
Like a cross between a Chablis and Vinho Verde, this surprisingly light in alcohol dry Italian white is an instant refresher on nose and palate, a highly aromatic wine of bone dry, refreshingly savoury, almost salty fruit from Ferdinando Zanusso. 90 points.

Domaine de l’Aujardiere Fié Gris 2010 12.5% £15.50
Made from the unusual Sauvignon Gris grape, whose pungent green pea and asparagus aromas are reminiscent of Sauvignon Blanc, as is the ripe, juicy fresh green herbal fruits character and sharp blade of acidity, but this Loire Valley meets New Zealand style from Eric Chevalier is at the same time exotically, spicily, different. 90 points.

Domaine Jean-Marc Boillot Montagny 2009 13% abv £18.50
Attractively fresh, intense and distinctively nutty in aroma, there’s plenty of complex and juicy, leesy fruit intensity. Lovely, with lively, peachy Chardonnay fruitiness allied to the mineral stamp of its location in southern Burgundy. 89 points.

Salomon-Undhof Grüner Veltliner Messwein-Celebritas 2010 12% abv £12.50
Highly aromatic and fresh, with the light spiciness and juicy pear quality of Kremstal Grüner Veltliner, supposedly in keeping with the traditional ‘Messwein’ used for religious celebrations, and so finishing dry and mineral with the instant appeal of delicately spiced drinkability. 89 points.

RED WINES

Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino 2006 14% abv £38.95
Just starting to evolve into a drinking window of 10 years plus, this is an immensely seductive Tuscan red made from pure Sangiovese (as Montalcino requires for Brunello) displaying delicately smoky, herby aromas that combine with the lightest touch of spicy oak. On the palate there’s suave-textured, complex dark red berry fruits and the suggestion of a gamy, mouthwateringly savoury future to come. 94 points.

Poggio Bonelli Chianti Classico Riserva 2006 14% abv £22.50
Made from pure Sangiovese, spanning traditional and modern, this is an intensely aromatic Tuscan red with fine depth of fruit behind a polished veneer of spicy oak. The fruit style is concentrated, rich and dark cherryish with a typically lively bite of fresh Tuscan acidity. 89 points.

Le Macchiole Bolgheri Rosso 2009 14% abv £17.75
From the Bordeaux-orientated part of Tuscany, i.e. Bolgheri on the Adriatic coast, this is a blend of Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Franc showing aromatic, delicately herbal notes and bright, dark cherry fruitiness polished by a delicate touch of oak, very much in the modern Italian vein; a powerful, opulent red with a Bordelais accent, yet distinctively Italian. 89 points.

Château Perron 2007 13% abv £17.50
We’re on familiar Lea & Sandeman turf with this stylish Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc blend from Lalande de Pomerol whose attractive aromas of polished cedary spice envelope a fine black cherry and cassis-like underlying fruitiness in modern vein with succulent tannins and a lively, bite of refreshing astringency; well-made, good value Right Bank claret. 89 points.

Andrea Oberto Nebbiolo 2009 14% abv £16.75
If you love Barolo but want something similar in style that’s earlier drinking, Oberto’s Nebbiolo shows typical Nebbiolo aromas with delicately juicy mulberry and raspberry sweet fruit, a hint of tobacco spice thanks to a light touch of oak, and some, but not a huge amount, of Nebbiolo’s nicely grippy tannins. 89 points.

Sottimano Langhe Nebbiolo 2009 14.5% abv £16.75
Made from young Barbaresco vines and therefore lighter in style than the estate’s Barbaresco itself, this is fresh, delicate Nebbiolo for earlier drinking, showing lively ripe raspberry and plum fruit quality, tinged with spice. Mouthwateringly fresh juiciness and typical Nebbiolo tannins on the finish. 89 points.

Bodegas Ruconia Tubal, Rioja Crianza 2007 14%  abv £16.50
Fine aromatic blend of blend of Mazuelo, Graciano and Tempranillo with classic smoky vanillin and coconut oak undertones, a voluptuously fruited red with juicy cassis-like fruitiness substantially framed by oak and rounded out by supple tannins, finishing balanced and fresh, a serious modern Rioja with good concentration of fruit that’s just starting to drink now, but with a good three to five years of age on it. 89 points.

Collemattoni Rosso di Montalcino 2009 14.5% abv £15.95
This is a mini-Brunello in all but name, a Tuscan rosso made from pure Sangiovese, or Prugnolo as the locals call it in this neck of the Tuscan woods, its bright fruit showing a cherryish fruit quality with a lively fresh bite and supple textured tannins and a rather deliciously seductive veneer of subtle oak. 89 points.

Domaine Laurent Martray Brouilly Vieilles Vignes 2010 12.5% abv £13.95
An antidote to the ubiquitous, hefty oaky red, this medium-bodied Gamay is delightfully bright and vivid with cherry aromas and vibrantly nubile, ripe strawberry and cherryish fruitiness nicely rounded by supple tannins and typically juicy balancing acidity. 88 points.

GROWER’S CHAMPAGNES

Champagne Egly-Ouriet Tradition Brut 12.5% abv. £42.50
From one of the most exceptional growers in the region, this is a Champagne that’s full of character and flavour, intense on the nose with undertones of toffee apple and a lovely creamy richness of texture and flavour underscored by sourdough and bruised apple. It finishes nutty, mineral and refreshingly dry. 92 points.

Champagne Larmandier-Bernier Terre de Vertus 1er Cru 12.5% abv. £36.95
Made from pure Chardonnay from Premier Crus vineyards, this is a consistently, elegant blanc de blancs Champagne showing invitingly aromatic notes, a mouthwatering biscuity character and creamy apple and pear mousse with a tantalisingly mineral, bone dry aftertaste. 91 points.

Here is an extract from Decanter magazine:

‘Renowned Rhone producer Michel Chapoutier has added to the natural wine debate by denouncing natural winemakers as out-of-touch hippies making defective wines. Interviewed in the current issue of Decanter, Chapoutier tells John Livingstone-Learmonth the practice of natural winemaking – that is, using no sulphur dioxide to stabilise the wines – is a con. ‘It is a connerie. It is rubbish. It’s like making vinegar, bad vinegar. How can anyone allow toxic yeasts to develop so that these inhabit the wine?’ Moreover the Hermitage producer, who also makes wine in Australia, Portugal and Alsace, considers those who follow the practice, ‘hippies from another world’.

‘It is extraordinary that people defend products with defects on the grounds that in the past growers were making wines with defects, so that is good, or natural. Those old wines had defects because people lacked the tools and means not to make fault-free wines.’ Natural winemaking has a long history of attracting fiercely opposing views. In a recent column in Decanter, Andrew Jefford suggested that although the method could produce an undreamt-of ‘landscape of aroma and flavour’, it was also teetering on the edge of ‘charlatanry’. No winemaker, he argued, ‘should… fold their arms and stare righteously at the ceiling while their wines turn malodorously delinquent through neglect.’

As cutting edge as we might be at Lea & Sandeman, we will not bow to trends that promote bad wine!

Our New Star is Domaine de la Douaix, a recent discovery whose 2010s excited Neal Martin sufficiently for him to write this in his initial blog post (Neal Martin’s Wine Journal, on erobertparker.com) on the 2010 Burgundy vintage:

“I would also point you to the unpronounceable Domaine de la Douaix, owned the Moustie family from Belgium, whose regular vacations in Burgundy since 1991 led them down the slippery slope of winemaking. All three of their 2010s were impressive and fantastic value for money. It was difficult to believe this was just their third vintage? I’ll pick out their superb Cote de Nuits Villages Terres Nobles 2010 sourced from 25-40 year old vines in Corgoloin that is adorned in silky smooth tannins and perfectly judged acidity. They will be bottled in April and you would be a fool not to put your name down for a case. It is growers like these that make Burgundy such a dynamic place, disorientating in terms of its byzantine complexity, a region that continues to offer life-affirming pleasure and inconsolable disappointment in every nook and cranny.

2010 Domaine de la Douaix Cotes de Nuits Villages Terres Nobles 90-92
Keep a look out for this name. Owned by a Belgian Moustie family whose annual vacations in Burgundy led to them taking the next step as winemakers, their 2010s have the panache of a winemaker with 30 years under his belt instead of three. The Terres Nobles has rounded ripe cranberry, strawberry and citrus lemon on the lively, vivacious bouquet. The palate is very smooth with fine, quite firm tannins married with great cohesion and beautifully integrated oak. Very caressing in the mouth with fine persistency on the tense finish. Outstanding with or without the price that will put a smile on your face.”

You will find the primeur offer pricing on the 2010s listed here, which will be bottled in March and delivered later in the year – see our 2010 offer. You can click on each wine to see other critcs’ comments on this exceptional new discovery.

For those who cannot wait, you can also buy the 2009 wines right now and get on with drinking them. Patrick and I have both been drinking little else this January, as these wines are both refreshing and also beefy enough to fend of the cold of the season.

Anyway today we have Albert Jané from Bodegas Acústic on a flying visit which was planned to take in several west end and City restaurants, where his amazing old vine Garnatxa y Samso (Grenache and Carignan) wines from Monsant (Spain) are a cult phenomenon. These wines deliver spicy power with old vine depth and real delicacy and finesse.

After a brief consultation he decided to brave the weather, and fully loaded with his luggage and some tasting samples they set off…

This week-end saw the end of the shooting season, for me at least, and what a season it has been. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not out there biffing pheasants every week-end like many of my successful banking and lawyer friends. I just do not have the funds (being a wine merchant), nor the inclination, or indeed the stamina.

When I say stamina, I am not necessarily referring to the long Friday night drive to all four corners of the country, but to the sheer amount of food and wine consumed over a shooting week-end.

Take this last week-end for example. The Friday night drive down to the wild depths of Dorset is enough to give anybody a thirst, and the first glass of Daniel Barraud’s Macon Vergisson barely touches the sides. Inevitably one or two guest arrive late and so by the time you sit down to dinner you are not only ravenous, but already half cut. Our host then generously produced a double magnum of Einaudi’s 2004 Barolo Costa Grimaldi, which he reminded me I had even more generously presented him a couple of years back. It was quite delicious (as is the 1997 of which we still have a few larger formats), and was much enjoyed by all, so much so that even a double magnum did not see us through dinner, and we moved on to the Emmaunel Reynaud’s far too easy to drink, but quite punchy, old vines Cotes du Rhone. Inevitably we all got to bed later than intended, with more wine on board that planned, and Saturday morning is a little bit more hazy than necessary, so a fully cooked breakfast is the order of the day before setting off for the shoot.

The Dorset countryside around Beaminster is sublime and has some of the best shooting in the country, but I could at first do the birds little justice, and the shoot captain was correct is his assessment that I was ‘crap’. I looked forward to the mid morning break when I could take on board some ‘shoot juice’ which would improve my swing. Hot soup, sandwiches and the inevitable sloe gin served after the second drive, just as you are barely digesting breakfast, but best of all a bottle of Valdespino’s Don Gonzalo  Old Oloroso which I have taken to every shoot this season. It goes down a storm, and certainly improves my shooting.

After two more glorious drives it is back to the farm for a large lunch of slow roast lamb with all the trimmings, cheese and fruit cake, washed down by a Chapoutier Cotes de Rousillon and a very frisky Kopke ruby port. Two more drives and it is back to the farm once more, this time for tea, more cake and chocolate brownies.

After the shoot, there is a quiet lull of a few hours before the evening’s dinner party when more guests are invited over. Does one go for a walk, have a sleep, or doze in front of the telly? Whichever option you take, you will still never be quite ready for the next onslaught of food and wine, but the first glass of champagne can be quite reviving, and a few bottles of cellar aged Ruinart got everybody into the party spirit. My host and his wife apparently failed to communicate over the menu, and it was only having decanted a number of bottles of Gruaud Larose 1998 (really lovely with a couple of hours in the decanter), that he discovered we were having poached salmon for dinner. No matter, however, as he had also opened a number of bottles of Laurent Pillot’s 2004 Chassagne Montrachet Grandes Ruchottes which was showing beautifully and much enjoyed.

When it comes to port, I am always delighted that Ladies should be involved (I have never understood why the men should want to deprive themselves of their company for the sake of a glass of port and ribald conversation) and was even more delighted when on producing a magnum of Sandeman 1963, one of the greatest wines that my late Father ever made, all the ladies decided that they did, after all, want a glass of port. It was a triumphant conclusion to the dinner, and the end of my shooting season. If only I could have shot as well as I had eaten and drunk!

Next week-end we are driving nowhere and will revert to a normal life of frugal eating and drinking. At least that is how I feel this morning, but with a full week ahead, who knows which bottles will appear from the depths of the cellar on Friday night?

Last week we saw what has become the annual round of tastings of the new Burgundy vintage put on by the merchants and importers, mostly for journalists, but also for trade and private customers.

I was fortunate enough to blag my way into a couple of major tastings hosted by our competitors, wearing my Vintner’s wine committee hat, as well as to taste my way through the 100 plus wines that we were showing on what was a glorious Friday at the end of a long week.

While Charles is battling away to get his expansive and detailed 2010 Burgundy offer out, I thought that I would give you a few impressions of my own, together with some recommendations too.

Over the past year or two I have found my drinking habits have changed somewhat, and I drink far more Chablis today than I do any other white Burgundy, and more red Burgundy (and Pinot Noir generally) than I do claret, possibly because all the good clarets have simply become too expensive to drink on a regular basis.

The Vintage

This is a very fine vintage indeed, and even exceptional in some cases. There is perhaps not the uniformity of quality across the board as in 2005, a vintage in which almost everything from village to Grand Cru from all producers was a great buy, and nor does it have the great ripeness of 2009, but what makes 2010 stand out is tremendous clarity, vibrancy and expression of ‘terroir’. In many instances producers are saying that these are the greatest wines they have ever produced (but then they might say that?). Certainly in my tastings I came across some exceptional wines.

White burgundy is a far more complicated and difficult wine to make then red, and today most are being made for earlier consumption than in the past, partly because of cash flow, partly because there are fewer punters around prepared to cellar them (some indifferent or even bad experiences with bottles of pre 2000 emerging from the cellar might account for that), and this in turn means that the wines are generally more mineral, more focussed and expressive. Drinking more Chablis now that I used to (partly because there has been a string of lovely vintages such as 2000, 2005 and 2008 which are showing beautifully), I was thrilled by the 2010 Chablis’, especially those from Moreau-Naudet who is making exceptional wines today, and I know that I will also love Laurent Tibut’s nad Denis Pommier’s wines when they are released. I also found remarkable white wines from Hubert Lamy, Laurent Pillot, Henri Germain and perhaps the best wines ever tasted from Remi Jobard who seems to have come of age.

My own hit list will include:

Domaine Moreau-Naudet: Chablis 1er Cru Montmains & Chablis 1er Cru Montee de Tonnerre

Domaine Laurent Tribut: Chablis 1er Cru Cote de Lechet & Chablis 1er Cru Beauroy

Domaine Hubert Lamy: Saint Aubin 1er Cru Frionnes, Saint Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly & Saint Aubin 1er Cru Clos de la Chateniere – this is everything you could want in a great white burgundy, yet without being heavy or too much at all.

Domaine Fernand et Laurent Pillot: Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru Vergers, Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeots & Chassagne Montrachet 1er cru Vide Bourse

Domaine Henri Germain: Meursault – makes me want to dance as I taste it. Meursault 1er Cru Charmes – utterly gorgeous. Love this wine.

Domaine Remi Jobard: Meursault ‘Chevalieres’ & Meursault 1er Cru Genevrieres

This is, however, at least as much a red wine vintage, and as mentioned above the good wines are vibrant and expressive, and truly representative of the ‘terroir’ from which they come, giving great individuality. By no means all of the reds I tasted at the various tastings were great, or even good, but the overall sensation was that among the really good growers (and I do not mean just the big names) the wines are really exciting and my palate was left feeling alive and refreshed, even after so many wines. There are wines which can be drunk relatively young, with only two or three years bottle age, (Oz Clarke commented that he had never before tasted so many good Bourgogne Rouges), others which will be good for a decade, and many that will make beautiful old bones. More than once did I make reference to great Nebbiolo when tasting the 2010 red wines; it has taken me years to really appreciate the captivating flavours and excitement of great Barolo and Barbaresco, which in many respects can share the same characteristics as Pinot Noir, and not just in terms of being so elusive. The demand for this vintage is evident, and there will be many disappointed customers looking for the most sought after wines (Thibault Liger-Belair produced two thirds less of his Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru Les St Georges in 2010 than in 2009), and the likes of Chistophe Perrot-Minot (wines likened by Steven Spurrier to DRC quality), Anne Gros and Dugat-Py will be hard fought for. However, there are wines aplenty for those of us who are not looking to buy just the big names, which will give so much pleasure, and these are just the sort of wines I will put into my own cellar with which to entertain my friends and family over the years to come.

My own hit list will include:

Domaine Francois Lumpp: Givry –any of them from Pied de Clou upwards – they are all fabulous value.

Domaine Fernand et Laurent Pillot: Pommard 1er Cru Charmots & Pommard 1er Cru Rugiens

Domaine Chandon des Briailles: Savigny Les Beaune 1er Cru Lavieres – a superior and very smart lunch wine.

Domaine Comte Armand – Benjamin Leroux commented that this is his best vintage to date ‘ not perfect, but almost…’ Auxey Duresses 1er Cru & Pommard Clos des Epeneaux 1er Cru – definitely the best vintage of this I have ever tasted – lovely understated power (btw, the 1999 is fabulous now!)

Domaine Henri Boillot: Volnay 1er Cru Santenots

Domaine de Courcel: Pommard Vaumeriens & Pommard 1er Cru Rugiens

Domaine Huguenot – fabulous new find and great value: Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Fontenay

Domaine Thierry Mortet: Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Beaux Bruns

Domaine Confuron-Coteditot: Gevrey Chambertain 1er Cru Craipillot, Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru Les Vignes Rondes & Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaut Saint Jacques. Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Suchots & Echezeaux Grand Cru – for a bit of a treat!

Domaine des Lambray: Morey Saint Denis – something of a bargain if you ask me.

Great value wines also worth considering include the following, but where we still have earlier vintages available which offer fabulous drinking while waiting for the 2010s:

Domaine Daniel Barraud – just about all of his wines.

Francois Raquillet’s Mercureys

Domaine de la Douaix Cote de Nuits Villages

Plenty of great wines to buy, plenty of great wines to drink. There has never been a better time to buy Burgundy!

The Sandeman family are heading to the depths of South Devon to spend another Christmas in the Goodshelter estuary, inland from Salcombe. Not actually ‘in’ the estuary, of course, but in the beautifully secluded and remote cottage which sits on the edge of the water at the head of the creek.

Forward planning is essential, since the chances of buying decent wines locally are limited, and access to the cottage is either by water (tide dependent and not fun at this time of year) or down a perilous slope, and once you have risked life and limb carrying cases of wine down the hill, you do not want to carry them back up. So, we take with us whatever we plan to drink, and make sure we do so.

Christmas Eve sees the start of festivities with a glass of fizz before dinner, and because it is such a very pretty, pale pink, yet packed with wild strawberry fruit, Legras Rosé is the choice. Dinner will be seared fillet of beef with salad, and for once a very affordable, quite modern Merlot based claret makes it into my Christmas choice in the form of Chateau Montfollet ‘Valentin’ 2007, from a small property in Blaye. After dinner a bracing two mile walk up and over the hill to South Pool, for those of us feeling strong enough, for carol singing in the Millbrook Inn. I suspect the others will settle into the first bottle of Sandeman Twenty Year Old Tawny, hopefully leaving a glass or two for ‘Santa’ having braved it back across the estuary from the pub.

After a slightly fuzzy start to Christmas morning last year, when I looked out to see what I thought was seagulls walking on the water, it turned out that the entire estuary was frozen solid and the landscape a sea of white ice. As stunning as it was, we are hoping for a milder start this year. Our tradition of salmon fishcakes for breakfast will continue, and I look forward to starting the day with  a wonderful magnum of Larmandier-Bernier’s ‘Terre de Vertus’, which has been hidden away in the boathouse since last year. Not only will it taste awesome, but it helps to put that feeling of crepe soles under ones feet for the rest of the morning.

It is a healthy walk along the estuary to church at East Portlemouth, and I continue to embarrass everybody but myself by walking in my Ramsay tartan kilt, which I will wear for the entire day. Last year it was especially bracing, but I also like to believe the kilt only enhanced the spirit of Christmas at both the packed church and the pub, as it was much admired, by grown-ups and children alike. Furthermore my sporran neatly and discreetly carries a hipflask, filled with Foxdenton’s Sloe Gin, an especially dry version that warms the parts others cannot reach when sitting in a cold pew.

Lunch will be a light affair of smoked salmon and game terrine, with Bert Salomon’s bracing Grüner Veltliner Wachtberg, and the juicy, almost healthy tasting Domaine de la Rochette’s Beaujolais Régnié. Both light enough to keep us well focussed for the evening ahead. We will spend the afternoon walking along the estuary, combing the shores for driftwood and cockles, and walk as far as we can go before the open water where we will see the twinkling lights of Salcombe in the distance. By the time we return to the cottage the fading light in the skies above the hills leave the estuary in all but darkness, and the fires are lit as preparations for our Christmas dinner resume.

The turkey has been cooking in the Aga almost all day, basted with a bottle of Palo Cortado sherry, and as we lay up the table and make final preparations, it is time for a quick sharpener before ‘dressing for dinner’. A glass of Valdespino’s bone dry Inocente Fino hits the spot and enlivens that palate.

Presents by the fire brings more champagne, and our family favourite on these occasions has become Barnaut’s Grande Réserve Grand Cru from Bouzy; stylish, satisfying and so easy to enjoy amongst all the excitement. In reserve, there will be a bottle of Chablis (personally I like just one glass of fizz and then a bottle of Chablis…) and what is drinking so well right now is Moreau-Naudet’s 2007 Premier Cru Forêts; bracingly dry and mineral but with lovely fruit too. With dinner this year we will drink a new Pinot Noir to our range, packed with elegant juice and  flavour, full enough to stand up to all the flavours of turkey and all the trimmings (including this year black pudding with wet walnuts and caremelised apples). Charles’ latest find in Burgundy is the small Domaine de la Douaix and their 2009 Hautes Côtes de Nuits is simply delicious and will be perfect for the job in hand.

We have long since given up the idea of a traditional Christmas pudding (even if it might contain a whole orange) and all I miss, apart from the brandy butter, is the pyrotechnical display when parading it into the room. Mince pies, fruit and walnuts are all washed down with a bottle of vintage port, or two, with a bottle of Graham’s 1999 Malvedos in reserve.

Boxing Day will be a slow start, before a long and bracing coastal walk round the headlands to Prawle point and on up to the Pig’s Nose, for a pint of beer and to listen to the annual bell ringers display. A late lunch of baked potatoes and ham back in the cottage gives me the opportunity to open one of the two Italians of choice, either Fuligni’s brilliant value 2009 Rosso di Montalcino or Sottimano’s exceptional ‘baby Barbaresco’, the 2009 Langhe Nebbiolo, probably both.

There will be other bottles that find their way down the hill, but I dare not mention them all, since I would be at risk of being told (again) that we drink too much over Christmas. But then we will have the Mother-in-Law with us (again), there is no television in the cottage, and there is always plenty of outdoor activity and walking, with each of the pubs a good few miles each way. Take the car? Not likely, I might have to forgo the chance of another drink.

South African Sauvignon with class:

Dombeya Sauvignon Blanc 2011, Stellenbosch £10.75 bottle / £9.75 by the case
Vibrant and well sculpted. Really racy. Much more guts and structure than the average Kiwi. Attractive dry finish. GV 13.5%, 16.5 Drink 2011-2012

Northern Italian for white truffle hunters:

 I Clivi, Brazan 2008 Collio Goriziano £17.95 bottle / £15.95 by the case
Particularly old vines of the local Friulano variety from a producer I have long admired. Very intense and exciting with no shortage of rewarding fruit. 13.5% 17 Drink 2011-2015

An opulent Austrian for hedonistic pleasure:

Salomon Undhof, Von Stein Reserve Grüner Veltliner 2009 Kremstal £23.50 bottle / £20.95 by the case
2010 already released (and in stock). Quite evolved on the nose and lacking the precision of the 2010 Wachtberg but delivers lots of opulent pleasure. A hedonist wine with about 4 g/l RS. Long and quite rich. 14% 17 Drink 2012-2015

A trio of classic and great value white Burgundies:

Domaine Jean-Marc Boillot 2009 Montagny £18.50 bottle / £16.75 by the case
Smoky oak and lots of glamour and over delivery. You could accuse his wines of being too similar but to give Montagny this much appeal is quite a feat! VGV 13% 16.5 Drink 2011-2013

Domaine de la Bongran, Sélection EJ Thévenet 2004 Viré-Clessé £24.75 bottle / £22.50 by the case
Baked apples and real interest. Firm and dense and round and a real please-all. Look at that age! It must mature at a snail’s pace (as my botrytised 1983 from this address showed recently). Exceptional in every way. Fairly low acid. 14% 16.5 Drink 2009-2013.  Also in Magnums!

Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot, Noyers Brets 2008 Puligny-Montrachet £30.95 bottle / £27.95 by the case
Very reductive nose. Quite different from the Chassagne village wine! Creamy and rewarding. Lots of fruit and yet structure too. GV 13.5% 17 Drink 2010-2013

Time is getting short now if you are planning to order online or by telephone for nationwide delivery (last orders Sunday 18th December), but of course our shops will be open up until 5.00pm on Christmas Eve.

When we introduced Bodega Chacra’s Pinot Noirs from Argentina two years ago, they were initially met with some scepticism. How could a country famous for producing monster Malbecs, brimming with rich, ripe fruit and high alcohol possibly produce Pinot Noirs which were anything other than monsters too?

Well, Bodega Chacra is quite simply unique. Lying in the ancient Rio Negro Valley in Patagonia, these are some of the most southerly vineyards in the world, 620 miles south of Buenos Aires, 1,240 miles north of Tierra del Fuego, and roughly equidistant between the Andes Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.

This is an arid, dry region, with low humidity, but pristine air and great luminosity, because there simply is no pollution. The natural barrier that is the desert means that there is a complete absence of vine disease and pylloxera is not present at all, which in turn allows for all work in the vineyard to be completely natural, in fact both organic and biodynamic. The seasons are precisely defined, with hot summers, cold winters and mild springs and autumns, while during the ripening season, the first quarter of the year, the diurnal temperatures vary widely from an average 28C in the day time to 9C at night, allowing a steady ripening of fruit.

Many of the vines planted here were the first Pinot Noir to be planted in Argentina, in 1932 and 1955, and all on their own rootstock, as they are today. The wines take their names from when the vineyards were planted, with ‘Barda’ being the main production, from 20 hectares of vines more recently planted on the same site as the 1932 vineyard, as well as from wines eliminated from the selection of the two flagship wines, ‘Treinte y Dos’ and ‘Cincuenta y Cinco’.

The winemaking too is as natural as possible, with no mechanisation at all in the winery. Gravitational pressing and natural yeast ferments, fermentation in lined cement vats, followed by ageing on the lees in top quality Burgundian oak barrels (of which only 20% are ever new – as at Sassicaia, home of Chacra’s owner, Piero Incisa, a family with over four hundred years of winemaking history), and finally bottling without fining or filtration, so as to achieve a perfect marriage of fruit, soil and oak. The influence of the wood is almost imperceptible in these wines, while the vine and the ‘terroir’ are expressed to their fullest.

These are remarkably pure wines, with no additives, apart from very small amounts of sulphur used in the winemaking, and the combination of all these natural processes, both in the vineyard and the winery, coupled with the remarkable fact that the alcohol levels have lowered over the past vintages, at a time when everywhere else they are increasing, makes these perfect for lovers of Pinot Noir the world over.

Bodega Chacra have just released both ‘Cincuenta y Cinco’ (11.5%) and ‘Barda’ (12%) from the 2010 vintage, which owner Piero Incisa says are the results of six years hard work in the vineyards and stylistically is exactly where he wants the wine to be: relatively low in alcohol, high in expression, and very, very drinkable. The ‘Treinte y Dos’ 2010 will be not be released until next Spring.

If you have not tried these wines before, we urge you to do so now, and if you have tried the previous vintages then you will love the 2010. As an added incentive to buy, we are offering a FREE Zalto Den’Kart Burgundy glass (perfect for both Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo), which retails at £27.95 per stem, with every twelve bottles of Chacra or Barda purchased before 10th December 2011.

In Jancis Robinson’s Top 100 festive wines: part two, published in the FT Weekend Magazine, she selected a number of cracking wines from Lea & Sandeman. Only four were published in the magazine because of space issues, while the full list is on her site JancisRobinson.com. Here are the wines:

Domaine Rochette 2010 Régnié
The Beaujolais renaissance continues. Massively full of fruit, purity and life. The more you drink the healthier you are. (Please don’t sue me over this). Far from heavy. 13%

Luigi Maffini, Kleos Aglianico 2009 IGT Paestum
Sweet start, almost as though it’s made from dried grapes. Assertive but not over-alcoholic. Lots of structure from the wonderful Aglianico grape. 14%

Domaine Giraud, Tradition 2008 Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Big and sweet and sinewy. Lots of polish. So different from the supermarket Châteauneuf offerings! Tingly despite the alcohol. Already round and resolved. Pretty good. 15%

Rippon Pinot Noir 2008 Central Otago
Spicy and deep-flavoured with the merest hint of some exotic oak but basically wonderful texture and integrity of fruit. So different from the NZ Pinot norm! Exciting. You can taste the biodynamic wildness in this wine. Complete. Long. 14%

Luigi Einaudi Vigna Tecc 2008 Dolcetto di Dogliani
Real grunt and integrity and lusciousness. Lovely stuff – and not expensive for a Piemontese wine. 14%

Collemattoni 2006 Brunello di Montalcino
Open and evolved and flattering and sweet. So rich! But not tarty nor heavy. Lovely wine. 14.5%

Castello del Terriccio, Tassinaia 2006 IGT Toscana.
Lovely appetising stuff, great balance and zest. Compelling. 14%

ALSO in the press this weekend Victoria Moore’s ‘Bubbling Bargains’ in the Telegraph Weekend highlighted Lea & Sandeman as having the best prices on both Bollinger Special Cuvee NV and also Louis Roederer Brut NV.

Victoria went on to give special mention under the Grower champagnes to Larmandier-Bernier Terre de Vertus Champagne NV, which makes this the third weekend in a row that this champagne has been selected in the press (JR in the FT Weekend, and Jane Parkinson in FT’s How to Spend It). If you haven’t already, you have got to try it!

We now offer FREE DELIVERY on all orders over £100* (see our terms and conditions)

Last orders for guaranteed nationwide Christmas delivery – Sunday 18th December (although we will do our very best to deliver orders received after this date, especially in the Greater London area).

I was recently interviewed by a young journalist, on behalf of a large Sunday newspaper, who wanted my views on the recent rise in popularity and sales of sherry. Her background knowledge was sketchy, to say the least, but I was really quite surprised by the fact that she knew little or nothing about the recent releases of rare batches of sherries (such as Gonzalez Byass’ Palmas Finos) or the numerous openings of new sherry bars across London. However, I was really taken aback when she told me that her research was based almost entirely on something she called the ‘Downton effect’, and when I asked her to explain, she said it was because the Dowager Countess was always shown drinking sherry!

Maybe she is right, and it is obvious that a large part of the nation is suffering from some form of Downton Abbey withdrawal, as attentions have turned to a certain John Lewis commercial, in which a young boy endures sleepless nights in his growing anticipation of Christmas morning. The viewer naturally assumes this is caused by the excitement of opening his presents, only to find that it is fact the excitement of giving his present to his parents.  I am told that this has reduced some people to tears, which is melodramatic, to say the least, but it does not detract from the fact that in giving we all get so much more pleasure than we do in receiving.

So here we have a small selection of very affordable wines which will undoubtedly give you a great deal of satisfaction in giving to family, friends and loved ones, at the same time as giving them a great deal of pleasure. Many are in cases of six bottles, making it all the more affordable to share the love!

NOTE that the discounted price applies to a minimum purchase of any 12 bottles or more.

THREE great drinking WHITE wines to cover all festive occasions.

SAINT VÉRAN 2010 Domaine de la Denante £14.95 bottle, £150 by the dozen **INTRODUCTORY CASE PRICE FOR DECEMBER** – only £12.50 bottle (normally £13.95)
Domaine de la Denante is a new discovery from Charles’ recent Burgundy trip and we will be introducing more wines from the domaine next year. In the meantime, this is a wonderfully good value white burgundy from a very good vintage, and a classic expression of Saint Veran, with notes of white flowers, bright fruit and a hint of sweetness mid-palate that makes it so drinkable. A perfect all-round drinking white burgundy for Christmas.

ACÚSTIC BLANC Montsant 2010 Bodegas Acústic £14.75 per bottle. £159.00 by the dozen (£13.25 bottle) Available in cases of 6 bottles.
This fabulous white from the Montsant district in the North of Spain is a blend of Garnacha, Pansal and Macabeo. Given only the lightest oak treatment it is packed with fruit and texturally very satisfying, rather like a Northern Rhone Viognier. A lovely change to the usual repertoire of white wines (and fabulous with lobster!).

CHABLIS 2007 1er Cru Forêts Domaine Moreau-Naudet £20.95 bottle. £227.40 by the dozen (£19.95 bottle)
Chablis is one of the most versatile of white burgundies, and having the least ‘chardonnay’ character makes it one of the most refreshing too. This Premier Cru is now drinking beautifully and is a perfect match to smoked salmon and other fish, as well as cold cuts over the season.

THREE great quality RED wines which are available in wooden cases of six bottles

CHATEAU BEL-AIR 2006 Premières Côtes de Bordeaux £13.95 bottle, £150 by the dozen (£12.50 bottle). Available in original wooden cases of 6 bottles.
This is the home of the Borie-Coiffe family, owners of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, who have made significant investment in the property and vineyards. Made from old vines Merlot and Cabernet Franc this is an excellent value Bordeaux which is not at all unlike a modern ‘super’ Tuscan blend with its ripe fruit, sweet tannins and crisp finish.

MARQUÈS DE VARGAS 2005 Reserva Marques de Vargas £19.50 bottle £215.40 by the dozen (£17.95 bottle). Available in original wooden cases of 6 bottles.
It seems like ‘Marqueses’ are two-a-penny in Rioja, but Marques de Vargas is undoubtedly the grandest of them all. This old estate in Rioja Alta only makes Rioja at ‘Reserva’ level and the wine is a fabulous example of great wines from the region. Very polished with ripe, warm fruit and a long finish.

CHÂTEAU VIEUX VERDOT Épigone 2008 Grand Cru Saint Emilion £19.75 bottle, £215.40 per dozen (£17.95 bottle). Available in original wooden cases of 6 bottles.
A really lovely Grand Cru St Emilion for drinking this Christmas. Deep in colour and packed with rich, creamy fruit, this has an elegance and length that many a more expensive claret might aspire to.

COMING SOON: More Christmas treats – the Dinner party selection. In the Press – Jancis Robinson’s and other selections from L&S. A Vinous Christmas in the Sandeman household – Patrick’s typically boozy Christmas selection.

We now offer FREE DELIVERY on all orders over £100* (see our terms and conditions)

Last orders for guaranteed nationwide Christmas delivery – Sunday 18^th December (although we will do our very best to deliver orders received after this date, especially in the Greater London area).

Jancis Robinson recommended 25 ‘bubblys’ in the first of her ‘Top 100 festive wines’ series, in Saturday’s FT Weekend Magazine.

Many of them were highlighted as stocked by Lea & Sandeman (indeed some are direct imports of ours), and here is that selection together with her tasting notes. Jancis quoted only the single bottle prices in her piece, but we also show the case* prices.

JEAN-LOUIS DENOIS Méthode Traditionelle Chardonnay-Pinot Noir Brut £13.95 bottle.  £12.95 by the case.
Jean-Louis Denois is also from Limoux, and highly skilled at making great-value, characterful fizz. Just a little fruitier, more opulent and less obviously lees-aged than the best champagnes but infinitely better than cheap champagne. His delicate Classique Brut NV is also excellent.

BENEDICK Grande Réserve Brut £19.95 bottle. £18.95 by the case.
Savoury nose suggests bone-dry ine. Mouth-filling fizz. Perfectly respectable and quite an impact on the palate. Quite long for the price.

BARNAUT Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru NV £24.95 bottle. £22.50 by the case.
Much more refined than the Aube Blanc de Noirs with which the UK (mass) market is flooded. Very appetising and great value.

LAURENT PERRIER NV £28.50 bottle. £24.50 by the case.
At the special price this may be the best value grande-marque champagne on the UK market. The current cuvée is particularly fresh and zesty. Racy and well-balanced.

LARMANDIER BERNIER Extra Brut Blanc de Blacns Non Dosé, Premier Cru NV £31.95 bottle. £29.95 by the case.
This grower does not put a foot wrong. This is their most delicate wine, balanced on a tightrope admittedly but with no sign of any wobble. Lovely. But I also admire their slightly more rustic Tradition Extra Brut Premier Cru NV (£28.50 by the case) and their very dry and demanding Terre de Vertus Blancs de Blancs Non Dosé Premier Cru NV (£34.50 by the case).

EGLY-OURIET Tradition Grand Cru NV £42.50 bottle. £35.00 by the case.
Long-aged ‘Natural’ apple peel aromas. Very pure and unadorned. All top Montagne de Reims villages. Extreme champagne with a very dry finish. Lots of potential.

GOSSET Grande Réserve NV £35.95 bottle. £37.95 by the case.
Beautifully balanced blend based on 2005. I preferred it to Gosset’s current vintage champagne. Very nervy and muscular. Not too sweet, not too tart.

POL ROGER 2000 £44.95 bottle. £38.95 by the case.
Great energy on the nose, still very youthful with lots of potential. Explosive, and drier than some Pol blends.

BOLLINGER La Grande Année 2002 £74.95 bottle. £69.95 by the case.
Good old fashioned Bollinger pioneered giving useful information on the back label. This wine, made from the produce of 16 Premier, and, especially, Grand Cru villages is intense and savoury.

DOM PERIGNON 2002 £119.95 bottle. £109.95 by the case (limited)
I can’t remember a vintage of this famous wine that showed better on release. Sumptuous. (Lea & Sandeman also have a limited supply in very smart Dom Perignon gift packs with two flutes at only a small premium).

CRISTAL Louis Roederer 2004 £161.95 bottle. £151.50 by the case.
Intellectual and dense, but playful and dancing too. You can enjoy this already, although it has potential. Grows on the finish. Very luxurious.

*Case prices apply to all web orders for a total 12 bottles or more, and which can be mixed across champagnes and other wines.

*Champagne special offer prices also apply in store for a minimum order of only 6 bottles of champagne, when collected from the store.

We now offer FREE DELIVERY on all orders over £100* (see our terms and conditions)

Last orders for guaranteed nationwide Christmas delivery – Sunday 18^th December (although we will do our very best to deliver orders received after this date, especially in the Greater London area).

It’s going to be carnage again in the supermarkets this Christmas, as they advertise eye-wateringly discounted prices for champagnes, whiskies, wines and just about anything else in an attempt to draw customers in through the door. But can you really be fagged to traipse down the high street, fight the crowds, only to find that you did not read the small print which said ‘limited to only six bottles per store’ or ‘ three bottles per customer’?

At Lea & Sandeman we only offer you what we think is the best quality and value, not simply the cheapest, and you can benefit from our discounted case and offer prices even when you put together your own mixed selection, as long as it is twelve bottles or more.

What’s more we will deliver every order over £100 free of charge to your door!

Here is the first of our seasonal drinking selections.

CHRISTMAS FIZZ

JEAN-LOUIS DENOIS Méthode Traditionelle Chardonnay-Pinot Noir Brut £12.95 bottle
The best alternative to champagne that we have tasted, and better than so many of the cheap supermarket offerings. ‘With its warm bread-and-honey nose this smells so much like champagne I had to double-check the label’ Victoria Moore, The Daily Telegraph

Champagne BENEDICK Grand Reserve Brut £18.95 bottle
Our incredibly good value own label champagne. Still a great bargain under £20.00

Champagne BARNAUT Grande Réserve Brut Grand Cru Bouzy £22.95 bottle
Marginally less expensive than the cheaper Grandes Marques but much better than many by a good margin. Great value at £22.95!

Champagne OFFERS : We have just added one of our absolute favourite Grande Marque champagnes to our offers,  GOSSET Grande Reserve £37.95 for a real Christmas treat.

CHRISTMAS WHITES

2010 VERMENTINO Domaine les Yeuses £6.50 bottle
Everybody needs a good, inexpensive white for every day glugging and this Italianate Vermentino from vineyards on the French Mediterranean coast is simply fantastic value (follow the link and read Victoria Moore’s rather romantic take on it!).

2010 CHÂTEAU BEAUMONT BLANC Les Pierrières 1er Côtes de Blaye £8.75 bottle
This is a seriously good white Bordeaux which is fabulous all round drinking and gives all the similar New World Sauvignon/Semillon blends a run for their money.

2008 MÂCON CHAINTRÉ Pierres Polies Domaine Daniel Barraud £12.95 bottle
White Burgundy is never inexpensive, and if it is, it is probably not worth drinking. The Barraud’s are one of the Maconnais’ top producers and this Macon gives ‘serious bang for your buck ’ according to the Winegang!

CHRISTMAS REDS

2009 LE CLOS Domaine Sainte Eugénie £7.75 bottle
Described by Jancis Robinson as ‘Good house wine’ this is a remarkably well made wine from the south of France for drinking on cold winter nights by an open fire (or in front of the telly!).

2010 TOURAINE LES MARCOTTES Domaine de Pierre £9.25 bottle
Even if you think you don’t like Gamay or Beaujolais, you will love this bright, crisp, juicy red from the Loire valley which offers a refreshing change, weighing in at only 12.5%.

2008 THE DIRECTORS’ CUT Bordeaux Lea & Sandeman £11.95 bottle
Lea & Sandeman Bordeaux has established a great following, but the seriously good and limited edition of ‘Director’s Cut’ is something of a treat and coming to an end. Last chance to order before we sell out!

SWEET TREAT

2006 CHÂTEAU RAYNE VIGNEAU 1er Cru Classé Sauternes £21.95 bottle
We think that this classy Sauternes is a bit of a steal at this price, even it it is a sweet wine over £20. However, it a is particularly good example of sauternes at its affordable best and drinks beautifully. Ideal with savoury dishes, such as Foie Gras, and sweeter ones such as Tarte Tatin or Crème Brulee.

Make up your own MIXED CASE of 12 bottles of any of the above in any combination you like, and you will get the discounted price on each bottle – including the champagne offer prices.

Any order over £100 placed on-line this week-end (26th/27th November) will also receive a FREE copy of Victoria Moore’s ‘How to Drink at Christmas’ – a great read and a great stocking filler!

We now offer FREE DELIVERY on all orders over £100* (see our terms and conditions)

Last orders for guaranteed nationwide Christmas delivery – Sunday 18^th December (although we will do our very best to deliver orders received after this date, especially in the Greater London area).

 

WINES RECENTLY IN THE PRESS
The Evening Standard, Andrew Neather:
Having said that he was going to ‘slate Beaujolais Nouveau’ in his column he rather liked ours!
2011 BEAUJOLAIS VILLAGES NOUVEAU Domaine Rochette
The exception that proves the rule: a Nouveau from a top producer in the cru village of Regnié – bright, ripe, silky fruit, fresh and very moreish.

The Independent, Anthony Rose:
2008 CHASSAGNE MONTRACHET Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot
This luxurious, superbly crafted dry white Burgundy balances exotically opulent ripeness with a seductively complex richness of chardonnay fruit enlivened by taut crisp acidity and a nutty, dry mineral finish.

FINO Dos Palmas Gonzalez Byass
One of Gonzales Byass’ four stunning new limited edition sherries, this eight year old fino is smoky, intensely nutty and moreishly bone dry, finishing with a sea-salt tang.

The Telegraph Weekend, Victoria Moore:
2009 GIVRY Pied de Clou Domaine François Lumpp
‘Upmarket pinot noir for the turkey’. Yes, this burgundy’s still a baby but 2009 produced such lush wines that you can get away with it. And Lumpp’s Givry is a revelation: supple, flowing and ripe.

2009 CHIANTI DON GUIDO Fattoria La Collina
‘A taste of Italy’. Awful label, brilliant wine. I’m tricky about Chianti. It has to be right – not too heavy, redolent of dust, incense, mushrooms and cherries. This blend of sangiovese, canaiolo and malvasia nera ticks every box. It’s slightly leathery (a wee bit of what I call ‘good brett’)and at under £10 it’s also superb value.

2009 LANGHE NEBBIOLO Andrea Oberto
The barolo grape in a more thirst quenching incarnation. This has freshness and fluency and its tannin prickles pleasingly on the tongue. Think roses and polished mahogany rather than roses and tar. Fabulous with veal saltimbocca, egg pasta with mushrooms or truffles.

The FT ‘How to Spend It’ magazine – Jane Parkinson
‘Popping the Question’ – an authoritative article about Champagne Disgorgement, by Jane Parkinson (winner of Louis Roederer International Award 2009 for writing champagne), with both Larmandier Bernier ‘Terre de Vertus’ and Egly Ouriet ‘ Brut Tadition’ highlighted as two top examples.

NSPCC CITY FINE WINE CHALLENGE 2011 -The Result
Our sixth year of hosting the NSPCC City Fine Wine Challenge was great fun and a huge success, resulting in a record sum of £195,000.00!
If you our your business would like to get involved in next year’s event do contact us and we will put you in touch with the NSPCC.

LEA & SANDEMAN NEWSLETTER
Our latest newsletter should by now have slipped through your letter box and we very much hope that you will enjoy reading it.
If you have not received one then you can download it from our website, pick one up from any of our shops or call us and we will happily post you a copy.

Caption competition.
We have so far had only three publishable entries, each winning a bottle of Valdespino’s ‘Contrabandista’ Amontillado, as follows:

“Bring out the sherry, senorita, I’ve just heard from Madrid that the ECB is going to buy Spanish debt!” Christopher Walker

“Look what I won in a caption competition” Simon Dicketts

“Next time I’ll wear a glove !” Charlie Arkwright

Crossword competition.
So far only one correct entry – from BPM Logic, the computer software writers we pay vast sums of money to on an hourly basis!
Send us your completed entry and you could win a magnum of Lea & Sandeman Bordeaux!

CHAMPAGNE OFFERS - All of our champagne offers are available through until Saturday 31st December 2011, or while stocks last!
REMEMBER – OUR DISCOUNTED CASE PRICES ARE AVAILABLE ON ALL MIXED CASES – any mix of any twelve bottles or more including champagnes!

Twenty four tables of ten, from leading city companies including KPMG, Grenpact, Diligenta and IBM, packed the room at RIBA following a Champagne Benedick reception, to take part in the interactive quiz while tasting eight wines, mostly blind.

After a captivating address by NSPCC supporter David Tait, in which he spoke of his four successful ascents of Everest, on behalf of the NSPCC, and his harrowing  and dreadful abuse as a child which so dramatically impacted his life, guests were invited to fill out pledge cards to the charity.

Andy Briggs, chairman of the City Fine Wine Challenge committee, set an awesome target for the evening of £150,000.00, having raised £130,000.00 last year.

The quiz was fast and furious, with tables buying clues and answers in order to tackle the very tricky questions, and playing joker cards to bolster their scores, all of which raised even more money for the NSPCC coffers.

This was followed by an auction run by Charlie Ross, who over the years has raised millions for numerous charities.

As we entered the final round the leaderboard had last year’s winners Goldman Sachs level -pegging with Virgin Media and a surprising jump into third place by table 6, CSC

We were all staggered and delighted that by the end of the evening we had raised in excess of £193,000.00, a truly amazing figure which will really go some way to change the lives for the better for many children.

Lea and Sandeman donate all of the champagne and wines used on the evening, and as a company are immensely proud of their association and involvement with such a worthwhile charity.

‘Mon Dieu!’ you might well say, as at Lea & Sandeman we announce that we are offering a BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU for release this coming ’Beaujolais Thursday’, 17th November, and we would not be at all surprised to hear you say so, since we really cannot remember the last time we did release one!

But this is not just any old (new) Beaujolais. This is a fabulous wine from Domaine de la Rochette in Régnié, whose wines we discovered in the 2008 vintage, and have followed with the glorious 2009 and 2010 vintages, from which we have sold more Beaujolais across the board than from all previous five vintages together.

The 2011 vintage in Beaujolais wonderfully combines the deep ripe fruits of ’09 with the bright silky focus of ’10, making it an absolutely classic year for Gamay at its most enjoyable.

Domaine de la Rochette’s Beaujolais Nouveau 2011 is described as being fresh and ‘gouleyant’, which roughly translates as ‘gulpable’ and at only 12% is exactly what you want from this easy drinking style of wine.

BEAUJOLAIS VILLAGES NOUVEAU 2011 Domaine de la Rochette

£9.95 single bottle, £8.95 by the case (£107.40 per dozen)

ORDER NOW for delivery only from Thursday 17th November, or for collection from any one of our shops.

Not all of her notes are as complimentary as we would wish them to be (nobody enjoys criticism of their own children), and we cannot help but feel that many are at odds with the final expression or score given, but then there were a huge number of wines to taste, which Jancis completed with her usual diligence.

She did, however, give us a wonderful ‘puff’ which we are very proud to share:

‘Independent London merchants Charles Lea and Patrick Sandeman have built up an excellent reputation for real quality of wine and service. And what I like about them particularly is that they do all the hard work themselves. Rather than just sit back and wait for brokers, agents and importers to come and sell to them, they make much more effort than most retailers of their relatively modest size to go abroad and sniff out fine wines themselves.

The following wines were shown, categorised as below, at a tasting of their current wares in Vintners’ Hall, London. (Patrick S is a Vintner.) I was extremely impressed overall, and particularly delighted to see that they are now selling the excellent Friuli whites of I Clivi.’ (We have for three years now. Ed)

We will be publishing a list of the tasting notes shortly, but but they can of course be viewed in full at www.jancisrobinson.com

I had never come across ZALTO before, but am told that they were originally Venetian and are now made in Austria. These are individually handblown glasses, each one so fine it is almost unbelievable that the manufacturer should say that they are best washed in the dishwasher!

These are not cheap at £26 per stem, but they are still considerably cheaper than the Riedel Sommelier range, and to my mind not only lovlier but sturdier too.

As an introductory offer to the three styles that we are currently selling, Universal, White Wine, and Champagne, we are offering a 10% discount until the end of November 2011.

Since the 1880s Gonzalez Byass has used the Palmas (or Palo) system to classify its highest quality Finos. The traditional ‘palma’ chalk mark was made on the barrel to indicate wines of exceptional finesse and delicacy of aroma with the youngest given ‘una palma’ up to ‘cuatro palmas’ for the oldest and rarest casks. When a cask changes in style the ‘capataz’ (taster) will make a further chalk mark, striking through the first, then classifying the wine as ‘Palo Cortado’.

Gonzalez Byass have released, for the first time, a small and extremely rare range of four Fino sherries, of varying ages and finesse, that have been bottled straight from the cask, in clear glass 50cl bottles, with no filtering or sterilisation  (‘en rama’). I have been fortunate to taste all of these wines on three separate occasions and each time have been really impressed with the wines, and would go so far as to say this is one of the most exciting release of wines from Jerez in a decade or more.

Quantities are extremely limited and they are being distributed only through a small and select number of merchants who are known to have enough sherry ‘aficionados’ to be able to place the stock.

Because these wines are unfiltered and unfined they are designed to be consumed within about six months from being bottled. For this reason we are offering FREE and immediate delivery on arrival of the wines in early November.

‘UNA Palma’ £71.70 per case of 6 (£12.95 per 50cl bottle)

A six year old Fino selected from a number of casks ageing under a layer of Flor. Aromatic and delicately textured this is very dry, but less austere than many Fino with an elegance that makes it very easy to drink. Lovely finish. Total release 3.6 barrels. Serve chilled.

‘DOS Palmas’ £93.00 per case of 6 (£16.95 per 50cl bottle)

An eight year old Fino selected from a couple of Fino casks still retaining a delicate layer of Flor. Moving into a Fino/Amontillado style this is more intense (than the Una Palma) and much more concentrated. The flavour is fuller and drier and very long on the finish. Wonderful to drink on its own, but ideally needs a slice of dried ‘jamon’. Serve lightly chilled. Total release: less than two barrels.

‘TRES Palmas’ £202.50 per case of 6 (£35.95 per 50cl bottle)

A rare ten year old Fino, taken from the very small number of barrels still retaining a thin veil of Flor after a decade of aging. This is on the cusp of still being a Fino, and moving really into Amontillado territory, and yet the wine still retains some of the freshness and lighter body of a Fino. The aroma is that of a bodega, in that it conjures up the unique sensation of having walked out of the baking hot Jerez sunshine and into the cool dimness of a cathedral like barrel filled bodega. Concentrated and yet not aggressive this is a contemplative wine. Total release: less than one barrel.

‘CUATRO Palmas’  £297.00 per case of 6 (£52.95 per 50cl bottle)

An extremely rare forty five year old fino sherry. Drawn in tiny quantities from six casks known as ‘Museo Solera’. Deep in colour, intense on the nose, rich and nutty, this is totally awesome. Bone dry and yet richly textured with tremendous length. A wine that one might expect to be challenging rather than drinkable, but is in fact totally drinkable and incredibly exciting. Labelled as ‘Amontillado’ for political reasons. Total release: less than half a barrel.

LAS PALMAS MIXED CASES (6 x 50cl bottles)

LAS PALMAS One & Two : Three bottles each of ‘Una’ and ‘Dos Palmas’ £82.35

LAS PALMAS One to Three: Two bottles each of ‘Una’,  ‘Dos’, and  ‘Tres Palmas’ £122.40

LAS PALMAS One to Four: Two bottles each of ‘Una’ and ‘Dos Palmas’, and one each of ‘Tres’ and ‘Cuatro’ £138.15

LAS PALMAS ‘Los Aficionados’: Three bottles each of ‘Tres’ and ‘Cuatro’ £249.75

To order call your local branch or order on line.

To coincide with the release of Gonzalez Byass’ rare old ‘Palmas’ Finos, Mauricio Gonzalez invited me, together with a small group of other wine merchants, to Jerez to visit both the Bodegas and vineyards, and take part in a small wild partridge shoot in the ‘Bonanza’ vineyards, midway between Sanlucar and Trebujena.

The region has changed dramatically in the ten years since I was last in Jerez, the landscape looking rather bleak with vast swathes of bare, undulating land  and the hoizon filled with wind turbines which now generate more income than grapes, cotton or cereals.

Our first two partridge drives were across just such open land and we were grateful for cloud cover and the fact that we were not standing under the relenteless Andalucian sun that had been prevalent all of the week before. The few birds that were put over were mostly shoulder height or below and being quite unaccustomed to shooting so low I found it difficult to fire at all with such open countryside and beaters beyond.

The mid-day break was a splendid affair with a white linen covered table spread with ‘tapas’ under the shade of a eucalyptus grove. Bottles of  chilled Fino, Amontillado and Palo Cortado were poured, by liveried waiters, into large Riedel glasses to accompany ‘tortilla’, ‘jamon’, ‘chorizo’ and ‘manchego’ cheeese. A far cry from the sloe gin and sausages we are used to.

The next two drives were in the vineyards, and here the land was alive with wild rabbits and hares, as well as one great old wily grey fox. By now the cloud cover had burned away and the sun beat down overhead, making me, for one, wish I had drunk rather less sherry and rather more water during our break.

By three thirty we were glad of our return to the ’Bonanza’ for lunch, and after copious amounts of water we were given our first introduction to the fabulous ‘Palmas’ sherries, which I now saw for the first time in bottle, each one in clear glass to show of the colour of the wine. More ‘tapas’ (inevitably) accompanied the ‘dos’, ‘tres’ and ‘cuatro’ Palmas sherries. I for one continued through lunch with the amazing ‘cuatro’ Palmas, one of the rarest old finos of all (labelled as Amontillado for ‘political’ reasons), and a fabulous wine with food.

Later that evening we visited the spectacular Gonzalez Byass bodegas. Renowned for the ‘La Concha’ bodega, built by Gustave Eiffel the year before the Paris tower, the ‘Apostoles’ bodega housing the famously dedicated casks, and of course the signature bodega with casks signed by kings, queens, prime ministers, artists, actors, footballers and all sorts of luminaries (although we were told that Jancis Robinson declined on her recent visist).

The highlight of our visit, however, was the opportunity to see where the ‘Palmas’ sherries had actuallybeen drawn from, and to taste the wines direct from casks, although these particular wines had not been selected for bottling. Among so many wines in such a vast number of casks it put into context the minute and painstaking selection that had been made to find the wines for this particular release.

These are truly great wines, truly very rare, and available in only very limited quantity.

It is now available at £295 per case in Bond, £290 on 5 cases +

Quite why they decided to wait untill the dust has entirely settled on the campaign before making this release remains a complete mystery, but if you were on the look out for it, here it is!

Click the logo to see more details and book tickets via TicketSoup

  The Wine Gang Christmas Wine Fair 2011 – London

Where? Vinopolis, No.1 Bank End, London, SE1 9BU (Map)

When?  Saturday 29th October 2011 – 12 noon – 6.00pm

Four producers took the opportunity to present their products themselves, and Mario Zanusso of I Clivi in Friuli, Giuliana Cavazza of Castello del Terriccio in the Tuscan Maremma, Andrea Sottimano of Sottimano in Barbaresco and Pierre Dubarry of Cognac Moyet reported excellent reactions and a very enjoyable day of feedback and intelligent chat about the wines and Cognacs they were showing.

In total there were over 130 wines available to taste, a huge range but still only a tiny minority of L&S’s current offering, selected for this tasting largely on the basis that they had not been shown is tastings earlier in the year. You can see the full list here, but don’t blame us if you then feel like kicking yourself for not having attended.

The next major consumer tasting that L&S will take part it is the Wine Gang Christmas show, (not actually at Christmas, but on Saturday the 29th October at Vinopolis).

Affordable - Our offer of the Super ‘Super 2008′ Tuscans was highly successful in its appeal to investors and collectors alike, but our range also includes many hidden gems from Italy which are so much more affordable.

Drinkable – well of course they are, but all the more so because most of these wines are not in need of lengthy cellaring (though many will mature well if kept), at the same time as being surprisingly attractive to wine drinkers new to the charms (or hesitant maybe?) of Italy.

Exciting – Like almost everything Italian, be it the Sistine chapel or a ‘bunga-bunga’ party. All these wines speak volumes about the people who make them and the vineyards they come from.

FRIULI

GALEA ROSSO 2003 Colli Orientali del Friuli i Clivi £94.50 per case of 6 bottles (£15.75)

Made from very low yielding old vines this nine year old Merlot has only been released by i Clivi this year as ready for drinking, and is really gorgeous. Brick red in colour it is reminiscent of a maturing right bank Bordeaux, yet with a touch of north Italian attitude.

PIEDMONT

LANGHE NEBBIOLO 2009 Andrea Oberto  £89.70 per case of 6 bottles (£14.95)

Fabio Oberto (together with his father Andrea) is a heroic producer of Barolo, making wines that are not only exceptional quality but also incredibly approachable with layers of deep fruit. This Langhe Nebbiolo is really a baby Barolo, coming from the same vineyards and undergoing exactly the same vinification with only a briefer aging period in oak.

LANGHE NEBBIOLO Sottimano £89.70 per case of 6 bottles (£14.95)

If Fabio is our hero in Barolo, then Andrea Sottimano is our hero in Barbaresco, and this Langhe Nebbiolo is his baby Barbaresco. A much tighter knit wine, with higher toned fruit and tremendous length this will drink beautifully over the next few years.

TUSCANY

CHIANTI ‘Don Guido’ 2009 La Collina £53.70 per case of 6 bottles (£8.95)

From the Montalbano district in the northern hills of the Chianti region this brilliantly made Sangiovese is aged in large oak ‘botte’ to give greater depth and flavour. Savoury, spice and rich cherry fruit make this full bodied Chianti great value for money.

CABURNIO 2007 Tenuta Monteti £67.50 per case of 6 bottles (£11.25)

From the deep south of Tuscany a mini ‘super Tuscan’ which already enjoys a popular following among our customers for its combination of sheer class and exceptional value. A deep, earthy blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Alicante Bouschet aged in new oak casks, which gives a lot more expensive Bordeaux a run for their money.

CORTONA SYRAH 2008 Tenimenti Luigi d’Alessandro £69.00 per case of 6 bottles (£11.50)

Cortona is now quite well known for its quality Syrah, led by the d’Alessandro estate, where quite remarkable wines were made in the 2008 vintage , from the top ‘Migliara’ to the simple Cortona Syrah. Rated by Antonio Galloni (erobertparker.com) as ‘ridiculously good wine for the money’ this may not be especially ‘Italian’ but the notes of violets, leather and dark fruits make is so very captivating.

MORELLINO di SCANSANO ‘Heba’ 2009 Fattoria di Magliano £71.70 per case of 6 bottles (£11.95)

The coastal vineyards (Maremma) produce riper and softer fruit than in central Tuscany, so that this Sangiovese and Syrah (15%) blend, fermented in cement vats, makes for delicious, fruit led, easy drinking with a juicy twist on the finish.

BOLGHERI ROSSO 2009 Le Macchiole £95.70 per case of 6 bottles (£15.95)

Having sold out of the 2008 within days of our last offer, we are now offering the 2009 which is another beautiful wine and an even better contender for mid-term drinking. The blend remains Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah, and has got to be one of Bolgheri’s greatest buys.

UMBRIA

ASSISI ROSSO 2009 Sportoletti £57.00 per case of 6 bottles (£9.95)

Rated by Robert Parker as one of Italy’s top value wine, this full bodied Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon blend, given just a kiss of oak, is packed with dark, juicy red fruit and dead easy to drink.

MONTEFALCO ROSSO 2008 Arnaldo Caprai £77.70 per case of 6 bottles (£12.95)

Arnaldo Caprai champions the resurgence of Montefalco’s own infamous Sagrantino grape variety, and while this is perhaps the tamest of the wines with its large proportion of Sangiovese it is richly textured with crisp tannins and demands hearty food such as a borlotti bean stew or chunky steak.

CAMPANIA

KLEOS Aglianico 2009 Luigi Maffini £81.00 per case of 6 bottles (£13.50)

Aglianico has the potential of being one of Italy’s most exciting varietals, and in the hands of Luigi Maffini it really excels. Quite gutsy in its structure it is given a brief passage in oak to soften the tannins and round out the juicy fruit. Great food wine.

PUGLIA

CAPOPOSTO Rosso 2008 Alberto Longo £76.50 per case of 6 bottles (£12.75)

Puglia is well known for making large quantities of indifferent wine, so often baked from the heat. However, this Negroamaro, made by Graziana Grassini (who not only makes our best-selling Tassinaia, but also now responsible for Sassicaia) is far removed from the norm. Full of savoury, sweet ripe fruit, beautifully fresh and textured, it is not unlike a light Pinot Noir.

If you cannot make up your mind which wines to choose, why not take a mixed trial case and try them all before coming back for more?

BUY THE MIXED CASE THE ITALIAN MOB ‘Dirty Dozen’ – a mixed case of one bottle of each of these wines: £154.40 (including FREE delivery nationwide – mainland UK south of Perth).

All prices quoted are at the discounted rate for a minimum order of 12 bottles, which can be mixed. Our normal delivery terms apply.

WINE TASTING Monday 17th October 2011 at The Vintner’s Hall, 6.00 pm – 9.00pm. Tickets still available at £25 per person. Call Tom Morgan on 020 7244 0522.

We started with a sub-£10 group tasting to show what good wines we can find at the lower end of the price range of ‘fine wine’ .

After that each merchant showed six wines and, for a bit of fun, two vintages of an ‘icon’ wine. For the icon wine L&S showed the soon to be released 2009 Châteauneuf du Pape from Domaine de la Mordorée, which we have been importing almost since its first vintage, and the 2000 vintage of the same wine (sadly our last bottles from the depths of the company reserves), which Joe Wadsack enthusastically exclaimed to be ‘the best wine in the room so far’ when he got to it, but he was also mightily impressed by the value offered by the 2009. If you have some of the 2000 it is time to think about drinking it.

The tasting was followed by a Q&A session which we hoped would get some of the attending journalists to ask questions whch would shed some light on where the trade is heading faced with the relentless drive to dumb wine down to a question of whether Lidl’s cheap plonk is cheaper than Asda’s cheap plonk. Indeed one of the questions (from Tamlyn Currin, of www.jancisrobinson.com) was ‘to what extent, and how, can Independent Wine Merchants persuade customers away from supermarket wine?’, to which the response was really ‘to the extent that we exist at all’, and the forum revolved around this and the nobbly question that Decanter’s editor Guy Woodward has recently raised elsewhere “why won’t the British take wine more seriously”, and after the flak he received as a result. He’s is right of course, why are you not a car snob if you don’t aspire to driving anything better than(/different to) a Nissan Micra, but always a wine snob if you suggest for aspiring to drinking a better wine?

Guy Woodward also questioned “the value of merchants’ tasting notes & verdicts – how useful are they and to what extent are they objective?”. We all bridled slightly at the idea that our tasting notes might not be taken as being gospel. Stephen Brook observed that he had noticed my way of saying, during the primeur campaigns, that ‘this is not my style , but if this is a style you like go for it’. We as merchants know that there are people who like some extremes of style that we do not, but we would still prefer they bought it from us.

Jason Yapp, backed up by this year’s chairman Adam Brett-Smith of Corneys felt strongly that the merchants have every right to have their tasting notes taken seriously (at least if they don’t relentlessly ‘big-up’ every single wine they sell as being the best ever), as the merchants are, in contrast to the journalists and third-party commentators (who may also have conflicts of interest in the form of potential advertising or competition-entry revenue) the ones who really do have to put their money where their mouth is.

All in all a fun tasting, which elicited some good responses:-

“…such fabulous wines. It has to be one of the best tastings of the year…” Peter Richards
“Best wine tasting for a while; The Bunch….” Guy Woodward
“Thanks for the Great Tasting” – Juel Mahoney
“Brilliant Tasting” – Joe Wadsack

Come and see why L&S has been awarded ‘Wine Merchant of the year for London’ in the International Wine Challenge (IWC) for the third year running.

Over one hundred wines on tasting in the magnificent surroundings of the Vintner’s Hall, on Upper Thames St. EC4V 3BG on Monday 17th October, from 6.00 – 9.00 pm.

Celebrate L&S' third year as IWC Merchant of the Year for London at the Autumn Tasting at the Vintners' Hall

As well as many old favourites we will be showing a number of new additions to our range, from everyday wines through to some rather special bottles. An excellent opportunity to select wines for drinking during the coming season as well as putting away in the cellar.

We will have a number of producers on hand who can guide you through their wines in more detail. To date Sottimano (Piedmont), Terriccio (Tuscany), Salomon (Austria) and Moyet (Cognac) have indicated that they will be there.

Tickets to this tasting are limited to 200 and will be sold on a first come, first served basis at a cost of £25.00 per ticket, with 50% of the proceeds being given to charities we support and the full ticket price redeemable against orders in excess of £250 taken on the evening.

For more details or to buy tickets please call Tom Morgan on 020 7244 0522, or email tomm@leaandsandeman.co.uk

Admittance will be strictly by ticket only.

The Awards Dinner this evening celebrated the year-long achievements of many of our colleagues as well, including Bunch members who won specialist awards (for which we, as ‘generalists’ do no really expect to be considered), so congratulations to Jason Yapp of Yapp, as Rhone specialists, and to Berry’s as Bordeaux specialists).

Charles Lea collecting this year's award

 Knowing how radical the flavours of the Trophy Winners can be (they have to be assertive to stand out in long blind tastings, as well as being available in certain volumes), I took along a couple of bottles. The Awards dinner interestingly included a fish main course, which was difficult to match with the New World red Trophy winning reds, but it went sublimely with the 2002 Macon Pierreclos ‘Tri de Chavigne’ from Guffens-Heynen (if you have any of this left it’s probably time to go for it) and a chocolate pudding of fanciful form and intense flavour and sweetness which went just about OK with Stanton & Killeeen’s Aussie port-style Muscat, but was otherwise an impossible combo with any of the wines. Anne Gros’ 2003 Clos Vougeot, which I chose for it’s lack of sediment, since it had to accompany me in a cab, was fascinating – it has all the silk of any of Anne’s wines, but it is just so ripe – and put in the northern Rhone by both my immediate neighbours. Cannot decide whether to advise drinking it now for this slightly thick lushness or keeping it 6 years+. I think I’ll keep any I have left.

Chocolate Pud at IWC Awards

By this time we shall be in the midst of the Rugby World Cup and immersed, therefore, in all things Kiwi.  So, thought I, if the bandwagon has enough room why not jump aboard and spend a couple of hours showcasing our excellent selection of New Zealand wines. 

It being New Zealand there will, inevitably, be some Sauvignon Blanc on show.  Probably from Marlborough too.  But we will take you beyond the grassy, gooseberry charms of the such and tempt you with other New Zealand Sauv Blonks from other bits of New Zealand and attempt to prove that they don’t all taste the same.  Alongside there will be a light seasoning of other white grape varieties.  As far as red wines go, again, there is an “of course”, this time Pinot Noir, of which you simply cannot have too much, but we will find space for a few Kiwi non-Pinot Noir reds.

The tasting takes place at our Chiswick branch and the fun starts at 8pm as the shop closes (a lock-in at a wine shop, what a joyous prospect!).  If you’ve not been to one of our tastings before, it’s all very informal – we give you a tasting sheet and a glass and open lots of bottles for you; there’s no stuffy lecture, no over persuasive sales talk, and no wine ponciness; just you, your taste buds and your opinions.

All we require for this cornucopia of Kiwiness is £15 a head, a £15 that we will gladly hand back to you when you buy £50 or more of wine on the night.  Call us to reserve your place – 020 8995 7355.  Space is limited in the shop, so there will be a limit on numbers, making booking in advance a necessity.  Please note that places cannot be reserved without payment – issuing a vague willingness to attend will not constitute “a booking”.

See you there…

Andrew

This is not your usual Melon de Bourgogne offering of lean fruit and sharp acidity, but a beautifully textured wine from old vines grown on granitic soil, giving texture and drive to the mineral fruit which makes it such a perfect foil to shellfish, grilled fish and so much more.

So underwhlemed was Jancis Robinson by a Muscadet included in the recent Oxford and Cambridge Univeristy wine tasting competition, that we decided she must be made aware of this exceptional expression of Melon from a ‘lieu dit’ (named vineyard), and the result is that Julia Harding MW, one of the JR team, has made it this weeks’ ‘wine of the week’.

La Noë is not the name of the producer, nor an obscure grape variety. It is the name of a 4-hectare vineyard in the extreme west of the Loire Valley, south west of Nantes, that was planted with vines as far back as 1694, according to local records.

It may not have been this vineyard that persuaded Eric Chevalier to come back to run his 20-hectare (now 28-ha) family property, Dom de l’Aujardière in Saint-Philbert de Grandlieu, in 2006, after a decade as head of the Vinival (later Grands Chais de France) winery in Touraine, but it is the one that he describes as ‘un réel coup de coeur’. It’s hard to translate this French expression but you could say it was the patch of land that won his heart.

La Noë 2010 Muscadet-Côtes de Grandlieu Sur Lie, the wine Eric Chevalier produces from the middle-aged vines (20-60 years old) in this sandy granitic vineyard – unusual in the region – surely won my heart and palate, even though it is a wine of real restraint. It is very pale, as you would expect from the Melon de Bourgogne grape variety in combination with the Atlantic environment of Muscadet, and the initial aromas are quite delicate – wet stones, citrus, a note of cedary freshness and the impression of creaminess to come. The effect of a slow fermentation using ambient yeasts and then seven months ageing on the yeast lees has given La Noë a marked and delicious creamy texture that beautifully complements the freshness and high tension delivered by crisp acidity. Subtle, refreshing, satifying and long.

Muscadet is typically recommended to accompany seafood or fish but Chevalier rightly says that this wine has the depth to be very good with cheeses such as Comté and Beaufort, as well as with its classic tablemates. (Incidentally, instead of putting the Muscadet-Côtes de Grandlieu on the front label, he describes it simply as from the Val de Loire, for more positive associations or simpler recognition, perhaps?)

This is not the first time that Chevalier has featured on Purple pages. See here for Jancis’s review of his Fié Gris, a wine of the week back in January.

After a momentary review of our options we plumped for an old favourite – the Atlantic coast of Bordeaux. The beaches here are astonishing. Miles and miles of fine golden sand – and unquestionably the best waves in Europe. For the more genteel swimmer or the toddling paddlers there are also the calmer waters of the enormous lakes that stretch for miles just inland from the coast or even the lagoon at Arcachon. So, as long as the sun shone this was going to be ideal.

Thankfully it did – most of the time – and when it did not – what better ‘grey day’ distraction for any ‘amateur du vin’ than the sprawling vineyards of Bordeaux and in particular the Medoc.!?

Just twenty minutes heading west from our base in Hourtin sits the pretty village of St Estèphe. This is the most northerly of the four important communes in the Medoc – and the only one I had not been to before. On our last visit to Bordeaux it was just a step too far heading north up the ‘Route des Châteaux’, for the very patient Mrs Porter. After the umpteenth stop between Margaux, St Julien and finally Château Lafite in Pauillac she called it a day on my incessant diversions and diatribes about yet another unmissable chateau.

In fact, St Estèphe starts right where Château Lafite, in the very north of Pauillac, finishes – separated by the smallest of streams. Geographically the soil starts the same as in Pauillac – with deep gravel beds – but as you go further into the area, clay begins to dominate and this is notable in the different style of wine made here. The ability of the clay to hold onto water means that often in the hot vintages, St Estèphe fairs better than the better drained soils further south – and the wines are certainly different and have their own distinct style. The best examples are classically powerful and intense – often tricky to taste when young – but with patience these can evolve into supremely elegant wines.

With the exceptions of Château Cos d’Estournel and Château Montrose – there are no really big name, blue chip estates here – but there are some excellent mid-range names such as the brilliant Lafon-Rochet, the stalwart Château Meyney and the serious wines from Calon-Segur as well as some super, value-offerings at Cru Bourgeois and even ‘village’ level. These include Lea and Sandeman favourites Capbern Gasqueton and Tronquoy Lalande as well as our perennial best seller - Les Ormes de Pez.

As we picnicked amongst the vines close to Château de Marbuzet we were struck by the beauty of the place. From our tartan square we could see the gleaming spires of seven beautiful castles with nothing but vines filling the gap in the landscape. The Medoc has a certain majesty – it is an other-worldly place to spend time – close to a theme park at times with pristine chateaux dotting the rolling, verdant landscape – prompting our toddler to innocently ask – ‘where are all the princesses?’

Any wine lover should visit this alluring place – and St Estèphe is well worth the stretch to the top of the Medoc – a gentle introduction to the magic. It is calmer, more rustic and more real than Margaux, St Julien and Pauillac – but still deeply impressive – and on the whole this is true for the wines too – more down to earth, more amenably priced and yet distinctly Bordeaux.

For more details on St Estephe I recommend this official website: http://www.vins-saint-estephe.com/

With time on our hands on Saturday morning before our first appointment we headed up to the capital city of Udine, once a wealthy seat to the chair-making industry that thrived in the region. In spite of the fact that this business has all but disappeared to the Far East, Udine still seems to be thriving and is full of glamorous shops between the beautiful and ancient piazzas below the castle. A lovely place in which to wander and take the sites of an Italian city at work and at play.The contrast with the I Clivi vineyard is really quite striking. On the hillside overlooking the valley down towards the plain of Cormons, this is a true haven of wilderness. Gnarled old vines on slopes that are only workable by hand, surrounded by woodland and olive trees, teeming with butterflies and other insects among the wild flowers and grasses, one immediately understands that these are natural vineyards which are full of nature.

Mario and Ferdinando Zanusso took over these old abandoned vines in the 1990s and rebuilt the old house and cellar that had previously been destroyed by earthquake and have since set about making wines as naturally as possible. Organic treatments in the vineyard and minimum intervention in the winery result in beautifully expressive wines of great purity. As Mario walked us through the vineyards he commented that ‘ninety-nine per cent of the wine is made in the vineyard’. He went on to explain that they use a champagne press to press the grapes, looking only to extract the ‘fiore’, the ‘flower’ of the juice, thus only extracting about sixty percent of the juice. The rest he says is not worth extracting because not only does it introduce rustic elements to the wine, which then need removing with bentonites, and why add things if you only have to take them away again, but also because it means that they can quickly move on to the next batch of grapes as they come in from the vineyard.

Sitting under the veranda to their house, with the simplest but most delicious bowl of pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, olive oil and bread, we went on to taste the wines. With no skin contact at all these are wines that are fermented using the vineyard’s natural yeasts, undergo malolactic fermentation, spend time on their ‘lees’ in stainless steel (up to two years for the single vineyard wines) with no oak, racking or filtration. As Ferdinando tells us it is simply grape juice made into wine. The Galea (Collio) and Brazan (COF) vineyards produce fascinating and different expressions of Friulano, the first full bodied, deep and earthy, the second more floral with notes of honey and liquorice, but both full of spice and herbs, pure and long. The surprise for me here is always the Verduzzo, ‘a red wine in white’ as Mario says, since Verduzzo is a part of the red wine family, chock full of flavour and character (so much more so than the sweet version), with body and definite tannins it is a white wine for red wine drinkers and was perfect with a chunk of fresh parmesan. What had started as a tasting had evolved into a joyful and pleasurable lunch, and a siesta on our busman’s holiday was now in order.

The Visintini family were out in full force to meet us; Oliviero and his two sisters, Palmira and Cinzia who together run the business, their mother ‘la nona’, Palmira’s three year old daughter with a mop of blond curls, and the two sisters’ boyfriends, all of whom followed us around the vineyards and the cellars, watched our every expression as we tasted and came on to dinner that evening in Civadele. A family affair.

Oliviero and his sisters have transformed their family vineyards and cellars into a quality producer that is now among the best in the region. Oliviero’s passion for his vines has led him to work biodynamically and set up a small consortium of other growers in the region so that they can do so in harmony. He has also rebuilt the cellar so that they can work as efficiently yet naturally as possible, and this is reflected in the quality of his wines which only ever seem to improve from one year to the next. In spite of his Pinot Grigio ‘Ramato’ being our best seller, he was perhaps understandably more keen to talk about their Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and Pinot Bianco, all of which we tasted from the 2010 vintage. Once again I was surprised by how well these wines can age when he showed us a remarkable bottle of 1999 Pinot Bianco, from a great vintage, he says, but an era when the cellar was not quite up to speed. Deep gold in colour, richly aromatic and textured with beautifully evolved flavours, some sweet, but dry and still so lively and fresh, I could not help myself but drink it!

Cividale is a beautiful town and full of life. Now a UNESCO heritage site the old town on the banks of the gorge overlooks a bridge that is reminiscent of that of Ronda. Oliviero, and family, treated us to a lengthy dinner of ‘slowfood’ from local Fruilian suppliers, accompanied by a huge number of wines. As we wandered around the town late at night beautiful music was in the air, and we came across the closing scenes of a performance by part of the Russian National Ballet touring the region. It was an almost incredible end to a wonderful day.

Another advantage to the location of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia airport, as it is correctly known, is that it is only twenty minutes from the coastal town of Grado, an ancient fishing port and seaside resort that sits on the edge of the Laguna di Grado, and an ideal place to hang out before the Ryanair flight home. A word of caution however; avoid the seafront and overcrowded beaches (you can only get onto them if you rent a lounger!) and head for the beautiful old basilica and the bars around it. Friuli and its wines deserve greater recognition, and I for one look forward to returning very soon.

It is a beautiful region with the backdrop of heavily wooded mountains in Slovenia framing the neatly tended vines of Collio which cover most of the hilltops and slopes as well as much of the plains below. Ours was a mission to better understand this region and the wines that are produced there and, with Slovenian wines trying to make their way into this market to find out what it is that makes them so different. Some fifteen years ago we did bring in some Slovenian wines from Movia, made by the rather eccentric Ales Kristancic, and they were a stuggle to sell (understatement?).

Collio, a name which is derived from ‘colline’, meaning hills, conjures up images of sloping vineyards and of which there are many and this is where the best producers are located. However, although the overall region is quite small, it is also evident that there are far more vineyards on the plains producing large quantities of somewhat more indifferent wines in industrial quantities. The Collio vineyards are also divided between Collio (Goriziano) and Collio Orientale del Friuli (COF), separated geographically only by the otherwise insignificant river Judrio.
Having arrived in a blast of heat (37C) we were met at the airport by Patrizia Felluga’s charming daughter Caterina, and taken to our accommodation at the Relais Russiz Superiore in order to sit out the heat of the afternoon before heading to Zuani’s vineyards in the early evening.

The road to San Floriano skirts the Slovenian border and, indeed, Zuani’s vineyards all but straddle it with fabulous views up to the mountains. Patrizia only produces one wine – a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio and Friulano, but in two versions, one oaked and the other not. It is the unoaked version that we have always found most successful, and although we have always sold it as a youthful, fresh wine for drinking young, though never lacking in elegance and complexity, we have not had experience of drinking her wine with bottle age. Patrizia opened eight vintages from the current 2010 back to 2002, and it was an extraordinary revelation. It was not simply a case of the wines having stood up to the passage of time, but in the best vintages, notably ’07 and ’04, they had evolved into something that was quite amazing, and one would be hard pushed to place them outside of Burgundy even. Amongst all of this Patrizia insisted on opening a bottle of her ‘dream wine’ which, was quite surprisingly, ‘Baron de L’ 2006, but which, in my opinion, was less fun to drink that any of the vintages of Zuani (including even the rather ungainly 2005).

Into Slovenia

The following morning we heading across the border to Slovenia’s Brda district and our first visit was to Edi Simicic from whose cellar you could look directly across to Felluga’s Villa Russiz vineyards. Aleks Simicic bills himself in his literature as ‘stubborn, persistent, hard-working, open-minded, and a man of action’, and I am not one to disbelieve him. Certainly his wines are all worked to the maximum, every one of the whites undergoing lengthy maceration and a minimum of eleven months in oak, and the reds up to three years. These are heavily textured wines with notes of dried fruits and herbs, but their mineral finish marked with a note of tannin.
A few minutes drive down the road to the fifth generation business of Scurek only to find that our pre appointed appointment clashed with their lunch and we were asked to come back in an hour! So, one hour on (and after a light lunch of our own) we were welcomed by a very laid back Tomaz, one of five sons involved in the business, and looking forward to his annual break. Here we tasted a rather more approachable range of white wines made of Rebula (Ribolla Gialla), Sivi Pinot (Pinot Gris), Chardonnay and Sauvignonasse (Friulano), as well as a not bad Pinot Noir. Again these wines undergo lengthy maceration before fermentation and, although largely unwooded, those wines that are, are aged in a combination of oak and acacia wood barrels, which was a first for me. Tomaz bemoaned the fact that they are no longer allowed to use the name Tocai or Friulano and since they had had to label with the name Sauvignonasse their sales had dropped by sixty percent.
Next door, all but literally, is the relatively new business of Pulec whose winery is being totally overhauled, including the 80 foot border lookout tower dating back to the days of Communist rule, so we did our tasting in the family-owned pizzeria next door. A similar range of wines here, though perhaps the most modern in that skin contact is kept to a minimum, oak is only used in the top wines and the wines are really quite expressive. Good wines and worthy of consideration but, as we drove away heading back across the border to Friuli, it dawned upon me that not one of these three winemakers had really spoken about their vineyards, let alone offered to show them to us, and that their focus was entirely upon their wines in the cellar. A throwback to the old days of Friuli perhaps?

Harry Eyres takes over in the Saturday Telegraph, while Victoria Moore has a summer break, and writes about Tuscany’s Morellino di Scansano, highlighting in particular Fattoria di Magliano’s ‘Heba’ 2009: “It’s really, really good glugging wine,” Patrick Sandeman of Lea and Sandeman puts it, while we taste his excellent Morellino di Scansano “Heba” 2009 from Fattoria di Magliano in the shop in Kensington Church Street. There’s the deep, black cherry nose with just a hint of violets, the open generous fruit, sweetness trouncing the hint of sourness you always get with sangiovese – helped here with 15% syrah. Heba is mainly fermented in cement tanks – coming back into fashion all over the wine world – and not matured in oak. It weighs in at 13 degrees, which is relatively light for morellino these days, but seems about right.

Madness not to really.

This year’s cases contain a mix of four outstanding wines in the vintage:-
2010 CHÂTEAU RIEUSSEC 1er Cru Classé Sauternes
2010 CHÂTEAU DOISY VÉDRINES 2ème Cru Classé Barsac
2010 CHÂTEAU DOISY DAËNE 2ème Cru Classé Barsac
2010 CHÂTEAU LAFAURIE PEYRAGUEY 1er Cru Classé Sauternes
- Buy in bottles or halves at the same price £365 in bond. Terms as per the website Primeur Offer.

As I said at the outset of this campaign, I like the outlying, higher appellations on the right bank in this vintage, especially Castillon, but including Pierre Taix’s La Mauriane from Puisseguin. These wines are fully ripe without having turned the ‘damson vodka’ corner, and retain an admirable freshness.

That said, it is often a question of style and intent, and there are lots of examples of excellent wines across these two regions, which offer real value compared to some of the better-known names.

It is possible to review your order so far by logging on to the website using the email address to which this mail is addressed, and going to the ‘my past orders’ tab. We will be invoicing all the 2010 Primeurs order early next week and the offer will officially close then. Don’t worry if your orders since my last mail have not been confirmed, they are all in hand.

In the main blog post about the value wines of the 2010 vintage I mentioned the lists we have put togther of the wines which we think offer some of the best value for money, and present the arguments as to why these wines really are worth buying, even if many have been put off buying en primeur by the fact that labels they used to drink are now out of reach.

This is the first of two lists, probably too long, but there are yet more wines which have a claim… It is worth having a look at these, there are plenty of opportunities to stock the cellar – buy ten cases for just over a grand?

Get your orders in now, as we will be closing the primeur offer shortly and issuing final invoices early next week. It may take until Friday to confirm as France is closed tomorrow for Bastille Day, and I am going sailing in once of these, courtesy of those very nice chaps at Pol Roger.

With the recent bubble-like upward movement of the top few labels, there is a danger that the whole of the Bordeaux region is being written-off by buyers who are looking for a decent drink, when in fact the price rises are confined to a few brands which have been targeted by investors.

Wine markets are polarising. On one hand there are flashing diamond ’Bond Street’ rings, the ‘First Growths’, where the name attached is at least as important as the thing itself. On the other hand is a plastic piece of tat, not even pretending it is real , the ‘two for a fiver’ supermarket plonk. 

It may be that ’face’ requires the most obvious symbols of wealth, whether it be handbags or wine, and it seems that there are enough indscriminate, insecure brand-buyers out there to keep these flash brands at gravity-defying prices.

At the same time personal consumption is becoming more and more thoughtless and undiscriminating. Consumers seem ready to be fed whatever knock-offs the mass-market provides at the cheapest price, and ready to accept that this tat really is good value because it is cheap. But the truth is that it is not cool to buy the cheapest rubbish you can get away with. Your friends can tell the difference. The real wisdom is to sort the real weight and value from all this meaningless chaff, and specialists like L&S can do this with you, and even for you.

It is worth taking advice and being discriminating, both in everyday wines and in en primeur.

The polarisation of the market has been catastrophic for the lesser wines Bordeaux. Tarred with the reputation for being expensive because of the Grands Crus, petits Bordeaux are often actually cheaper now than they were ten years ago. Plagued with under-investment as a result of trying to screw down prices to match the supermarkets’ demands, they are also often worse wines than they were ten years ago too.

It is also true that many of the top estates do merit high prices relative to what they achieved in the last thirty years. The second wines of both Cos d’Estournel and Ducru Beaucaillou really are better than many of the vintages of their ‘Grands Vins’ made in the seventies and eighties.

And then of course there are the exceptions. There is a middle ground at price levels right up to around £30 to £40 per bottle en primeur, where these wines are subject to the ‘old rules’. By this I mean that these are prices which the wider market of traditional drinkers of great Bordeaux are prepared to pay to drink them with their friends. And yes they (probably) will appreciate in price and be more expensive later. Maybe not exponential growth like Carruades over the last few years, but this is for drinkers, not pure investors. These are wines which compare favourably for value with wines made beyond Bordeaux. Each of the wines below is in one way or another an exception. A property which has a brillant winemaker, maybe one who has been able to re-invest some of the profits from the up-turn in the top-end prices, to brilliant terroirs which have been re-invigorated by the arrival of a new generation. Here is real value. You have to pay for it, but you get what you pay for. We our have compiled two lists – one for all the appelations of the Medoc, and the other for the right bank and Graves.

Nick Coates and Christian Seely have been chums since they were at business school together, before heading off to follow different careers. The former went into the heady world of finance in the City of London, while the latter headed off to France to forge a career in the world of wine. In 2006 they hatched a plot, Nick having had enough of the City, and Christian successfully heading up AXA’s interests in Bordeaux (Pichon Baron and Suduiraut) and Portugal (Quinta do Noval) as well as his own interests in France and Portugal, together with his French wife, Corinne, a winemaker of course.

Their dream of making great sparkling wine in Hampshire, that would reflect the best of the English chalk terroir together with the established craft of the French winemaker, came alive when they discovered an all but abandoned vineyard in one of Hampshire’s most beautiful and best sited valleys.

Their first release is a very pretty rosé made entirely from the 2009 vintage, and delicately pale as a result of the briefest contact of the juice with the skins. Medium bodied, the delicate sweetness of cranberry and strawberry fruit is beautifully tempered by a sherbert acidity and delicate mousse, making it a lovely wine for an English summer day.

Rule Britannia! Rule ‘Britagne’!

We also have very limited volumes of Chateau Margaux, possibly my other wine of the vintage, at £8200. We really will have to confirm all of this in the day so please do not hesitate.

The quantity of Chateau Latour that has been released is tiny, but the wine is stupendous, worth chasing the bit we have at £5500 per six-bottle case.

We still have small remaining stocks of the astonishing l’Eglise Clinet at £3300, Clinet £995, Forts de Latour £2000, Palmer £2475, Clerc Milon £565, Gruaud Larose £540, Saint Pierre (Robert Parker 95-97+) at £615, and additionally can offer a tiny quantity of Tertre Roteboeuf at £1295, this is only available linked 1:1 with its sister property Roc de Cambes at £430.

We can also offer very limited volumes of Alain Vauthier’s rarissimo Chateau Ausone, at £13,200, which, well if you can afford it, it is one of the truly great wines. Again we can offer in three and six bottle cases as well.

Also just on the market is Cheval Blanc at £9900. We will buy this to order only, but for now it is open. It’s second wine Petit Cheval is also available at £1850.

Finally for this morning we have Chateau Yquem at £4600.

Please respond quickly if you want these as availability and pricing cannot be guaranteed.

Gerard Perse has released all his top wines, Pavie, Pavie Decesse and Bellevue Mondotte. All of these are massive, inky wines in the controversial Perse idiom, and they cannot fail to impress even if I’d rather have five cases of Las Cases.

Also in Saint Emilion there is Chateau Angélus. This too is a massive, powerful wine, and seriously long. Again I’d rather drink Las Cases, but if this is your style read the notes and go for it.

We then have two top Pomerols, Clos L’Église from Helene Garcin, and the astonishing Chateau L’Église Clinet of Denis Durantou. Our customers will know that I regard l’Église Clinet as the Pomerol of choice, and with its up to 100 rating from Parker – we may have a limited quantity to offer at £3500 so do ask now.

Chateau Figeac, with its high Cabernet content, is the most Médocain of all Saint Emilions and the one for which the 2010 vintage was simply perfect.

We also have a very limited release of Beauséjour Duffau Lagarosse, another potential 100 pointer from Parker, at £2200. This property only produces about 700 cases a year.

Under its dynamic manager Jean-Michel Laporte, La Conseillante has made huge strides in quality in recent vintages, and has gathered base of loyal fans – for good reason. This is expensive, but if you want a top Pomerol in this excellent Pomerol vintage, with notes like these La Conseillante represents good value in relative terms:-

94 (L&S)
17 (Jancis Robinson MW OBE (www.jancisrobinson.com))
95 – 98 (Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate)
94 – 96 (Neal Martin’s Wine Journal, erobertparker.com)
94 – 97 (James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator)
97 – 98 (James Suckling, jamessuckling.com)
*****18.5 (James Lawther MW, decanter.com)
17.5-18.5/20 (Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com)
97 (Tim Atkin MW)

Back in Saint Julien, the second wine of Léoville las Cases, Le Petit Lion, the name of which celebrates the lion arch into the Las Cases vineyard which is a landmark on the road between Saint Julien and Chateau Latour – no doubt the Grand Vin will also be released soon.

Château Palmer united the critics all over. I called it ‘dancingly elegant, with lovely tension and balance’, while Robert Parker says ‘this wine is going to be one of the great classics ever to emerge from this iconic chateau’. Add in ‘a magnificent Palmer, 19.5′ from Steven Spurrier, and an 18 from Jancis Robinson – and you get the picture.

Ducru is down significantly in price from 2009, and has a better note from Robert Parker and other critics. I thought it stunning – one of the wines of the vintage.

To celebrate the difference, and as thought to tie in the presentation with the nightclubby feel of the reception and tasting rooms at Ducru, Bruno has had Jade Jagger design a new livery for Croix de Beaucaillou from 2010, which we are told will look something like this:-

Also on open offer this evening are a few remaining cases of Château Clerc Milon (£565)

One we can offer on general release is 2010 Cos d’Estournel, a wine I preferred to the 2009, at a slightly reduced price. This is still not exactly cheap, (but what did we expect?) and it is a fantastic wine. Buy as a treat if you want a First Growth to drink in this great vintage but don’t want to pay £8k+ a case.

I cannot tell you much about Cos Blanc (I’ve never been offered it to taste, – but Château Cos d’Estournel Blanc can be yours (subject to stock) at £265 for a case of six bottles.

Nénin, the Pomerol owned by the Delons of Las Cases, has put its excellent 2010 out at a price which while high is not dotty. And although it is always a challenge to taste this in the same line-up as Clos du Marquis and Las Cases, (and on a day when one tastes nothing but Cabernet-based wines), I really liked it.

We still have small volumes of Haut Bailly at £1035 and Pavie Macquin at £920 but these will not last long.

This probably puts a wrap on the campaign until after Vinexpo, which goes on over the weekend and half-way through next week, so now is a time for quiet reflection and a bit of hoovering up of some of the better value wines!

Haut Bailly, under the elegant Véronique Sanders, has produced another wine in a fabulous run from this property. I love the unforced, ‘real’ style of this wine.

We have been championing Saint Pierre for some years now, along with its stablemate Gloria, and the 2009 is the best ever from this property. As Robert Parker puts it “This cuvee reminded me somewhat of a St.-Julien version of another of the superstars of the vintage, the 2010 Pichon Longueville Baron. The 2010 Saint-Pierre should drink well for 30-40 years. 2011-2051 95 – 97+”

We also have the great and again very highly-rated Pavie Macquin available in tiny quantities. Robert Parker 96 – 98+. Quick answers needed here please

One I really, really like and recommend is Clos du Marquis. As you can read in Robert Parker’s note, Clos du Marquis is now treated as a separate property to Léoville las Cases, which is under the same ownership. The second wine of Las Cases is now ‘Le Petit Lion’. This is a wine of good Cru Classé standard, ranking alongside the likes of Lagrange and Branaire and co, at a price which makes it affordable for the drinker. One of the few recent releases to make it into my ‘recommended Médocs’ list.

I also really like Brane Cantenac. I do wish it were not the price it is, but in terms of some of the pricing we have seen in Margaux this year, this is almost a bargain. Especially considering it carries a 93-96 Parker rating. Staying in Margaux, we now have Alter Ego de Chateau Palmer - does this mean the release of Palmer itself is in the offing? Not so much a second wine really, “This tastes like a very smart wine off its own bat.” says Jancis Robinson.

Late this afternoon we had the release of Bernard Magrez’s Chateau Pape Clément, which Steven Spurrier rates 18.5. The white is fractionally more and could be available if anyone wants.

Finally a wine which actually came out yesterday but got lost in the rush, La Pointe. This represents a bit of a rarity – good value in Pomerol. Recommended.

The big news is the release of Lynch Bages. This is a really superb wine, and a great pair to Pontet Canet. “The 2010 blew me away on each occasion I tasted it” says Robert Parker, who gave it 95-97 points.

Chateau Montrose, another property on a remarkable roll of great vintages, has released its 2010 which again is highly acclaimed and was certainly one of my wines of the vintage. Also on offer is its second wine Dame de Montrose.

Branaire Ducru is another of the fabulous wines produced in Saint Julien this year , a really taut, fine, beautifully-defined wine this year.

Chateau d’Issan has been making better and better wines in recent year, and this would be my choice rather than some the rather soupier Margaux.

Finally for this morning it is back to the right bank with Chateau Canon. This Chanel-owned property makes lovely pure wines but I can’t get my head round the price level for this.

We also have an attractive vintage of Chateau Rouget in Pomerol, and Beauséjour Bécot, La Gomerie and Soutard.

At the final tasting during ‘primeurs’ week’, Charles Metcalfe said he thought that 2010 is the ‘damson vodka’ vintage. I laughed in recognition, having already included the simile in my note on Clos Fourtet. This 95-97 Parker-point wine is available in tiny quantities at £849.

Also out yesterday but almost lost in the rush was Stephan von Neipperg’s flagship, Canon la Gaffeliere. This has the massive concentration of the vintage alright, but it is off a great terroir and that does help it ‘maintain its shape’. ‘A beauty in the making’ says the James Molesworth of the Wine Spectator’, and ‘one of my favourite Saint Emilions’ for Tim Atkin, who gave it 95 points.

Chateau Bellevue, now owned by Angélus, was also out yesterday afternoon at £519, as was La Dominique,(£355) a wine I thought significantly better than this estate’s 2009, and if you are a fan this is a vintage not to miss.

Chateau Le Bon Pasteur, home to Dany and Michel Rolland, is out this morning at £520

On the one hand Adrian Bridge, heading up the formidable ‘Fladgate Partnership’, together with head winemaker Bruce Guimaraens, are convinced that the quality of 2009 is so good that they have declared Taylor, Fonseca, Croft and even a small amount of the legendary Taylor Vargellas ‘Vinha Velha’.

’2009 will be remembered as a year of very low yields. This was partly due to the small amount of fruit and also to the effect of the very dry ripening season. Dormancy ended early, with bud burst occurring at Pinhão in the first week of March. All vine varieties showed low fertility although the vegetation was healthy and vigorous. Véraison also occurred earlier than usual. The ripening season started with relatively cool weather, which continued throughout July, but in August this turned to intense heat. There was almost no rain from July right through to the harvest. By early September the grapes had reached phenolic maturity and picking on most of The Fladgate Partnership quintas began early, Roêda being first to start on 9 September. The low yields resulted in dense and concentrated musts, rich in colour, tannins and sugar.‘ Bruce Guimaraens

On the other hand there is James Seeley, heading up AXA’s jewel in the Douro that is Quinta do Noval, as adamant about not declaring a vintage in 2009 as is tightly knotted his trade mark bow-tie. (He did, however, declare in both 2007 and, somewhat controversially, in 2008).

In the middle is the current head of the Symington dynasty, the charming Paul Symington who has elected to make a number of single quinta ports in the vintage, but no Vintages with the exception of Warre, for ‘commemorative’ reasons, as he explains here:

‘The harvest report that I wrote at the time gives the full background to this year. My family, with more than five generations here in the Douro (13 if you count my great-grandmother), declare a vintage when we have a truly outstanding wine that will earn the respect of the wine trade and consumers around the world. We will not declare for any other reason. We are bottling a Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos, a Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim, a Dow’s Senhora de Ribeira and a Quinta do Vesúvio 2009 but we are “declaring” 500 cases of Warre’s 2009 vintage port as a special bottling to commemorate 200 years since the Anglo-Portuguese army, under the Duke of Wellington, liberated my home city of Oporto (each bottle is numbered). This great wine is in very short supply and many of the cases are already spoken for. Quinta da Cavadinha is a higher and cooler vineyard, so produced lovely wines in 2009. The Warre’s 2009 vintage port is exceptional in my view.’

And of course there is Dirk Niepoort, maverick winemaker of the Douro, who sits on neither one side or the other, and definitely never in the middle. We now list almost all of his ports through the quaintly named Tawny Dee and Ruby Dum, LBV and single quinta, to his vintage Niepoort which is definitely now up there in terms of quality with the big boys.

For our part, we were very impressed by the 2009s that we tasted and are offering. They are not perhaps quite the norm in 2009, in that they are not the massively brooding and backward wines that one expects to taste at this stage. They are full of rich, sweet and quite seductive fruit, but undoubtedly underpinned by firm tannins and crunchy minerality that will give them great potential for ageing and developing. They will certainly find a place in my cellar.

In addition to offering these 2009 Vintage Ports, we are offering a new release from Noval in the form of perhaps the greatest Late Bottled Vintage we have tasted, and certainly the first LBV that truly deserves to carry ‘Vintage’ in its name. This is a fabulous, inexpensive alternative to full blown vintage port for the cellar. A port that you can afford to open for drinking over a winter week-end and perfect for shooting lunches (why do they serve cheap port at all?). Definitely worth sticking in the cellar for a few years.

VINTAGE PORT – the real deal.

2009 TAYLOR£220 per case of 6 bottles excluding Vat (£200 In Bond)
Blackish purple. This, unusually, had the headiness of Fonseca 2009 on the nose and seemed more luscious and velvety than the Quinta da Vargellas Vinha Velha on the palate. Very rich, round and thrilling. Dense and pure. A bit of a schoolmaster in terms of straight back and firm structure. Very long, firm and thrilling – surely a long term bet with additional early charm, presumably from the exceptionally hot, dry vintage. 18 Drink 2035-70. Jancis Robinson MW OBE (www.jancisrobinson.com)

Going back and forth, the Taylor’s 2009 has a lighter nose than the 2007 with precise dark cherry, Seville orange, fresh fig and a hint of scorched soil. The palate is full-bodied packed with ripe black cherries, fresh fig and white pepper; very harmonious and focused although I feel that the 2007 has a little more depth and persistency. Very pretty and very pure, this Taylor’s may well put on weight with a couple of years in bottle and merit a higher mark. Tasted May 2011. 95 points. Neal Martin’s Wine Journal, erobertparker.com

2009 TAYLOR QUINTA DE VARGELLAS Vinha Velha£258 per case of 3 bottles excluding Vat (£268 In Bond)
Intense dark chestnut-crimson colour. Appetising, dry peppery nose. Very intense with quite a hot, alcoholic kick on the finish. Extremely dry and drying finish. Seems just very slightly skinny at the moment. 17 Drink 2025-45 Jancis Robinson MW OBE (www.jancisrobinson.com)

The Taylor Vargellas Vinha Velha 2009 has a more introverted than Taylor’s Vintage, an earthy bouquet with touches of orange essence developing in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, good backbone, quite reserved and composed at the moment. This is not a flamboyant Vinha Velha, but there is a very attractive, slightly biscuity quality towards the finish. Superb. Tasted May 2011. 94+ points. Neal Martin’s Wine Journal, erobertparker.com edit

2009 FONSECA£215 per case of 6 bottles excluding Vat (£195 In Bond)
Blackish purple. Heady, opulent nose – really very winning indeed already! But on the palate there seems to be just a slight hole in the middle, a lack of sheer fruit weight. Long and vibrato on the finish though until an extremely dry note on the very end. This reminds me of a fortified version of a 2003 right bank bordeaux. 17.5+ Drink 2030-50 Jancis Robinson MW OBE (www.jancisrobinson.com)

The Fonseca 2009 has a very ripe sweet prune and fig-tinged bouquet that is very precocious. Touches of smoke, raisin and dark plum begin to emerge with time, though it needs to evolve a little more cohesion. The palate is full-bodied with saturated tannins, luscious dark berried fruit, touches of pomegranate, fig and dates that lead to a gently grippy, persistent finish. This is a fine Fonseca, but I wanted it to give me more flamboyance and brio. Tasted May 2011. 93 points. Neal Martin’s Wine Journal, erobertparker.com edit

2009 WARRE£230 per case of 6 bottles excluding Vat (£210 In Bond)
‘2009 was a very challenging year in the Douro. Following three consecutive dry years, yields were incredibly low but of very high quality. Of the three principal Warre’s Quintas, two have cooler microclimates which enabled them to produce wines which were considered of Warre Vintage Port quality. This Vintage Port is, notwithstanding, cast in a classic mould, with the staying power for very long term ageing. 2009 marks the 200th Anniversary of the liberation of Oporto by the Anglo-Portuguese Army led by the Duke of Wellington. Captain William Warre was awarded the country’s highest military honour, the Order of São Bento d’Aviz, for his courageous efforts against the French Army. The Symington Family are only releasing 500 cases (6,000 bottles – each numbered) of this exceptional Vintage Port. Warre’s & the Symington Family are donating £48 for every case sold to the British Charity ‘Help for Heroes’, so that William Warre’s valiant efforts of 200 years ago continue to help today’s soldiers.’ Paul Symington

2009 NIEPOORT £210 per case of 6 bottles excluding Vat (£192 In Bond)
Massive in every way but so beautifully complete and integrated. More flesh than the tannic 2007 but the power and structure are all there; rich, sustained, mouthfilling and very long indeed. 18 Drink 2025-50 . Julia Harding, www.jancisrobinson.com

LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE – the Vintage alternative and immediately available.

2004 QUINTA DO NOVAL Late Bottled Vintage £213.00 per dozen bottles inclusive of Vat (£17.75 bottle)
Noval’s unfiltered Late Bottled Vintage is one of only a handful of LBVs that can justifiably carry the ‘Vintage’ title, and for the first time carries the full Quinta do Noval name (rather than just Noval). A captivating nose of sweet spice and tobacco, like a freshly opened tin of Balkan Sobrane. Youthful and delicious at this stage, packed with blackberry, elderflower and plummy fruit, and an alluring austerity on the very long and remarkably dry finish. This can undoubtedly be cellared for a good ten years or more, making it a fantastic bargain for those looking for an alternative to a vintage port.

The most recent release of Noval’s LBV, the 2004 has a primal bouquet with subtle aromas of blackberry, wild hedgerow, heather and a touch of liquorice. With further aeration it develops an engaging floral notes: more rose petal than violet. The palate is very well balanced with a seductive sense of purity with a very harmonious, dare I say, almost understated finish with touches of white pepper, dark cherry and tobacco. There is something austere that reminds me of a Claret, that dryness enhancing freshness and delineation. Wonderful. Drink 2013-2025+ Tasted October 2010. 93 points. Neal Martin’s Wine Journal, erobertparker.com

TERMS
Orders can be placed by email or with your local branch.
Payment must be made in full with order.
In Bond orders are subject to £15 handling and delivery (no charge for customers of Elephant storage)
The 2009 vintage ports will not be available for delivery until late 2011 or perhaps early 2012.

– Patrick Sandeman

We also have one of the most consistent of the Saint Juliens in Chateau Lagrange, and its absolute banker Fiefs de Lagrange. This second wine is one that is reasonably priced and can offer brilliant drinking from five years for another ten or more. As I say every year, buy lots, buy it in magnums for big parties, buy it in double magnums for fun, buy it in halves to cheer up any sad evening when you are on your own!

Other releases are Canon la Gaffeliere, La Tour Figeac, La Couspaude.

Climens has been released  – I did not taste this as I was unable to visit the Chateau, but a negociant friend says “For those who were unlucky enough not to have the time to visit the chateau and taste the wine out of barrel – this wil be truly memorable wine !” - as with all Sauternes from L&S this year there is no premium for half cases or for half bottles – treat yourself to a case of 12 halves?

Two ‘better value’ wines are also out this morning, Gloria, which has had rave reviews from all critics, will drink quite young but keep 10-15 years.

Every now and then market forces have strange effects. Who remembers that after Parker’s rave reviews of the 1998 right bank wines, Chateau Beauregard in Pomerol was released at a higher price than Leoville Barton? This year we have a reversal of left and right banks, with Gloria coming out slightly above the price of Chateau Moulin Saint Georges, Alain Vauthier’s excellent ‘wine trade secret’ wine, which is shown between the value buy Fonbel and the totally unbelievable Ausone, and yet manages to hold its head up high. ‘MSG’ is a comparative bargain and although I loved Gloria, I think I’d rather have Moulin Saint Georges in the cellar – but they are different beasts.

The Cathiards of Smith Haut Lafitte have decided to go for broke based on their rave reviews from Parker. Both colours of Domaine de Chevalier are made to look bargains this morning.

TAITTINGER remains an independently owned champagne house and still produces wonderfully fine wines, based upon 40% Chardonnay, which is about double that used by most houses. A great champagne for any occasion and one which undoubtedly improves with a year or so in the cellar.

RUINART, one of the oldest champagne houses, is part of the luxury brand group LVMH, but the wine making and style remains independent from their other brands, such as Moet and Veuve. Always very popular with our customers, especially when on special offer, with the exceptional Blanc de Blancs being the most in demand as one of the very best 100% Chardonnay champagnes in the market.

For those looking for a sparkling wine more suited to everyday drinking and closer in style to champagne than something like Prosecco, we draw your attention to the fabulous Jean Louis DENOIS ‘Methode Traditionelle’, a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Although we have been selling this for a number of years it is only of late that journalists such as Victoria Moore (Saturday Telegraph) has picked up on it, writing ‘ I would buy this by the crate  if I were getting married or throwing a party this summer’.

You can ORDER on-line or through your usual branch.

These champagne offers are valid until Saturday 2nd July 2011.

Alfred Tesseron’s remarkable Château Pontet Canet is a monument of a wine, and caps off a run of astonishing vintages here, which has seen the wines go from stolid and slightly boring as recently as ten years ago to be some of the most exciting in Bordeaux today, and to rival, and in some critics’ view to eclipse, the wines of its neighbour Mouton Rothschild. Organically produced, with famous experiments of horse ploughing in the vineyard, and in the winery the lastest technology has been employed to keep the handling of the grapes a simple and gentle as possible.

At the same time in Saint Julien, Didier Cuvelier has been leading the charge to the highest possible quality at Château Léoville Poyferré, and again the 2010 is the crowning glory of years of hard work. The resulting 2010 has been described as ‘one of the prodigious wines of the vintage’ by Robert Parker.

A huge number of wines were released yesterday and it is well worth looking at the list of recent releases, and my lists of recommendations – click the links in the menu to the right. I will be trying to use the quiet period of Vinexpo to say more about some of these wines which are in danger of being overlooked in the rush, but which can offer great value at lower price levels in a vintage as exciting as this. One very late release yesterday was Durfort Vivens: Gonzague Lurton is doing a great job here and if you read my note with Steven Spurrier’s (he rates it 18/20, remarking that it definitely merits its second growth status) you will get a picture of a wine in a style of unforced ‘natural’ flavour profile, which may be a bit too subtle for palates looking to be wowed by excessive early new oak (compare with notes from the other side of the drink). This comes recommended by me.

As it is after ten more releases yesterday and about twenty this morning, we also have Talbot – which I thought was showing the (positive) influence of consultant Stéphane Dérenencourt whose second vintage in charge this is, and is probably the best Talbot I have tatsed en primeur. Langoa Barton, which goes from strength to strength and is one of the great Saint Juliens in a slightly more approachable style than its very grand brother Léoville Barton. And we also have the release of Jonathan Maltus’ Le Dome and other single vineyards wines and finally, (which feels like the last straw!) Léoville Poyferré, which will be offered first to last year’s buyers but get you orders in. Please also refer to the recent releases page which we try to keep as up to date as possible.