Oz Clarke recommends …
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Every year the inimitable Oz Clarke takes time out from his hectic schedule of projects, media appearances, wine region trips and tastings to work his way personally through thousands of wines sent to him by UK wine merchants. As ever, we are delighted to have several Society wines mentioned in the 2012 edition of Oz Clarke’s 250 Best Wines. Here are eight of our wines that found their way on to his palate and into his heart.
2010 Bordeaux Blanc, Château Bel Air Perponcher (Vignobles Despagne), Bordeaux, France, 12.5% abv The Wine Society, £8.50. At this price level, Bordeaux makes better whites than reds. In fact, it makes much better whites, especially in the hands of an expert like M. Despagne. This has a come-hither green apple and greengage flavour, just streaked with passionfruit and grapefruit, but the texture remains gentle while the flavours are unashamedly green.
2010 Garnacha, Calatayud, Cruz de Piedra (Bodega Virgen de la Sierra co-op), Aragón, Spain, 14% abv The Wine Society, £5.50 If anyone asks where to find the juiciest, chunkiest, most rip-roaring red wine mouthful in Europe, I tell them to look out for Garnacha from eastern Spain. This is a gorgeous drink, bubbling with red cherry and bright raspberry and strawberry fruit, scratched affectionately with wild herbs, rubbed solicitously with smooth, warm, hillside stones. Top glugging stuff.
2009 Shiraz-Viognier, Douglas Green, Western Cape, South Africa, 14% abv The Wine Society, £5.50 (NB we’re now on the 2010) I’m continually puzzled as to why we don’t see more examples of ripe, enjoyable, affordable reds from South Africa, so well done the Wine Society for sourcing this one, with its ripe blackberry and black plum fruit, its dab of exotic peach flesh, its trail of smoke and intriguing suggestion of orange scent.
2009 Tempranillo, Sabina, Navarra, Spain, 13% abv Booths, £5.25, The Wine Society, £4.95 (NB We’re now on the 2010) Navarra makes wines that stretch from the positively light and delicate to big brawny beasts. This is definitely towards the brawny end of the spectrum, but enjoyably so. It is a bit baked, but is balanced with attractive jammy dark fruit and a richness like Gale’s honey dribbled on to buttered toast. Bring on the casserole.
NV The Society’s Champagne Brut, Private Cuvée, Alfred Gratien, France, 12.5% abv The Wine Society, £26 I’m often asked who my favourite Champagne producer is, and if I had to average out the last 20 years, I might well put the small but perfectly formed house of Alfred Gratien at the top. They don’t make much, but they’ve had a long-standing agreement to make a special blend for the Wine Society, and year by year it delivers triumphantly. This is still young – you can age Alfred Gratien non-vintage for 5–10 years – but it has loads of class and character. The wine positively foams and has a warm, full flavour of baked Bramley apples wrapped in a richness of flaky butter croissants, crème fraîche and nut syrup. That may sound sweet, but it isn’t, and it’s all tied tightly together by the acidity of Bramley skins and twisted lemon zest.
Amontillado Maribel, Sánchez Romate, Spain, 19% abv?The Wine Society, £7.95 The quality of their Sherries alone would be an excellent reason to join the Wine Society. They regularly ship tiny amounts of thrilling old Sherries virtually drawn by hand from the barrels by their buying team. Last Christmas I tasted two simply stunning 40-year-old Sherries they had discovered – they only bottled 240 half bottles: such wine had never been sold before, it will never be sold again, but they’ll find something else just as good. This brilliant Amontillado is their regular stuff. It’s as classic an example as you’ll find anywhere – and it’s less than £8 a bottle. A gorgeous ‘childhood memories’ smell of buttered brazil caramels, the scent of old leather, dried-out figs and prunes, the ground dust of hazelnut shells and a strange, brilliant, bitter-edged syrupiness that has had all the sweetness sucked out of it by a Dyson Airblade.
The Society’s Fino, Sánchez Romate, Spain, 15% abv The Wine Society, £5.95 An excellent example of the Wine Society’s sherry – and simply outstanding value for money. Fino sherry is bone dry, but a little fuller than manzanilla, a little fatter, even, but it still has that marvellous tangy dryness which makes it such a good appetizer, that almost slightly sour green apple peel acidity and the strange soft-sourness of yeasty bread dough – rather like a malty mixed grain bread in the making. There’s also a taste of roasted almonds – and roasted almonds would be the perfect accompaniment.
