Daniel Lambert Portfolio Tasting

By Benjamin Marshall - Dictionary of National Biography. Original is now owned by Leicestershire Museums and Art Galleries., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10847154

If, like me, Adrian Mole and Richard III, you have a connection to Leicester, you can't help knowing that Daniel Lambert was once Britain's fattest man.

He claimed neither to have eaten nor drunk to excess and to have been reasonably active, but with no other medical symptoms, history's verdict is that this was probably a fib and he was just a lazy porker.

Still, he clearly enjoyed the good life and was even something of a celebrity, charging people to experience his enormous bulk "in the flesh", so to speak.

This, however, is not the Daniel Lambert you are looking for. Unrelated to my childhood local hero, award-winning Daniel Lambert Wines was established around 30 years ago just off the M4 in south Wales.

A simple test of a wine merchant is to pick a few wines at random; if they are all good, then you've probably found a reliable one.

There was nothing I didn't like at this tasting; all the wines were at least Good, many much better than that.

De Saint-Gall my new favourite Champagne house - excellent NV and an astonishing Grand Cru 2004

Montgomery well-made red and white wines from Wales

Domaine Philippe Raimbault elegant and concentrated Loires; Pouilly Fume and Sancerre

Cave OEdoria supple and elegant Beaujolais

Burgundy lots of lovely, elegant reds at varying price points from Domaine de la Galopiere, Domaine Lamy Pillot, Domaine Jean Fery, Fournier ets Fils, Domaine Marchand Grillot

Bordeaux amazing mature Pessac-Leognan from Couhins-Lurton (white, 2015) and La Louviere (red, 2010), plus a superb 2015 Sauternes from Filhot.

Calmel & Joseph the Languedoc Malbec that first turned me on to Daniel Lambert

Cotes du Rhone supple, inky, spicy Rhones from Pasquiers, Les Hauts de Mercurol and Fourmone

Rioja youthful, fresh Rioja with some age from Pascual Larrieta

Canada fresh and elegant cool-climate wines from Westcott

Dom Brial possibly the highlight of the tasting, a collection of superb Rivesaltes including a Rancio Sec 2000, sweet Ambre 2010 and a series of wines from the last century that, like Mick Jagger, just seemed to get better with age: 1999, 1979 and - my favourite - 1969.