The Final d'Arry's Tasting Event - Competition Winners' Evening

A collection of photos taken by Jean-Luc Benazet at the Competition Winners' evening at Cambridge gastropub d'Arry's, earlier this week.

The competition was run by Cambridgeshire Journal with a first prize of free tickets to the event plus a d'Arry's Cambridge case of d'Arenberg wines, with runners-up prizes of a pair of tickets for entry.

Also present was Judith Gaskill who runs Cambridge PR and does d'Arry's PR.

Yours truly holding forth

Demonstrating the basics of tasting

Cheese boards to accompany the wines

Enthusiastic sniffing and swirling

Getting the hang of it now

d'Arry's from the outside

First prize includes a d'Arry's Cambridge case

Fish-eye effect; nice

For more on the d'Arry's events, see here and here.

For my review of d'Arry's, see here.

Links

d'Arry's - http://www.darrys.co.uk/
d'Arenberg - http://www.darenberg.com.au/
Jean-Luc Benazet photography - http://www.jeanlucbenazet.com/
Cambridgeshire Journal - http://www.style-magazine.com/cambridgeshire_journal/home.asp
Cambridge PR - http://www.cambridgepr.biz/

En Primeur Rhone Tasting With Cambridge Wine Merchants at St John's Chop House

Earlier this week, I was invited to a Rhône en primeur tasting by Stewart Travers, Senior Buyer for Cambridge Wine Merchants, held at the St John's Chop House which I have previously reviewed here.

When one thinks of en primeur (buying wine ahead of commercial bottling), First Growth Bordeaux is usually what springs to mind and indeed, Bordeaux represents around 90% of the market.

However, there are en primeur offerings of top wines from Burgundy and California as well as the Rhône.

With 35 wines to get through, most of them young, red and grippy, it was quite hard work and half-way through I had to pause for a thorough palate sluicing and refresh before continuing.

Most of the attendees were college buyers looking to buy stocks at favourable prices to lay down in cellars for years if not decades, for in a gently-but-steadily rising market and with enough up-front capital and storage space, you could easily plan to sell half what you originally buy at a later date and cover the entire cost with the proceeds.

The hand-out with the wines informed me that 2010 was a very good vintage with lower alcohol levels, more acidity and Grenache yields down, meaning generally more of the more-tannic varieties in the blends.

Prices are quoted "IBD per case of 12" - to get to a retail price, add £22 duty then divide by 10 (this is mathematically equivalent to diving by 12 and then adding 20% VAT).

This gives you a per-bottle price assuming you buy a case - single bottles sold off the shelves will be more expensive.

It is worth noting that given the colleges' volume and buying power, these wines are probably cheaper at Cambridge Wine Merchants than elsewhere - see here for their en primeur selections.

White wines

The Luberon Blanc, Perrin & Fils was aromatic and fruity on the nose, with minerality, a soft texture, balance and length - good value at £36.

If you're still struggling with the en primeur maths, that's around £4.80 per bottle for a case or around £5.99 on the shelf.

The Cotes du Rhône Samorens, Ferraton Pere & Fils (£45) was crisper with more minerality.

The Saint Peray Le Mialan, Ferraton Pere & Fils (£84) had more weighty structure and minerality on the finish.

The progression of these three wines was fascinating with the cheapest showing the most aromatic, up-front fruit on the nose that we have all come to love whilst the more expensive wines showed progressively more weight and texture on the palate and greater length on the finish.

A Condrieu at £200 showed honeysuckle aromas, a peachy texture and a hint of something like warm toastiness; I really tried to see why it should be more than double the price of the previous wine, but failed - would I pay £22 a bottle for this wine ? I don't think so.

Rosé wines

A Cotes du Rhone Samorens, Ferraton Pere & Fils (£45) was very pale and more of a crisp white with a bit of colour, and had good minerality and linear structure.

By contrast, a Tavel, Domaine de la Rocaliere (£65) was the colour of diluted Ribena and had a "Pinot-esque" nose and a fuller if softer and gentler texture with a more minerally finish.

Southern Rhône reds

Perhaps it's not surprise that, in an en primeur tasting of cool-vintage red wines, the word grippy comes up in my notes a lot. Moreover, I arrived at the start of the tasting so the bottles had only recently been opened.

Looking back, there are certain themes that come across in the wines - balanced grippiness, cool mintiness, elderberry fruit, inky texture and rounded tannins being the best aspects.

For me, the most enjoyable wines (for drinking now-ish rather than for laying down) were those that showed in particular rounded tannins with a dense inky texture and good fruit with the addition of something more secondary and interesting such as vegetal aromas or cool mintiness.

Other wines might potentially do better over the course of, say, 10 - 20 years, but for me the key criterion was wines for drinking in the next few years, albeit perhaps with a few hours in the decanter.

These then, are the wines that stood out:

The Cotes du Rhône Antimagnes Rouge, Domaine Escaravailles (£65) had a blackcurranty, vegetal nose, a dense, grippy and mouthfilling texture with blackcurrant fruit and cool mint.

The Cotes du Rhône Villages from Mas de Boislauzon (£72) was very dark in the glass with a minty, eucalyptus nose, very soft and plump on the palate with a grippy finish.

The Lirac Rouge "Ikebana", Domaine de la Rocaliere (£105) was very dark in the glass with dark cherry fruit and a vegetal nose, a lovely inky texture, mintiness on the palate, soft and smooth with a nicely grippy finish - balanced and rounded.

The Lirac Rouge "Dentelle Noir" also from Domaine de La Rocaliere (£105) had a complex minty nose with lots of dark fruit, cool mint and rounded but grippy tannins on the finish; it felt like a step-up from the previous wine.

The Cairenne Ventabren from Domaine Escaravailles (£82) was paler in the glass with a more vegetal nose, more pruney fruit on the palate and overall felt less tannically challenging - very well balanced and perhaps a wine for slightly earlier drinking.

The Vacqueryras Domaine Saint Pierre (£102) showed complex dark berries, liquorice and cool mint; the texture is lovely in a soft-yet-mouthfilling way with pleasant grip.

The Rasteau Vielles Vignes, Domaine Grand Nicolet (£80) had a vegetal nose of dark cherries and again a lovely soft-yet-grippy texture.

The Roaix Hautes Granges, Domaine Escaravailles (£115) was dark in the glass with dark cherry fruit, prunes, dark spices, liquorice and vanilla; a lovely mouthfilling texture, balanced grip and cool mint.

The Chateauneuf du Pape, Domaine de Farguerol (£129) felt gentler with balanced prune, cherry, liquorice and cool mint - an easier-drinking wine.

The Chateauneuf du Pape, Mas De Boislauzon (£209) had more prune and spice and was significantly more expensive, but showed a superior tannic structure.

The next two wines shoot up the pricing scale, so it's no surprise that they were very good - both showed a soft ripeness that makes them suitable for drinking now.

The Chateauneuf du Pape, Domaine de Villeneuve (£240) was vegetal with dark cherries and had a lovely texture with blackcurranty fruit and soft, harmonious ripeness, well-integrated tannins and good fruit.

The Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de Quet, Mas De Boislauzon (£550), a GSM blend from 60 year-old vines, had a very vegetal nose, dark cherries, elderberry fruit and cool mint. The palate is soft and mouthfilling, with a balanced tannic structure and a huge finish where the vegetal aromas make a re-appearance.

Expensive with lots of ripe fruit and rounded tannins, perhaps it's no surprise that this one is well-liked by US critic Robert Parker.

Northern Rhône reds

A pair of Crozes Hermitage from Ferraton Pere et Fils - La Matiniere (£79) and Les Picheres (£110) - showed surprisingly well after the previous wine (at £550, 5+ times the price).

The Crozes Hermitage "Le Rouvre", Yann Chave (£142) had a vegetal nose, elderberry fruit, prominent cool mint and a balanced soft texture.

Again, the last two wines in this section were significantly more expensive than the earlier bottles.

The Cote Rotie "La Germine", Benjamin and David Duclaux (£291) had a floral, fragrant nose of violets and a soft, peachy texture with good tannins, pepperiness and some eucalyptus.

The Hermitage, Yann Chave (£422) showed elderberry and eucalyptus on the nose, with a complex, soft-yet-grippy texture and felt balanced and well-integrated.

xxx---xxx

After the formal tasting, I sat down to a roast beef dinner courtesy of the St John's Chop House and chewed the fat (not literally, the meat was lovely) with CWM owner Hal Wilson on the "Chinese effect" on 2010 en primeur Bordeaux and also caught up with Lyndsey Spellman, one of CWM's directors on the need for business admin and how young graduates looking for work in the wine trade all talk about their passion for wine and visiting vineyards, but are surprisingly reticent on the subject of making sales to punters or running a profitable business.

Over lunch, we tasted four wines that had arrived too late to make it into the en primeur tasting and sampled in their "proper setting" of a meal, these all showed excellently and matched well with the food.

xxx---xxx

This was the most technically challenging tasting I have been to so far - and therefore a great experience - with its focus on young, tannic reds from a single region and vintage.

The Rhone is not an area I know particularly well as my early wine education was based on good, plentiful but inexpensive Bordeaux from French supermarkets and so for well-structured, mouthfilling French reds, I usually look to Bordeaux.

What I have found with Rhône reds, however, is a very different tannic structure which shows as a dense, mouthfilling inkiness and which I find I do rather like.

Recommended wines

With such a wide range of prices from pretty much "everyday drinking" to "rich Uncle's indulgence" and nary a disappointing wine on show, it is very difficult to pick out a single wine to recommend.

Moreover, these are very young wines and will continue to develop for many years yet.

Fellow Cambridge wine blogger, Davy Kurniawian who also came along to the event recommends Domaine de Escaravailles and Mas de Boislauzon generally.

My personal recommedation for a good Rhône wine from Cambridge Wine Merchants is a de-classified Cornas from Jean-Luc Colombo that I reviewed for my September Wine of the Month column.

It did not award it the Wine of the Month simply because, being young, it does not show well straight out of the bottle and needs a a good couple of hours in the decanter to open up and soften out (or a couple of years in bottle). However, with a bit of air, it really is a lovely wine and I have since been looking for a forum to give it the acclaim I feel it merits.

Les Collines De Laure, Syrah, Collines Rhodaniennes, 2009, Jean-Luc Colombo, £9.99 Cambridge Wine Merchants

Links

Cambridge Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.com/
St John's Chop House - http://www.stjohnschophouse.co.uk/

Davy's review of the tasting - http://vinoremus.blogspot.com/2011/11/cwm-rhone-2010-en-primeur.html
My review of the Jean-Luc Colombo - http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.com/2011/09/wine-of-month-september.html

Main image credit: http://www.sevierwines.com/images/vineyards-rhone.gif

The Launch of Barry James Wines

At the Boutique Wineries event in London earlier this year, I was very impressed with a Marcel Deiss Nature presented by Barry McCaughley.

We exchanged business cards and arranged to keep in touch, but the opportunity to chat in more depth came sooner than I had expected as he shortly invited me to meet up and talk about his new venture, Barry James Wines.

As a result of a minor sports injury, the meeting took place in a chic, post-modern flat in Bermondsey as Barry (pictured, right) hobbled around on crutches picking out wines to try and I warmed to him increasingly when he suggested we try some wine first from his Barry James range and before getting down to business.

Franciacorta Extra Brut

Most fizz - with the possible exception perhaps of Prosecco - is defined by its relationship to Champagne whose crisp apple acidity and yeasty brioche aromas and whose pricing set the benchmark for this category.

I had never heard of Franciacorta until I recently learned it was the sponsor for this year's European Wine Bloggers' Conference in Brescia, but it is perhaps set to become the Next Big Thing for fizz as it uses Champagne grapes and methods and has a cool climate with chalky soils.

This wine spends 48 months on it lees and is a golden colour in the glass. It has a fine mousse and a yeasty, Pinot-esque nose (although it is actually 100% Chardonnay).

On the palate, there is citrus and orange blossom, a creamy texture and some vanilla but more than that, it has a cool climate food-friendliness and is very lovely.

Wineaux

Originally a recruitment consultant in the city, Barry has a blue-chip, high-flyer background, but decided that corporate life was not for him and is now something of a serial entrepreneur in the wine trade.

He describes the "career" phase of his life as great training for what he is doing now as that is where he learnt all his commercial and business skills - clearly as well as the tenacity and people skills needed to succeed in the recruitment business.

Eight years ago, he set up Wineaux as an internet-only wine retailer and it bobbed along reasonably for several years until a transformational contract to supply all of Mitchells and Butlers with a certain Prosecco took it from a 5-figure outfit to a multi-million pound business.

Doro Princic Collio Pinot Blanc

Pinot Blanc may be considered the least of all the Pinot varieties, but I rather like its focused crispness and the way it gains weightiness over time.

Barry's story for this wine, which hails from the hilly Italian borderland near Slovenia is that 85% of the wine is sold on the doorstep by the winery owner, the eponymous Doro Princic himself, who is best described as "a character", alternately refusing to sell any wine to passers by and then offering a lavish spread of food prepared by Senora Princic.

The winemaking sticks close to "natural" principles - it is unfiltered and made from free-run juice fermented in tank and apparently Jean-Marc Deiss of Marcel Deiss rates this wine very highly, which is praise indeed.

And it is somewhat Alsatian in style, with white stone fruit, crisp apples and pears, and then with air progressively beeswax, flintiness and a floral softness.

Resampled at home a few days later at room temperature on a chilly late autumn day, the nose shows hints of elderflower, cooking apples, flintiness and beeswax.

It feels fuller on the palate, with rounded, mouthwatering, pear-fruit acidity, a touch of lemoniness and a greater savoury depth of flavour.

On the finish, there .are more apples and pears but predominently a persistent minerality.

Match with raw langoustines or sushi.

XV

If Wineaux has a broad-market approach, XV is Barry's more exclusive offering; the concept is simple - a word-of-mouth-only club of never more than 100 customers who get the opportunity to buy wines available only in very limited quantities.

It is no mere gimmick, but rather a practical solution to the problem of occasionally coming across a really interesting wine that is not available in sufficient quantities to allow it to be put on the Wineaux site.

Overheads for XV are low as the wine is not actively marketed or put on a website, but merely offered with a brief description to XV members who have to rely on Barry's palate as a guide.

Moreover, sourcing piggy-backs off the back of Barry's winery visits for Wineaux, so there are no incremental costs, meaning lower prices for XV club members, a bit of extra income for the business and an opportunity for winemakers to sell their more limited-availability wines to a regular buyer.

Ellio Offin, Fumin

After considering but rejecting a clutch of crowd-pleasing wines grown by the Benetton family, owners of the eponymous fashion hose perhaps more for tax reasons than oenological ones, Barry opened up a Fumin from the Valle d'Aoste.

Not to be confused either with Fumé Blanc or Furmint, this is a red wine made by Ellio Offin that is unfiltered and organic in all but name.

With a slightly funky nose and cherry fruit, it is a crowd-pleasing easy quaffer that you could happily drink all day.

The tannins are soft and it has a smooth texture with rounded acidity that comes from phenolic ripeness.

Barry James Wines

Whilst Barry is a serial entrepreneur, all his businesses are fundamentally the same filling, just in different wrappers.

Wineaux gives him volume whilst XV is an outlet for wines that would be uneconomic to sell via his website; Barry James Wines is his B2B offering aimed at mid-sized, multi-site retailers such as independents and small chains.

If most people go into the wine business because they love wine, it takes someone with a corporate background to address the rather duller, but perhaps more significant issues around inherent inefficiencies in the industry such as logistics and supply-chain management.

This then is the world of pragmatic business-people who like wine, rather than poets, dreamers and lushes who think running a business can't be all that difficult and for whom "being commercial" is a derogatory statement.

In short, with Italian distributor Cuzziol as a backer, Barry James has set up a central logistics hub in Treviso where orders for over 400 Italian wines can be put together and then delivered straight to customers without any UK middle-men or warehousing facilities.

Obviously there is an element of fixed, minimum cost to freighting goods from Italy to the UK but as Barry explains, there are no middlemen, no minimum orders and the premium Italian wines we sell come directly from the producers who are vested in the business themselves.

If the idea is, in its own way, quite revolutionary, by-passing the whole importer and distributor network at a stroke, it is also part of a growing trend of looking at the wine business model and finding ways to improve and streamline the business side without having an adverse effect on the production side.

For that reason alone, it deserves to succeed, but it also helps that the wines are rather good, too.

Links

Barry James Wines - http://www.barryjameswines.com/
Wineaux - http://www.wineaux.co.uk/

Pioneer Range Bordeaux Rouge, 2009‏ - Avery's

From a small, family-owned right-bank estate, this Avery's Pioneer Range Bordeaux from 2009 is mainly Merlot with around a third Cabernet Franc and just a touch of the more-noble Cabernet Sauvignon.

Made by the Andouin family on a small, 13-hectare domaine in Vérac near St Emilion - apparently on a sun-drenched hillside and plateau - for some reason, it carries a only humble AOC Bordeaux tag.

The back label tells me that the Pioneer range "was launched to highlight the type of wines that initially excited John Avery MW when he started in the wine trade".

As it's still relatively young, I pour it into the decanter shortly before dinner and on the nose, there is immediately cassis, cedary pine resin and something rather cooked, like overbaked blueberries

This baked, blueberry aroma becomes more prominent with more air over dinner and I find myself increasingly wishing it were not there.

On the palate the acidity is juicy and there is good cassis and brambly fruit, with reasonable if somewhat unimpressive texture.

For me the problems come with the finish where the tannins feel dry and unbalanced; this gives the impression of an Old-World wine trying to go all New World, with 14% alcohol, and not really succeeding. I can't help feeling that this is where the problem lies - with less alcohol, the texture and tannins could all be better and the wine more balanced as a result.

I'm rather surprised to read on the back the description "balance and finesse to the finish" as this is precisely where I feel it is lacking.

Overall, this is not a bad wine and such faults as it has are, in one sense, relatively minor; you might easily try this wine and say "Ooh, that's quite nice", given that it is generally well-made.

However, for me, it is noticeably overcooked and unbalanced and that makes it one that I personally would not go back to again.

Although it is not disclosed anywhere on the wine label - or indeed anywhere obvious, if at all on the website - Avery's wines are actually supplied by Uncle Tony Laithwaite of Direct Wines (aka Laithwaites), whose wines I have rather fallen out of love with these days.

That said, this wine is also being promoted by the Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux campaign (here).

Fellow Cambridge Wine Blogger Davy Kurniawian broadly agrees with my assessment, but is perhaps a little more positive - or just forgiving - on his blog Vinoremus.

For more on why I dislike Laithwaites, see here.

£8.99 from Avery's - provided for review.

Links

Avery's - http://www.averys.com/
Laithwaites - http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/
Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux - http://www.goodfoodwouldchoosebordeaux.com/

Château Fourcas-Dumont 2007 Listrac-Médoc - Majestic

Wedged between the great communes of St-Julien and Margaux, Listrac-Médoc produces not a single classed growth and its distance from the beneficial effect of the Garonne river means that its wines are not as highly-rated as those of the other appellations.

It is, however, a solid producer of middle-ranking Bordeaux which can be had for more sensible prices than First Growths and this Château Fourcas-Dumont 2007 Listrac-Médoc has a gold medal from the Bordeaux Concours Generale 2009.

In my First Edition World Atlas of Wine, Hugh Johnson describes the Central Médoc as the bridge passage of the Médoc where "great wines are rarely made, but there is a steady flow of excellent wine for - what shall we call ourselves ? The Middle Classes ?"

Unusually for a left-bank wine, the blend is Merlot dominated at 50% with just 40% Cab plus 10% Petit Verdot, which perhaps makes it suitable for earlier drinking, but it is still quite young at four years and has plenty more aging potential.

I first reviewed this wine at the 2010 Fine Wine Fair and, on this occasion, I open it and leave in the decanter for several hours; even straight from the bottle, it has a wonderfully focused, cedary nose with undertones of something rather earthier, with dark spice and liquorice, but also hints of a tannic structure that needs some aeration.

With air, the texture becomes wonderfully smooth, velvety and rounded and to me, this is a what a good Bordeaux is all about - anyone wishing to see what all the fuss is about could do much worse than start here, as it's relatively inexpensive and enjoyable without needing huge amounts of cellaring or being too challenging.

Once it has had time to open up, there is good dark fruit and cedary aromas, lovely acidity, great balance; the tannins are fine and silky and there is a touch of sweet blackcurranty fruit, with earthier notes of truffles and leather.

It's not a wine that immediately grabs your attention with excesses of New-World-style fruit, but rather impresses through texture and a sophisticated finesse and is all the more enjoyable for it.

It also goes superbly with food and matches well with slow-roast chicken or, even better, roast beef.

£12.99 from Majestic (before discounts); provided for review.

Links

Majestic - http://www.majestic.co.uk/

Cognac Frapin

Made from the generally unimpressive Ugni Blanc grape, Cognac exists as the result of a happy accident when immigrant seamen from Britain stopped off in Charente and began "burning" the wine into a spirit.

With a mellowness that comes from aging in oak, the quality of the brandy itself depends, like Champagne, on the chalk content of the soil - hence the overlap of names.

These three examples are all from Cognac Frapin which has been produced by the same family on the Chateau de Fontpinot estate in the Grande Champagne region of Cognac for 20 generations.

Cognac Frapin VS

Titled as a Premier Grand Cru, it has a sweet, complex nose of cooked fruits; on the palate, there is more sweet, cooked fruit, with hints of caramel and coffee, wood-spice aromatics such as vanilla and a toasty-nuttiness as well as a racy acidity and a smooth, balanced and persistent finish.

Cognac Frapin VSOP

A cuvee rare, this has a more complex, less fruited nose, the palate is weightier and more oily, with much greater mellowness.

Less fruit driven and with more elusive, dark, wood-spice aromas, it has an incredible mouthfeel that just goes on and on.

Apparently, this cognac won the Gold Medal in its category at the World Spirit Competition 2001 in San Francisc and at the Prodexpo Wine Fair in Moscow in 2003.

Domaine Chateau de Fontpinot, Cognac XO

Labelled as a Grande Champagne, single estate, Premier Grand Cru, this has a complex nose of woody aromatics with a streak of vanilla sweetness.

Given its age, there remains little fruit on the palate, but more of the intense, cedary, cigar box wood-spice lifted by a refreshing acidity.

The palate is weighty, but not oily and supremely smooth with a mellow finish.

Elegant and refined, it is impressive for its subtle finesse and aged mellowness.

Match with the dark, bitter chocolate, coffee and perhaps a cigar.

According to the website, this cognac won the trophy in the XO category at the International Spirits Challenge in London in 1997 and Best of the Year at the Wine Enthusiast in 2004 in the USA.

Recommended wine

These are all excellent Cognacs and the only factor in choosing really is the age, your budget and the grandness of the occasion.

Available from McKinley Vintners; provided for review.

The VS and VSOP are also available at Bacchanalia, Cambridge.

Links

Cognac Frapin - http://www.cognac-frapin.com/
McKinley Vintners - http://www.mckinleyvintners.co.uk/
Bacchanalia - http://www.winegod.co.uk/

Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages 2010‏

Beaujolais is perhaps in perception terms the red-wine equivalent of Sherry, a wine considered rather passé in the popular consciousness - a bit 70s - and in need of rehabilitation.

Like Sherry, Beaujolais is also rather misunderstood and unfairly maligned, suffering serious image problems created more by marketing people than by the wine makers themselves.

Just as a simple word association game with Sherry will inevitably bring up maiden aunts and vicars, so Beaujolais is forever associated with Beaujolais nouveau which Oz Clarke adroitly describes as "once a simple celebration of the new vintage, then overhyped".

So if Sherry is becoming hip again, can Beaujolais ?

Well, based on the strength of this Louis Jadot Combes Aux Jacques Beaujolais-Villages, there's no reason why it shouldn't.

Based in the rolling, mainly granite hills of southern Burgundy, Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape which is something of a poor man's Pinot Noir - it has Pinot's cherry fruit, softness and lightness, but also, when well-made a versatile food-friendliness that suits the local game-based cuisine.

Unlike Pinot, however, it is not a wine made for aging and, the nonsense of Beaujolais noveau aside, is best drunk relatively young.

Opening the bottle a couple of hours before dinner, I leave it to get some air in a decanter to let the acidity develop - sampled on first opening, it feels rather thin and underwhelming. 

We don't chill the wine as such, but even when served over dinner, it still has some coolness from storage under the stairs; it is ruby purple in the glass with aromas of cherries and hints of savoury liquorice on the nose. The palate shows more simple cherry fruit, lovely, juicy-yet-rounded food-friendly acidity and a savoury finish with only the merest grip.

Elegant and balanced, it is a lovely, straightforward wine - a quaffer or a good accompaniment to light autumnal game dishes such as cured duck breast or venison terrine.

It is thoroughly classical so those brought up on New World-style wines with lots of up-front fruit and varied aromas may - incorrectly - find it initially elusive or underwhelming.

With the right amount of air, however, it is a very lovely wine - one to fall quietly in love with rather than be flashily impressed by - and a textbook example of what a great Beaujolais should be like.

£9.49 from Tesco, Waitrose, Budgens, Nisa Today's, Spar, Booths, Matthew Clark, www.yourfavouritewines.com

Provided for review.

Links

Louis Jadot - http://www.louisjadot.com/
Tesco - http://www.tesco.com/wine/
Waitrose - http://www.waitrosewine.com/
Budgens - http://www.budgens.co.uk/
Nisa Today's - http://www.nisa-todays.com/
Spar - http://www.spar.co.uk/
Booths - http://www.booths.co.uk/
Matthew Clark- http://www.matthewclark.co.uk/
http://www.yourfavouritewines.com/