#France

Nov 28, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Château Puygueraud 2011, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux, France

£20.95 / £19.25, Lea & Sandeman The 2011 vintage in Bordeaux tends to be dismissed with faint praise – if that. Certainly, it was uneven and not a patch on 2009 or 2010, but some good wines were produced by the right people in the right place. Some very good. Step forward Château Puygueraud, made by Nicolas Thienpont in the tiny (by Bordeaux standards) northeastern appellation of Francs Côtes de Bordeaux (previously Côtes de Franc). The 2011 – Merlot with 20% Cabernet Franc a

Nov 21, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Réthoré Davy Parcelles Chardonnay 2018, Val de Loire, France

£10.35/£9.20, Haynes Hanson & Clark This is beautifully expressive, unoaked cool-climate Chardonnay – both vibrant and generous, with citrus, white blossom and fresh bay leaves on the nose and a textured palate suffused with quince, lemon and a briney, grapefruit-zest finish. It's from Christophe Réthoré's 42-hectare estate in the heart of the Pays des Mauges, an area between Muscadet to the west and Coteaux du Layon to the east, and it's a selection of his best parcels on sc

Nov 14, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Dominique Piron Morgon La Chanaise 2017, France

Waitrose, £14.99 Good Beaujolais can be so enjoyable on its own that even lifelong devotees don't always realise just how versatile the wines of the ten Crus are with food. These are the individual appellations clustered in the north of the region and made, like all Beaujolais, from Gamay but each with its own character and name – Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Brouilly, Régnié among them. The wines of Morgon, more or less at the centre of the ten, are some of the most power

Oct 25, 2019

Down in a deep, dark sea... Drappier Champagnes

Encrusted sea-aged Grande Sendrée 2008 and a pristine bottle conventionally matured in Drappier's Champagne cellars in the Aube Why age Champagne in the sea? It became clear when Michel Drappier held the first tasting to compare three of his Champagnes aged off the coast of Brittany with the same three cuvées aged in Drappier's cellars in Champagne. Looking over Champagne Drappier’s record of innovation since it re-introduced Pinot Noir to the Aube in the 1930s and in particu

Oct 17, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Joseph Perrier Cuvée Royale Brut Champagne, France

£34/£27, Tanners Wines I wasn't planning to do Champagne this week, but now is the time to stock up on this Joseph Perrier. The current tempting offer price of £27 when you buy two or more ends in 10 days' time on 28 October. I hadn't tasted Cuvée Royale for a while and was hugely impressed. It's vivacious and elegant yet generous, too, and beautifully balanced, with a floral note on the nose and lemon curd and toast on the palate. It's a more or less equal blend of the three

Oct 3, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Along Came Jones Lledoner Pelut Hairy Grenache 2018, Vin de France

£13.50–£16.99, The Wine Society, Flagship Wines, Fareham Wine Cellar, The Oxford Wine Company Domaine Jones is no stranger to my wine blogposts, so I'll concentrate on the wine, rather than tell Katie Jones's story again (which you can read here and here), but I will just say that she is an inspired, sensitive and meticulous winemaker specialising in wines made from plots of old vines around Tuchan in Languedoc-Roussillon. This wine is from a parcel of 70–80 year old vines an

Aug 29, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine de la Grosse Pierre Chiroubles 2018, France

£14.45, Haynes, Hanson & Clark Chiroubles is one of my favourite Beaujolais Crus (the 10 jewels in the Beaujolais crown that go under their own appellation names), but it’s never been one of the most popular in the UK. It’s one of the smaller Crus, admittedly, but I think the problem is more to do with pronunciation: the likes of Morgon and Fleurie look so much easier to say. Apart from being small (under 400 hectares), Chiroubles is the highest, has the highest proportion of

Aug 15, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine de la Cendrillon Nuance 2018, Vin de France

£12.80/£10.60, Tanners Wines This wonderfully original and delicious dry white is from a family-owned and run organic estate in Corbières that has been in the family since 1750 (I love that kind of continuity). Although it’s in the Corbières region, the wine bears the simple classification Vin de France because it’s made from an array of grape varieties, including several non-traditional: Petit Manseng from southwest France, one of my favourite white grapes, out in front at 3

Jul 18, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Bassac Pink Chôt 2018, Côtes de Thongue, France

£12/£10.80, The Daily Drinker Who can resist a wine this colour? The prettiest of orangey salmon-pinks, and a mouthwatering taste to match: a peal of spice, apricot and redcurrant-cum-raspberry, a supple, generous feel and fresh, citrusy finish. It’s made from Grenache by Domaine Bassac, an 80-ha family-owned and run organic estate in Côtes de Thongue, an IGP (the replacement designation for Vins de Pays) in Languedoc centred on the Thongue river valley between Béziers and Pé

Jul 11, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Yannick Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye 2017, Bourgueil, France

£16.95/£14.95 Lea & Sandeman Bourgueil is made from a grape variety that, until recently, the rest of the world regarded as little more than a minor player, a support act for Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Merlot in blends. Now Cabernet Franc is right up there with the grape fashionistas, used as a solo star by winemakers as far afield as Chile and Argentina, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Languedoc and appreciated in these warmer climates for the leafy freshness and spicy

Jul 4, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Le Domaine d'Henri Chablis Saint Pierre 2016, Chablis, France

£24.50, Berry Bros & Rudd Considering that Chablis is one of my desert-island wines (on my increasingly chocca island) I’m astonished to find that this is the first to occupy the Wine of the Week slot in nearly four years. I could, of course, have found a cheaper one to recommend, but Le Domaine d’Henri’s Saint Pierre is, to me, the quintessence of Chablis – an exhilarating oyster-shell freshness and flavour, a savoury nuttiness that owes almost everything to Chardonnay and l

Jul 3, 2019

Bruno Paillard's zero-dosage Champagne comes of age

D : Z is one of two new launches for Champagne Bruno Paillard. The other is the 2009 Assemblage, a vintage that Alice Paillard admits isn't an obvious choice for a house that has built its reputation on elegance in an uncompromisingly dry style. Making a non-dosage Champagne, i.e. without sugar added after disgorgement, is never easy. In fact, decades ago Bruno Paillard – the only man, incidentally, who has a Champagne house in his own name because he created it – experimente

Jun 26, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Finest Saint-Chinian 2017, Saint-Chinian, Languedoc, France

£7.50, Tesco I’ve got a soft spot for Saint-Chinian, Minervois’ less well-known northeast neighbour, and always look for it on restaurant wine lists (usually in vain, it has to be said) and if I need to grab an impromptu bottle of red in a wine shop or supermarket. It’s usually good value, whether cheap like this or a more expensive single-estate wine, but more important is its characteristic flavour: sometimes intensely stony and savoury, sometimes more obviously fruity and

Jun 6, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Louis Latour Pinot Noir Les Pierres Dorées 2017, Coteaux Bourguignons, France

£17.89, TheDrinkShop.com This Burgundian Pinot Noir is both unusual and classic. Classic because it has the sweet, delicately spicy, red-cherry fruit, forest-floor, earth-fresh mineral notes and fine texture of a Burgundian Pinot Noir. Unusual because it's from 18 hectares of vineyard in the Beaujolais region – not in the north among the famous granite and schist soils of Crus such as Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon and Saint-Amour, but in the south, source of simple Beaujolais. What b

May 30, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Plaimont Les Vignes Retrouvées 2016, Saint Mont, France

£8.95, The Wine Society Mouthwatering, juicy quince, apricot and citrus fruit, supple texture and zingy acidity – the latest vintage to be released of an old favourite from one of France’s least well-known appellations, Saint Mont in Gascony, southwest France. Here the admirable quality-focused Plaimont co-operative specialises in rediscovering and restoring production of old, indigenous grape varieties, both red and white – in this case white Gros Manseng, Petit Courbu and A

Apr 17, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine de Fa Fleurie 2016, Fleurie, France

£22, Yapp Brothers Aside from its pretty and easy-to-pronounce name, it's not always obvious why Fleurie should be so much more popular than some of the other Beaujolais Crus (the top ten appellations of the region). Wines like Domaine de Fa are the reason – jewel-bright transparent colour, drifting, blossomy fragrance, red-berry fruit, earth-after-rain mineral freshness and gossamer-fine tannins that give structure to the light body. It's the first release from Antoine and M

Apr 10, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaine Laborie 2018, Pays d'Oc France

£6.25, The Wine Society If you want to splash out on a red to line up for Easter, let me suggest Château Batailley 2009, Pauillac, which is pretty well perfection already but will go on for years (£50, The Wine Society – I assume you're a member: if not why not?). If you want a conspicuous bargain instead, or as well, to assuage your guilt at splashing the cash on the Batailley (photo below to tempt you), this juicy, ripe, unoaked blend of Grenache, Carignan and Syrah from La

Apr 4, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Château Pierre-Bise Clos de Coulaine Savennières 2016, Loire France

£20.50/£18.50, Lea & Sandeman Savennières from a favoured vintage and good producer is an absolute treasure – dry and mineral, yet honeyed, especially after a couple of years' age, and always carried by pivotal acidity. The appellation is just west of Angers on schist hills on the north bank of the Loire and 2016 was a year in which frost wreaked havoc, but for the vineyards that were spared it closed on a high with a sunny, warm late summer. The result is intensity of flavou

Mar 14, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Léon Beyer Réserve Personnelle Pinot Noir 2015, Alsace, France

£17.25, Yapp Brothers Alsace is renowned for aromatic whites and sparkling wines, but its Pinot Noir reds are also worth keeping tabs on. In cooler years – and we're getting fewer of those – they're better used in the sparkling Crémants (white and rosé) but, in a summer like 2015, producers of the calibre of Léon Beyer make compelling red wines. The Réserve Personelle is very pale, as only Pinot Noir can be, and has delicate but mouthwatering ripe red fruit and hedgerow berry

Jan 21, 2019

6 ready to drink white Burgundies from The Wine Society

Eyes and palates have been focused on the 2017 white Burgundies being offered en primeur this month, and it's an excellent vintage in decent quantities, but it'll be a while before most are shipped, so I've tasted half a dozen of the The Wine Society's current wines, four 2016s and a Meursault from each of 2014 and 2013. Stored well, they can be drunk any time over the next fours years, or in the case of the Coche-Bizouard Premier Cru Meursault six or even seven years. Domain