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p34
 'Baaah!' And 'humbug!' I was distressed to learn the other day that the
average spend on a bottle of wine is £4.29. Tiny Tim's pocket money! I'm disappointed in
you. Very disappointed indeed. To make amends, you can indulge my playing the Ghost of
Christmas Presents and, for the price of fourpints-of-lager-and-a-packet-of-crisps, we'll
find something that'll get a plump, festive bird going down a treat.
Clissold Wines have Campo Viejo Gran Reserva 1993 on special at £8.99 - that's about,
let's see, getting on for £3.29 less than it is elsewhere, so it's only costing you a
quid (maths check, please, ed). Although it's spent three years in oak, it's a relatively
modern style of Rioja so the silky vanilla is nicely balanced with the rotting
berry-fruits and chocolate. It's quite Rhone-like, in fact, which shouldn't be a surprise
as it probably has quite a bit Of Grenache (Gamacha to the Spanish) in it. Rioja never
needs decanting, but it'll be even better if you pour into a jug and back into the bottle
a couple of hours before drinking.
The estimable Murphy also has, at £12.99, Domaine Font de Michelle Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1997. Don't panic - I've seen it at £15 elsewhere, so you're 20 per cent to the good
already. Yes, it's young but it's a ripe, forward-drinking, mouth-filling style with
excellent length - time yourself on how long the melting tannins and pepper-and-spice
flavours of black olives and cooked cherries stay in your mouth. Henry Pelle's excellent
Sancerre La Croix au Garde 2000, at £8.99, will refresh you when you finish shucking your
oysters. Very pale, but with good glycerol to give it body, it's all about freshness and
tingling acidity - think green apples and gooseberries and, again, notice the length of
the flavours.
 A century
ago, Savennieres was among the world's most expensive wines, selling for more than
Montrachet - this will comfort you when you spend £8.99 on a bottle of Chateau de
Varennes 1999 at Oddbins. Made from Chenin Blanc, it's silky, golden in colour and quite
different from the dry Loire whites we're used to. If the Sancerre is a Granny Smith, this
is the whole tarte aux pommes, creme fraiche and all. Slightly smoky and creamy in
character, this has a close family resemblance to the great sweet wines of the Loire,
although it's fully dry. Don't use it for the gravy.
When you spend £4.29, you're usually best provided for in the New World, but for a few
dollars more (a ten-spot, to be exact) at Oddbins you can try Tyrrell's Brokenback Hunter
Valley Shiraz 1998 from Australia and find out what Oz Clarke is always blathering on
about. This is a darkly concentrated, richly spicy affair of stewed plums with great body
and length - gazing at the legs roll down the inside of the glass is a pleasant enough
postprandial pastime. It has that slightly farmyardy, rottinghay aroma which I prefer to
the harsh medicinal edge of much New World Shiraz, and it's a match for most top
Crozes-Hermitage.
If you're catering Christmas in a 110-yard dash round Safeway on the 24th, you could raise
the tone of the whole affair by grabbing a bottle of Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos 1990 from
Hilltop Neszmbly of Hungary to go with the pud. A lovely toffee-apple nose and rich
flavours of treacle tart with a side of lychees give it an excellent balance of fruit and
acidity and prevent it from cloying - this is a snip at £9.99/50cl. Safeway's Barolo
(Terre del Barolo) 1997 is no great bargain at £11.99, but it has a big, baritone voice
of leather and oak and a surprisingly mature, bricky colour. It's rich and long and a
solid 14% alcohol, so it goes well with big food.
Camilla Powell
Psychosynthesis
Counselling and Psychotherapy
Working with mind, feelings and sprit to resolve
current problems and help create a space for you to realise your fullest potential
Phone 020 7690 9568
for further information
My practice is based in Stoke Newington
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All these wines have several things in common. They all have greater concentration and
bigger body and better length than £4.29 will generally buy you and this should pretty
much always be the case when you spend double that. Perhaps more importantly- when it come
to smells and flavours- the emphasis is less on overt fruit characteristics and more on
what good winemakers can do with that fruit. The fruit flavours themselves tend more
towards the cooked and even decaying - much nicer than it sounds - but it's the other,
sometimes surprising, 'nonfruit' elements which you'll have a lot of fun identifying and
these, I'm afraid, don't often come cheap.
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