2006 Beaune Premier Cru, Les Perrières, Fabrice Lesne, Burgundy, France
Marks & Spencer, £17.99 down to £12.99 until November 29
Beaune, north and east of Pommard, is another all-too-popular Côte d’Or appellation that should be home to big, beefy, longer-lived Côte d’Or red burgundies with real class and charisma, but alas often fails to deliver. M&S’s Christmas present is this tasty, perfumed, meaty, sappy red beaune with some fine chocolatey flavours on the finish that needs roasted red meats or a good game bird to bring out its best side.
2007 Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Clos de l’Oratoire des Papes, France
Sainsbury’s, £18.99 down to £13.99 from Wednesday to January 1
Advertisement
Hard to miss Clos de l’Oratoire’s bright red and green label, and the 14.5 per cent alcohol châteauneuf within is equally arresting. 2007 was a grand vintage in both the northern and southern Rhône, with the latter having the edge. So tuck into this classy southerner, which spends a year snoozing in large oak casks acquiring fine, rich, smoky, leafy, leather, sandalwood and chocolate scents, making it just the ticket with spiced beef and strong game.
2006 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, Cantina di Negrar, Italy
Majestic, £19.99 or buy two for £15.99 each until February 1; Waitrose, £16.99
Amarone, made from hand-picked, air-dried corvina and rondinella grapes — and from old vines — then finished off with 18 months in small French oak barriques, is the perfect big food red, especially when it weighs in at a whopping 15 per cent alcohol. Try this delicious, velvety, plum, roses and creosote-spiked amarone with turkey and all the trimmings, or with steak and kidney pie for a festive experience.
2004 Boh?rquez, Ribera del Duero, Spain
Advertisement
Wine Society, £17.95; Mill Hill Wines, £24.95
Bravo Boh?rquez for beating off stiff Gallic competition to win a place here. This superb, big, bold, beefy, herb and chocolate-spiked red is as good as the tempranillo gets in this region. Topped up, as lots of riberas are, with 15 per cent cabernet sauvignon and then given only 15 months in French and American oak, this delicious Spanish red makes a vibrant, yet meaty 14 per cent alcohol festive bottle, perfect with roasted red meats.
2005 Lacoste Borie, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
Majestic £19.99
Francois-Xavier Borie, who made this claret, the second wine of Château Grand Puy Lacoste, can do no wrong as far as I am concerned, having made a wonderful run of fine, sandalwood-spiced, oak-perfumed clarets. 2005, unlike the 2000 vintage, was a truly great Bordeaux year, so even at this level, claret fans are rewarded with a gorgeous big, bold, ripe, beefy, cedary claret perfect with spiced beef or a roasted baron of beef, as an alternative festive centrepiece.
Advertisement
2006 Château du Tertre, Margaux, Bordeaux, France
The Wine Society, £22; Berry, Bros & Rudd, £26.40
Fifth growth Margaux, Château du Tertre, has for the past decade been part of the Dutch-owned Château Giscours empire, complete with a state-of-the-art winery and chic dove-grey designer interior. Looking the part counts for naught if wine quality has lagged behind, and it has, but anyone celebrating Christmas with this elegant, cabernet franc-fragrant, beefy, green peppercorn-studded claret will have a lovely time.
2007 Cornas, Granit 30, Domaine Vincent Paris, Rhône, France
Waitrose Inner Cellar, £23.99; D. Byrne £24.99
Advertisement
Cornas, along with Hermitage and Côte Rotie, is one of the northern Rhône’s most celebrated and most seductive syrahs. In the hands of gifted young winemaker Vincent Paris, who used very low-yielding, 20-year-old vines grown on steep granite, 30-per-cent-incline slopes, the expression of the syrah grape here is at its most beguiling: all heavenly, ripe, spicy, dusky, plum, beetroot and raspberry fruit. A festive must buy, perfect with a haunch of venison.
2006 Pommard Les Cras, Roger Belland, France
Waterloo Wines, £24.99
Pommard, like all those easy to pronounce Côte d’Or villages, is more expensive than it should be and the large quantity of red wine produced here — by burgundy standards at any rate — does not help to keep standards up either. No matter, 2006 was a grand Côte d’Or red vintage and this domaine’s lieu-dit, with its renowned limestone-speckled soil, has produced a ripe, supple, beefy, leaf mould-scented red burgundy with a fine, long, smoky finish. Good with chicken and beef stew and game.
STAR BUY
Advertisement
2004 Clos des Quatre Vents Margaux, Luc Thienpont, France
Justerini & Brooks, £19.57
Unbeknown to me until six months ago, this tiny l.2ha Margaux property is owned by Luc Thienpont, brother of Jacques Thienpont of cult right- bank Le Pin fame. Tucked up next door to second- growth Lascombes and made with more than 50 per cent of 80-year-old ungrafted cabernet sauvignon vines, topped up with merlot and petit verdot, I should have expected to be bowled over by this fine 2004 vintage claret. Yet its magnificent, velvety, gamey, perfumed, coffee bean-scented, almost Burgundian, style still took me by surprise. Miss this and you will miss out.