April Wine Club II

When I was pondering a theme for this week’s offer with Mark Cronshaw, operations director of The Wine Company, he sucked his teeth, stared into the distance and came up with a brainwave: why not simply offer The Wine Company’s best-sellers? Wines that have been tried, tested and loved by their customers, but offered with special discounts for Spectator readers only. A fine plan, I said — depending, of course, on the quality of the wines and the generosity of the discounts. Well, I’ve tasted them and they’re an excellent, well-varied bunch, whittled down to six from The Wine Company’s top dozen sellers — a surprisingly tricky task. And MC’s arm was well and truly twisted on the discounts. He took it well, although his eyes did water a bit when it came to the 1er Cru Montagny, which was too good to let go but far too pricey. Mark, to his credit, finally capitulated, muttering darkly as he lopped a full £2.24