Good, honest French wines: a selection from Yapp Bros.

It was the mighty Andrew Edmunds’s memorial last week – he of the eponymous restaurant and the Academy Club, those last vestiges of old Soho. All the great and the louche were there paying their respects to this delightful man of many parts – restaurateur, clubman, wine lover, fine print purveyor, flower arranger, fly fisherman and scourge of poets and golfers.

Among those saying goodbye were Robin Yapp, his son Jason and his stepson Tom, the founder and his two successors at Yapp Bros. Robin used to lead my father badly astray and Jas (who introduced me to the Academy over a ten-hour lunch) and Tom have kept up the family tradition by doing likewise with me. 

They might be wicked and dangerous, but these boys know their wines. Nobody is more adept in tracking down great value bottles in the hidden folds of France, and this is one of their best selections yet.