Last year a similar offer by FromVineyardsDirect was the biggest seller in Spectator history. I wasn’t surprised. These Bordeaux wines are astonishing value, all coming from some of the most celebrated châteaux in France. We generally can’t tell you where they were made – it’s part of the deal – but we can drop heavy hints.
The secret is in the French wine laws, which are commendably strict. Every property is allowed to sell a certain amount of wine under its own name. Anything else must be sold as generic wine from a particular commune. It’s a sensible way of preventing greedy vignerons from ruining the brand’s reputation. But the limits tend to be set by civil servants in Paris who have little idea of the quality they’re dealing with, and in the greatest years, such as 2009, 2010 and 2011, there’s a lot of fabulous orphaned wine floating around. This is where FVD comes in.
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