It has been a gloriously wine-soaked year for us lushes at the Spectator Wine Club, during which we have worked closely with our chums at Private Cellar, the leading independent merchant based on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens.
PC’s marketing director, Laura Taylor, was not only headteacher at this year’s Spectator Wine School, she was also entertainments officer on board the ridiculously bibulous Spectator Clays, Claret and Cognac Cruise and barracks-based logistics officer for our inaugural Spectator Wine Club tour of Champagne.
The following bottles are the blocks upon which our revelry was built, the vinous highlights of the above events and of many others besides. They were enjoyed hugely then and I have the greatest pleasure in recommending them to the wider Spectator readership now.
I have the greatest pleasure in recommending these bottles to the wider Spectator readership
One of the merriest stops on our tour of Champagne was at Champagne Henri Chauvet in Rilly-la-Montagne, some 20 minutes or so outside Reims. Here, the proprietor/winemaker Damien Chauvet was bonhomie incarnate, happily opening every bottle in his range for us to enjoy. The unanimous favourite and one of my all-time picks of the pops was the Henri Chauvet Blanc de Noirs Brut NV (1). A hand-picked, hand-riddled, long lees-aged blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, it’s full of toast, brioche and honey and I genuinely can’t think of any other champagne I enjoy so much at such a good price. Indeed, I bought a double magnum on the spot. Photographic evidence on request. £26.95 down from £29.95.
The 2022 Private Cellar’s White Burgundy (2) is made expressly for PC by the Cave des Vignerons de Buxy, a much-lauded co-operative of 120 growers founded in the Côte Chalonnaise almost a century ago.
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