After three and a quarter centuries in the business, Berry Bros. & Rudd is certainly trad, but it’s also reassuringly innovative. So it is that we have here a classic claret but also a Chardonnay from a part of France that doesn’t grow it, a blended single varietal from Chile (don’t worry, all is explained below) and a wine from Greece which is all but extinct. Best of all, Berrys’ buying director, Mark Pardoe MW, has knocked up to 26 per cent off the list price. Hooray!
The 2013 Domaine de Lansac ‘Les Quatres Reines’ (1) is a deliciously uncomplicated, unblended, unoaked Chardonnay from the tiny region of Les Alpilles in the Languedoc. Night-time picking and low fermentation temperatures allow the fresh fruitiness to shine. I enjoyed its citrus liveliness and its honeyed, faintly spicy finish. The name, incidentally, comes from the fact that the domaine-owning Sabran family boast of four queens in their ancestry.
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