The disarming thing about Jason Yapp is that he’s always on such good form. I can’t remember meeting anyone who loves his job so much and who brims with quite so much bonhomie.
We tasted the wines for this offer a few days before he headed to Vinisud, the vast Languedoc-Roussillon wine fair held each year in Montpellier, and he was as excited and as waggy-tailed as a truffle hound on the trail of its first headily scented tuber of the day.
Nobody knows the French backwaters better than Jason, and Yapp Brothers thoroughly deserve their status as the International Wine Challenge’s specialist merchant of the year for Languedoc-Roussillon, the Rhône and regional France.
The following selection draws on that expertise. It also draws on Jason’s aforementioned goodwill to all men, the result of which is a healthy £1 off every bottle’s list price, plus loose change lopped off the mixed case to bring it in at exactly £112.
The 2014 Château Roubaud, Cuvée Passion (1), is something of a rarity: a white wine from Costières de Nîmes, an underrated region where over 90 per cent of wines are red or rosé. Legionaries were granted land here after service to the Roman empire and the region has produced wine ever since. Made from old-vine Grenache Blanc and Roussanne, planted on the edge of the Camargue delta, this sees no oak and is fresh and herbal with hints of wild flowers on the nose and a creamy texture. £10.75 down from £11.75.
We offered the previous vintage of the 2014 Saumur Blanc (2) a couple of years ago and readers loved its clean, racy charm. Made from Chenin Blanc by the highly regarded Cave de Saumur co-operative based in Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, it’s fresh, crisp and fruity and a real crowd-pleaser.
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