Wine Club 21 January

I don’t know about you but my cellar took a pounding over Christmas and on New Year’s Eve. Yes, yes, I know it’s only a cobwebbed cupboard under the stairs. The point is that it’s all but empty apart from a few corks, some half-drunk vermouth, a shattered decanter, a bottle of Bailey’s (where did that come from?) and the faint whiff of cordite. I’ve an urgent need to regroup.

Thank heaven, then, for Yapp Bros and this timely selection. It didn’t take Jason Yapp and me long to agree that we should look no further than the Loire for this offer. 2015 was a cracking vintage in the Loire Valley, which remains a happy hunting ground for lovers of aromatic Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc and cool-climate Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc.

Such wines represent fantastic value for money compared with the more rarefied output of Bordeaux and Burgundy, especially in a touchstone vintage like 2015, and with the Yapp boys the current holders of the highly prized International Wine Challenge ‘Loire Merchant of the Year’ award, we have some real treats here, each one a quid cheaper than it is on the Yapps’ list.