Wine Club 9 November

Those naughty Yapp Brothers (actually, proprietors Jason Yapp and Tom Ashworth are naughty stepbrothers) are well known for preying upon unwary drinks writers and leading them astray. One day I’ll tell you about that bull fight in Dax with the bottle-of-rosé-a-head breakfast, the beer and pigs’ trotter lunch and the subsequent salsa festival where — I blush to recall — the wheels came off quite dramatically and only momentum saw us through. In the meantime, we’ll stick to the wines because, wicked as they are, the boys are also well known for the wonderful vinous treasures they unearth on their travels. Not for nothing are Yapp Bros the 2019 International Wine Challenge Rhône and Languedoc-Roussillon Specialist Merchants of the Year.

Thanks to a recent trip to Alsace with these two scamps, I’ve drunk far more than my fair share of 2017 Léon Beyer ‘La Cuvée’ (1) and it’s high time you lot had a go too, if only to lighten my load.