ROLL OUT THE BARREL

Sometimes, if you are lucky, you get an immediate thank you when you host a dinner party. And not having hosted such a venture for a while I had forgotten what a lot of work it can be, so when the guests finally started to arrive and amongst the offerings at the door was a bottle of Chateau Batailley 1985 I felt I had already received the first thank you of the evening.

Now, it isn’t often I get to try such mature claret. It doesn’t matter what it is, the joy of being able to try such claret from a good vintage is always a real treat. The fact that a 1997 Pauillac AC followed with the next set of guests to arrive only added to my excitement. Certainly the half case of co-op St Emilion 2002, which is a great wine its own right, was put somewhat in the shade.

Now, I don’t relate all this to try to look smug and show what generous friends I have, but it did get me thinking as dawdled in the Cellar on Sunday avoiding the tidying up and nursing a gentle hangover: how can you ensure you get to drink decent claret when it is mature? Well, you either buy early or you buy late, by which I mean you either buy ‘en primeur’ or at auction. Now, given the amount of hype, marketing and general furore that surrounded this year’s Bordeaux En Primeur Campaign back in the summer I thought it was worth considering this further.

In simple terms en primeur is the winemaker offering his wine before it’s ready. It is still in the barrel, it will not see a bottle for about two years and by no means is it finished. So why would you spend money on such a thing? You wouldn’t buy an unfinished house or car? Well, ok, you might, if the price was right. And that is the whole point. En primeur allows you get your hands on wines more cheaply than they will be on their release in two years’ time and it guarantees you get hold of them too (nothing worse than walking into your local merchant to find the guy you held the door open for has just staggered out with the shop’s total allocation – trust me, it has happened).

It’s a gamble, or an investment, depending on your viewpoint. You have to rely on other people’s (supposedly) expert advice, navigate your way through the wine merchant’s hype and not pay over the odds. All very tricky and better people than I have written countless articles on the subject, so I wont presume to embellish further. Suffice it to say it is worth considering and it’s getting more and more popular. Majestic and Waitrose are just two large retailers now offering an en primeur service and have good guides of what is involved. The wonderful thing is that it is not all about Chateau Margaux, I have bought several cases of 2005 vintage for between £50 and £100 a case. And with a vintage as supposedly good as 2005 it doesn’t matter too much what level you buy at. The weather was so good, the conditions so perfect it was difficult to produce bad wine – not that that should stop you from being careful. What I am trying to say is that if you possibly want to drink mature claret in the years to come and to appreciate your host’s hard work(!) when you next get invited round for dinner being able to pull a half forgotten bottle out of a case you bought en primeur is nice trick. (I’d like it anyway.) The one caveat is that this all takes time, and that is where auctions come in, but that’s another story.

Anyway, recommendations for an early autumn dinner:

Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 1998, £24.99 at Majestic: this is a wine that really does live up to the hype and is beautifully complex and rich with grapefruit sharp flavours. Such a classy start to any party and it really does compete with the best champagne can offer.

St Emilion - L’Union de Producteurs de Saint-Emilion 2002 £7.49 at Majestic: getting a decent claret for under a tenner is always something of a miracle. This fruity balanced claret with lovely soft tannins is a great example of what can be done, classic claret at a great price.

En Primeur Information:

Majestic En Primeur:www.majestic.co.uk

Waitrose Wine en primeur service:www.waitrose.com/enprimeur

The Cellarer