I so often get asked if there is a strategy, rule of axiom which can be applied to wine in order to guarantee something delicious. There is, of course, not – or at least I hope no one comes up with one, else we will all rapidly be out of jobs, but it has set me to wondering and I think I may have found a passable solution.
When something is a complicated and subtly nuanced as wine, there is inevitable misdirection, or even a mythology built up around somex things. A bit like that ‘buy the second bottle of wine down on a restaurant list, it has the lowest margin’ rumour which circulated lord knows how many years ago – then I think quickly replaced by ‘don’t buy the second bottle of wine down on a list, it’s a trick and has the highest margin’. Advice which can be thrown on the scrap heap with silly epigrams like ‘the older a bottle of wine is, the better it is’ or ‘it has a lot of legs, so it must be good’.
It’s all utter tosh.
The one thing I think you can really rely on (and I look forward to someone finding a wine which breaks my golden rule, but I have cycled through my Rolodex and I don’t think one exists) is this: single vineyard wine, is good wine.
It seems so simple to the point of being ludicrous, but if a producer has gone to the lengths to identify a specific plot of earth, plant vines upon it and produce something so outstanding that they not only bottle the fruit from just this place, but stick the name of that specific place on that bottle for the world to see, you’ve got to assume it’s pretty bloody good.
This is not to say that there aren’t incredible wines made from blending many, many vineyards – I think Lafite, Dom Perignon, Sassicaia and many more would be able to confirm this, but it’s the one rule which I think can be universally applied with success.
The one downside is that these single vineyards wine are never cheap. They’re simply too good to be, but in fine wine terms, they can still be relatively inexpensive.
I have put a list below of some of our favourite, and more affordable examples of where this rings true. I hope it’s something you are able to apply, and drink all the better for it!
2020 LA QUINTA Podere Giodo di Carlo Ferrini
£45.95 | £41.25
A tiny vineyard of young, 8 year old vines, contiguous with Giodo’s Brunello vineyards. A top Brunello in all but name.
2022 RÉGNIÉ Cuvée des Braves Domaine Rochette
£19.50 | £17.50
A southwest facing small vineyard on solid granite, with some ancient 70 to 80 year old vines, proving how affordable great single vineyard wine can be.
2018 ESCONDITE DEL ARDACHO Las Guillermas Tentenublo
£40.50 | £35.95
A parcel of 70 year old vines, 400 metres above sea level which create a wine which could be called Rioja’s answer to Burgundy.
2016 LES BELLES VOYES Blanc de Blancs Brut Grand Cru Oger Champagne Franck Bonville
£85.95 | £77.50
Certainly not an every day bottle, but for single vineyard Champagne, downright affordable. Belle Voyes, ‘beautiful path’, is a .8 hectare vineyard high up in the hills overlooking the village of Oger, making exceptional Chardonnay from 60+ year old vines.
Case Price Discount: Enjoy our case price discount by buying any 12 bottles from this selection – in a mixed case of your design or simply by the dozen.