Oz Clarke 250 Best Wines 2010 12 Bottle Mixed Case Offer for Spring/Summer
Ref. 11002
Each year, Oz Clarke, Britain's favourite wine writer and personality chooses his Top 250 Best Wines in his Wine Buying Guide. In 2009 Oz choose four of our wines. This year he has chosen the new vintages from our own Domaine de la Souterranne (which he also featured last year) as well as two of our best selling Chilean wines.
Domaine de la Souterranne ‘Cuvee Christophe’ Old Vine Carignan 2007, France - £11.50
"The Oxford Wine Company has several wines from the Domaine de la Souterranne in deepest southern France, and they’re all worth a look. This is my favourite, because it comes from ‘old vine Carignan.’ Carignan is one of the great ancient Mediterranean grape varieties but because it can be made to produce oceans of tasteless plonk, re-planting has been banned in most vaguely smart vineyard regions. But as the vines get old, the amount of fruit they produce diminishes and the flavour explodes into something quite unlike anything the trendier, more modern grapes can offer. This is a dark, rich, black fruit stew, almost syrupy in its consistency and tangled up with horsehair. Somehow some overbaked blackberry tarts have found their way into the mix, along with melted liquorice sticks, as has the shimmering heat of sunbaked stones. This is old-fashioned, palate-challenging and mouth-wateringly good."
Domaine de la Souterranne Merlot ‘Cuvee Guillaume’ 2007, France - £7.99
"It does help when you’ve got a star New World winemaker involved if you want to hit the road running. Australian David Morrison specializes in maximizing the fruit flavours in the wines he makes, often in areas that didn’t know the meaning of fruit before he arrived. Southern French Merlot can be dull, baked stuff but the only baked flavour here is the chewy bits at the edge of the raspberry jam tart. The rest is ripe raspberry fruit, refreshing acidity and a surprising waxy texture which makes the wine terribly easy to drink."
Nostros Reserva Pinot Noir 2008, Chile - £6.99
"I’m delighted to see more and more juicy, scented, irresistible Pinot Noir coming out of Chile. Every year, more good Pinot Noir vineyards seem to spring up. Every year the wine is good. Every year it’s affordable. This Pinot has gentle loganberry and black plum fruit, a lush, almost fat, texture – but it’s beautifully balanced – and an exotic scent of eucalyptus."
Rio Alto Classic Merlot 2008, Chile - £5.95
"Rich, dark red plum and raisin stew. This is excellent chunky, chewy red. You get some real sense of ripeness through that slight raisin taste, but the basic flavour is big, broad, plummy and fresh. They also do a Shiraz (also £5.95) which is a gentle, blackberryish red that reminds me ever so vaguely of my first school camping trips under tarpaulin. No, please, no details."
£83.00
