A heroic drop of claret for general glugging
2005 Château Grand-Maison, Cuvée Spéciale, Côtes de Bourg, Bordeaux, France (£20.95 per magnum, Haynes, Hanson and Clark, London, 020-7584 7927; Stow-on-the-Wold, 01451-870808).
Over the next few weeks I will be homing in on particularly serious wines for entertaining your pals this Christmas. I will wait a while before tipping wines for the big day itself and, in the meantime, I have found some brilliant bottles for dinner parties, gifts and general glugging.
This week's heroic drop is nothing short of a magnum with a bottle-sized price tag. I am not sure how the delightful Natasha (on the MoneyWeek picture desk) will make this bottle look any bigger than last week's, but that's not my problem – you just have to believe me that it is. My job is to explain what it tastes like while you nod sagely at its smart label and imagine its weight in your hands as you pour no less than 12 large glasses of rouge!
I am a complete claret snob, preferring to do without the stuff rather than drink a substandard version, but Grand-Maison is well named. There is a large amount of cassis, cedar-wood and fresh plum flavour here and, being from the 2005 vintage, it will last well, too, if you don't manage to finish them all off. Santé.
• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year
