Wine of the week: a MoneyWeek exclusive
2011 Côtes du Rhône, A Clape, Northern Rhône, France (£138 per six bottles, delivered in the UK, Yapp Brothers, 01747-860423, www.yapp.co.uk).
There is very limited stock of this wine and Jason Yapp has generously earmarked it all for MoneyWeek readers. It is our very own exclusive, so don’t let me down, and pick up the phone. Clape is without doubt one of the finest makers of the syrah grape in the world – so much so that it is featured in my 100 Most Iconic Wine Estates book.
I met up recently with father Pierre and son Olivier at Twickenham, where we shared a few bottles and they were humble in defeat. Their most famous wine is their Cornas (an ex-MoneyWeek wine page alumnus) and it is (these days) fearsomely expensive and as mighty as ever. If you want some, you will have to buy it en primeur.
If, however, you want to experience their genius at a more manageable price point, then look to this Côtes du Rhône. It comes from parcels of vines dotted throughout the appellation, effectively making it a Cornas disguised as a lowly generic offering. Needless to say, it is a wondrous, swarthy, elemental red wine loaded with brooding, malevolent syrah and swaggering tannins. Allez les Bleus.
• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).