Jonathan Ray | The Spectator columnists & writers

Wine Club: mix and match, magnums and more from Tanners

Robert Boutflower of Tanners is a good, kind, generous man. All he and we want is your happiness and so, mindful of the wretched economic situation the twits in charge have landed us in and the ghastly spectre of dread Christmas on the horizon (my words, not his), he put up a deliciously varied selection for me to taste, offered 15 per cent off all the RRPs and suggests you mix your own case rather than take a pre-packed assortment. What a gent. The 2021 Kumeu Village Chardonnay (1) is a cast-iron favourite of mine from Mike Brajkovich, one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded producers. About as perfect an entry-level Chardonnay as you will find anywhere, it’s marked by an enviable lightness of touch with hints of peach, lemon, cream and the subtlest whisper of oak.

Wine Club: a glittering selection from Armit Wines

I shocked an old friend the other day when I confessed how much I drank per week. He shocked me by confessing how often he had sex. We sat in speechless astonishment before clearing our throats in a very English way and moving on to the weather. I’m not in the least bit proud of my consumption. Alarmed is more the word. But it’s an occupational hazard. My chum has no such excuse. The trouble is that I’m so easily seduced. So it was with this glittering selection from Armit Wines. Out of a dozen or so bottles tasted, these five proved irresistible, united by an innate elegance, and I didn’t just taste, I gulped. The 2020 Borthwick Vineyards Paper Road CPR (1) from Wairarapa, New Zealand, has nothing to do with cardiopulmonary resuscitation and everything to do with Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Riesling, of which it’s an extremely tasty blend.

Wine Club: six Honest Grapes picks at no more than £13.50 a bottle

Order today. It’s a tough job tasting wines for the Spectator Wine Club but one that I selflessly shoulder on your behalf. Occasionally, though, as on this occasion, I ask my nearest and dearest to help me. Mrs Ray is a unifying presence and approached the dozen or so bottles from Honest Grapes with her usual integrity, professionalism and accountability. My eldest son, Ferdy, withdrew as he believed it was ‘the right thing to do’ (he’s teetotal). My youngest son, Ludo (who’s anything but), was keen but overslept. ‘I believe I have much to offer,’ he texted from under his duvet, ‘but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time.’ Mrs R and I pressed on alone in the interests of continuity and stability and, keen for borrowing costs to fall, we ensured that our picks cost no more than £13.

Wine Club: an offer for Burgundy-lovers to get stuck into

Order today. So, here we are again in the Last Chance Saloon. After a couple of tricky, uncertain years, prices have rocketed, chaos reigns and we find ourselves scrabbling for scraps we can ill afford. The future looks decidedly bleak. Sorry, what? Liz Truss and the trashed economy? No, silly, I’m talking about Burgundy, where capricious weather, tiny vintages and soaring demand have combined to price wines of any quality out of the reach of most of us. The 2021 vintage will be released in January and merchants are out there now tasting it. The initial whisper is that it’s pretty decent although nobody wants to big it up too much because there’s so little of it. Oy vey, what’s a Burgundy-lover to do? Get stuck into this offer from Mr Wheeler, that’s what! If you love classic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, then these wines are for you.

Wine Club 15 October 2022

Order today. Our fabled Spectator Winemaker Lunches are heavily oversubscribed and little wonder. We have the finest producers and merchants clamouring to visit and we’ve never yet managed to knock back less than a bottle a head. Our readers take their studies seriously. One of the most popular of recent lunches was hosted by Sebastian Rezek, founder of RAKQ, an importer/distributor focused on giving the premium wines of South Africa the recognition in the UK they deserve. The bottles were indeed so fine that they just had to be offered to the wider Speccie readership (along with a very tasty introductory discount of 15 per cent). We start with the 2021 Paul Wallace Little Flirt Sauvignon Blanc (1) from Elgin, one of South Africa’s most exciting cool-climate wine regions.

Wine Club: five of the finest from Private Cellar

Order today. Well we had a cracking day out, thanks, and while I admit to a cranial fogginess, I’m feeling pretty chipper overall and can declare our third annual Spectator Clays, Claret and Cognac Cruise (SCC&CC) a thundering success. Forty readers joined us as we pootled along the Thames in the 100-year-old Thames Sailing Barge Will. We shot clays from the boat with pump action shotguns and blunderbusses, were entertained by business editor (and poet) Martin Vander Weyer, and relished that special camaraderie that exists between Speccie readers. We ate well, drank even better and happily screwed up London’s rush-hour traffic as Tower Bridge opened specially for us. In short, we had a hoot. And so incredibly tasty were the bottles we enjoyed that I persuaded Laura Taylor of Private Cellar – also on board – to make them available to our wider readership.

Wine Club: a super September septet from Honest Grapes

Order today. We live in sad, uncertain times and without for a minute suggesting that we should take solace in alcohol, I’ve, erm, taken solace in alcohol. I simply couldn’t help it thanks to the tastiest of bottles from Honest Grapes. I drained each and every one as I narrowed them down to a super September septet, crowned by a fabulous English fizz, ideal for marking the passing of our Queen and the succession of our King. Vivat rex! The 2020 Nadine Ferrand Mâcon Blanc (1) is an exemplary white Burgundy produced by Nadine Ferrand and her daughter Marine at their 11-hectare Pouilly Fuissé domaine. Herbal, honeyed and apple-fresh, it’s as easy-going and approachable as they come and the perfect example of what the Ferrands themselves refer to as Chardonnay with a feminine touch.

Wine Club: five of the finest from Armit Wines

Order today. So, with Mrs Ray packed off to the airport for her sun-soaked sojourn in Italy, training for The Spectator’s Clays, Claret and Cognac Cruise begins in earnest. The clays could still do with work but I’m close to nailing the liquid element of the jaunt. I’ve been helped immensely by Armit Wines and the delectable dozen bottles they sent me. Thanks to regular timed sampling, I’m close to match fitness and I’m delighted with this selection (four Italian, one French) I’ve made on your behalf. The 2021 Bacioilcielo Fiano (1) might be completely unpronounceable – the sort of wine you point to on a wine list rather than ask for – but it’s so drinkable. From the De Conciliis family in Cilento, Campania – that glorious region of Naples and the Amalfi coast – it’s as fine a Fiano as I’ve had: fresh, full and fruity and clean as a whistle.

Wine Club: gems from Swig to satisfy the most demanding of thirsts

Order today. There are some typically quirky gems from Swig on offer this week and it’s great to have Robin Davis and the gang back in these pages. Their offer in January was a rip-roarer and, as before, there is plenty here to satisfy even the most demanding of thirsts. The 2020 Bourgogne Chardonnay Les Truffières, Domaine de Mauperthuis (1) is a Chablis in all but name and price, produced in Auxerre on south-facing Kimmeridgian soils that could easily pass for those of Montée de Tonnerre. Matured for 12 months in stainless steel, it’s crisp, clean and pure, taking its time to unfold gently in the glass and reveal its lightly honeyed floral notes. £14.50 down from £17.50. The 2021 Blank Bottle Moment of Silence (2), from the bonkers genius that is Pieter Walser, is a cracker.

Wine Club: 13 brilliant Bordeaux bin-ends from FromVineyardsDirect

Order today. Klaxon alert! Would all claret lovers please form an orderly queue? Esme Johnstone and the FromVineyardsDirect gang are clearing their cobwebbed cellars to make room for newer vintages and are offering us a brilliant baker’s dozen of Bordeaux bin-ends at a special, Spectator-only knockdown price. Hurrah! The wines from 2014 and 2015 (cracking vintages) are in that glorious mid-maturity stage, great to knock back now yet still worthy of salting away. There are limited stocks, though, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. The 2014 Ch. Méaume ‘Réserve du Château’ (1) is from a much-loved Bordeaux Supérieur estate between St Emilion and Pomerol. Merlot-dominant, the approachable, well-priced wines are invariably soft and mellow.

Wine Club: six stunning alternatives to French Chardonnay

Order today. Poor Mrs Ray finally cracked. Ever the stoic, she paid no heed to the life-challenging heatwaves and associated power cuts. She disregarded the Covid that raged through her loved ones and took hours-long delays in and out of Gatwick with her usual eudaimonic tranquillity of mind. The baggage chaos at Heathrow, the melting runway at Luton, the rail/barrister/postal strikes and prospect of our next PM being elected by less than a quarter of 1 per cent of the country; well, they barely registered. No, what finally did for my dear wife was seeing her favourite Mâcon-Lugny rise in price from £14 to almost £20. Her evening tipple priced out of reach was the final straw. She was quite undone. Burgundy has suffered a couple of tricky/tiny vintages and prices are going through the roof.

Wine Club: incredibly tasty, ridiculously good value wines from Domaine du Grand Mayne

Order today and use the discount code SPECJULY at the checkout. So, I finally got the plague. No, not monkeypox, the other one – Covid. I blame that Tuscan wedding. Not the hot’n’sweaty event itself, nor the jam-packed flights there and back; no, I blame the three subsequent days on the wagon, strictly enforced by Mrs Ray to prove that we’re not complete and utter lushes and can, on occasion, do without. Well, as any fule kno, Muscadet keeps the doctor away and water won’t. Thus it is that I’m still testing positive after 14 days. Sigh. But I’m back on the vino now and feel much better for it, thank you, the associated vitamins and antioxidants putting a distinct spring in my step. The first wines to aid my recovery were these little gems from Domaine du Grand Mayne in the Côtes de Duras, sampled – thanks to Zoom – in the company of wine-maker Mathieu Crosnier.

Wine Club: six gems all enticingly priced at under £12

Order today. We’re just back from a quick flit to Italy and a wild and wonderful wedding. It was all huge fun, although as I look back with throbbing, bloodshot eyes, I see, of course, that we could have done things differently, not to say better, such as by pacing ourselves more sensibly and staying off the grappa. It was arriving late that threw us (thanks easyJet) and the resultant determination to hit the ground running and prove our worth. The inevitable upshot is a distinct liverishness today. At least I’m not as frail as Mrs Ray, who sat pale, monosyllabic and remorseful next to me on the flight home. She had raced out of the traps way before the gun and by the time I lassoed her by the dance floor she had already moved through fizz, white and red to her second pitcher of mojito because ‘the first one didn’t work’.

Wine Club: six wonderful wines from Mr Wheeler

Order today. The first red wine I ever drank was a scrumptiously succulent Beaujolais, and I’ve had a fondness for the region and its wines ever since. At 52, my father was getting on a bit when I was born and he was desperate to educate me in the delights of the grape as quickly as possible. I was weaned on Cyprus ‘sherry’ and was no more than ten when I enjoyed my first glass of enticingly sweet and fizzy Asti Spumante. Light, refreshing, low-alcohol German Riesling followed, and by the time I was off to senior school, I had graduated – at my father’s behest – to soft, juicy, jammy Beaujolais. Once I was 16 I’d mastered the Tequila Sunrise and the Harvey Wallbanger, too, but that’s another – rather messy – story.

Wine Club: a platinum selection from Yapp Bros – plus a trio of fine English fizz

Order today. We got away with it! I wasn’t actually there, of course (and if I was, I didn’t realise) but I can report that our inaugural Spectator Wine Club BYOB/Wine Time Friday lunch passed off without a hitch. There was no excessive boozing, no fighting, no vomiting, no karaoke and definitely no poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. There was just plenty of fun. (So much so that we’ve another lined up for Friday 9 September, if you’re interested.) Of course, the past masters at vinous fun are those naughty Yapp Bros, Jason and Tom (step-bros to be exact). They rootle out wonderful, well-priced wines that others overlook and some of my favourite bottles have been enjoyed in their company. Their choice of venue is sometimes suspect but their choice of wine is invariably impeccable, as this selection shows.

Food and friendliness: Britain’s most welcoming restaurants

I went to a well-known Michelin-starred restaurant a few weeks ago and I hated every minute. The food was remarkable, of course, with every dish a picture and each morsel technically perfect. But the restaurant itself was ghastly and sterile. Fellow diners stared glassy-eyed at their plates, terrified of raising their voices. The prices were eye-watering and the staff arrogant and complacent. They seemed to hate us all. Two days later, I found myself in a much humbler establishment. The fare was first rate and the atmosphere jolly and bustling, but it was the warmth of the welcome that really struck me. It’s easy to find fine food; it’s less easy to find places that welcome you as if all they want in the world is your happiness.

Wine Club 21 May 2022

Undervalued corkers from Mr Wheeler

Order today. I had my regular May meeting with the accounts department (Mrs Ray) the other night and it did not go well. The general gist was that I’m a profligate fool and that I need to drink less, not to mention less expensively. And no, she did not appreciate me quoting the late, great Errol Flynn’s line: ‘My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.’ She looked at me long and hard and I feared a lengthy dissection of my failings, but she simply muttered something about me being no Errol Flynn before leaving me with my thoughts and the dregs of a rather tasty claret (see below). The upshot is that this week I’m focusing on wines that give particularly good value. Each wine below is a corker and, in my view, massively undervalued.

Wine Club: two astoundingly fine fizzes from Frerejean Frères

Order today. As you know, when it comes to champagne, Pol Roger is pretty much The Spectator’s house pour. Indeed, a dog-eared sign on the door of the office fridge demands that staff always ensure there are two bottles chilling within it for emergency celebrations and commiserations or simply for whenever the moment strikes. It’s a rare occasion at 22 Old Queen Street when a bottle of Pol isn’t broached, then, and the fabled Spectator summer party is fuelled by little else. But one can’t live on Grande Marque Champagne alone and much as we adore PR, there are other effervescent treats out there that should not be ignored. Away from the big names, Henri Chauvet and Brimoncourt always impress and remain two of my absolute favourite champagnes, neither of which I ever tire of recommending.

Wine Club: six of the finest Provençal rosés – and a Platinum Jubilee special

Order today. I don’t know how well you know Amsterdam, but there’s a frightfully swanky hotel there called The Dylan in which I was lucky enough to blag myself and Mrs Ray a jolly weekend a year or so ago. There are many fine things about The Dylan but that which tickles me the most is their tradition of High Wine, the hotel’s delightfully decadent version of High Tea, served mid to late afternoon and comprising four different amuses-bouches elegantly laid out alongside four cleverly matched glasses of wine. I’ve never been one for non-alcoholic hot drinks at elevenses, much preferring alcoholic cold ones at what Mrs R and I term sevenses, so The Dylan’s tradition chimes perfectly with ours. This wonderful Dutch innovation came rushing to mind yesterday (rather nearer half past fiveses, if I’m honest, for once Marina gets a thirst there’s absolutely no stopping her) when we got stuck into this clutch of very tasty Provençal rosés courtesy of FromVineyardsDirect.

Wine Club: five to stock up on for Easter

Email your order today. It’s flipping well snowing as I write, but my Glyndebourne tickets have come and my MCC pass has just plopped on to the mat so it must surely be spring. And where a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, so this old soak’s fancy lightly turns to just how many bottles I need to get me through Easter. Growing up in Kent I lived near Romney Marsh, a special place that I still love for its windswept acres, lonely churches and tales of smugglers, revenue men and Dr Syn, the mysterious vicar of Dymchurch, who was not quite who he seemed. A leg of precious marsh lamb invariably took pride of place on our Easter board, my mother smothering it in ground ginger, runny honey, rosemary, a sprinkle of salt and pepper and half a pint of Kentish cider before roasting.

Wine Club: a taste of Rhône royalty

Order now. A reader upbraided me gently the other day saying he felt I was overly effusive about the wines I feature in these pages. He hinted that I must be in the pay of the merchants in order to endorse quite so heartily whatever six random wines they care to offload on me. Well, I promise I’m not in anyone’s pocket. Just to be clear, the offers work like this: I chat to whichever merchant we’re featuring and between us we try to come up with a pertinent/interesting theme, region, country or producer. The merchant sends me – or we taste together – anything up to a couple of dozen wines that we think might work, out of which I choose my favourite six. These we then offer to you at as keen a price as I can bully the merchant into.

Wine club: six smutty wines that perfectly hit the spot

Order today. My father loved nothing more than a smutty limerick. Indeed, he delighted in penning lewd lines whenever he was encouraged to do so. This being a family magazine, I won’t sully your breakfast with his verse on Verdicchio – tame though it is – but can happily send under plain brown-paper wrapper or via email if such things appeal. It’s just that said lickerish limerick was brought to mind on tasting the first wine of this very genial selection – three Italian, three French – from our old mates at Honest Grapes. It’s a jolly verse and the 2020 Casalfarneto Diego Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico (1) is a similarly jolly wine, from one of my very favourite regions in Italy – Le Marche. Fresh, zesty and keen with plenty of citrus and Sauvignon Blanc/-Bacchus-like aromas and acidity, it’s the perfect picnic wine or first undemanding glass of the evening.

Wine Club: six sought-after bottles you won’t find anywhere else

Anthony and Olive Hamilton Russell love The Spectator and we love them. They have hosted more Spectator Winemaker Lunches than any other producer (they’ll be in our boardroom again next week) and it was only the afterglow of the splendidly bibulous Spectator/Hamilton Russell dinner at Tate Britain the night before lockdown that kept me going during the dark days that followed. Anthony is a long-time subscriber to our organ and, through the kind offices of Laura Taylor – marketing director of Private Cellar – who has known and admired AHR and his remarkable wines for 25 years, he has paid us the enormous compliment of offering the latest vintages to us and us alone. For the next four weeks, The Spectator will be the only place in the world – other than direct from the winery itself – through which to buy the following bottles and so sought-after are they, so darn tasty and in such strictly limited quantities that I strongly suggest you get cracking pretty damned quick if you’re interested.

Another Speccie scoop: the first place to buy the new 2016 Chateau Musar

Readers (and writers) of The Spectator have long adored the wines of Château Musar, the cult winery of Lebanon. Indeed, thanks to our chums at Mr Wheeler, we have such a close relationship with the estate that our loyalty is being rewarded by yet another bona fide Speccie scoop: for the next month, this is the only place in the UK from which to buy the newly released 2016 Château Musar. This great wine is simply not available anywhere else currently and once it goes, it goes. So get cracking and don’t say I didn’t warn you. There are other treats in this Musar offer too, including two remarkable back vintages, and in tasting them on your behalf I was joined by Michael Karam, author of Wines of Lebanon and occasional contributor to this magazine on Middle Eastern politics.

Wine Club: a delectable selection from our friends at Yapp Bros

Dry January is but a memory and, nearing the end of a demi-sec February fortnight — just a precaution to check that everything is working as it should be — I’m pretty much match fit once again and raring to go. I certainly loved choosing these delectable Yapp Bros wines on your behalf and, with the help of Mrs Ray, made sure that none of the bottles went to waste. As befits a Loire specialist, Yapp Bros have had a top quality Muscadet on their list for 50 years and their current staple is the 2020 Jean-François Baron Muscadet Sur Lie (1), complete with its jolly Quentin Blake label. Produced by the fourth-generation winemaker Jean-François Baron from old estate vines, the wine spends several months on the lees, leaving it fresh, lively, bone dry and more than a little thirst-quenching.

A fine line-up of favourites via FromVineyardsDirect

Well I don’t know about you but I’m just that little bit overexcited. In a couple of days I’ll be free of this ridiculous, self-imposed, puritanical water wagon regime and I’ve the wheelie suitcase dusted off and ready in anticipation. Roll on Wine Time Friday! If Boris leaves us nothing else to remember him by except this joyful and alternative use for the acronym WTF, then that’s a legacy of sorts, I suppose. And what finer bottles to cram into the perambulating portmanteau than these select beauties from our old chums at FromVineyardsDirect? All but one of the wines will be familiar to you, as we’ve offered them before in previous vintages — to whoops of delight, I might add — and I just couldn’t resist revisiting them in their more recent incarnations, so darn tasty are they.

What ‘partygate’ got wrong about wine

There is palpable public outrage about the flagrant lockdown rule flouting of 10 Downing Street during Partygate. But for oenophiles everywhere, by far the most disturbing revelation is not that the Prime Minister broke the rules (even though he made the rules) or that he might have lied about it, but that staff in No. 10 scuttled to the local Tesco Express with a ‘wheelie’ suitcase in which to smuggle enough vino back to the office for ‘wine-time Fridays’. Talk about tasteless. It’s admirable that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland lives in a modest flat above the shop instead of in some grand, sprawling neo-classical mansion surrounded by parkland. It’s appropriately British and democratic and helps stop the incumbent getting ideas above his or her station.

Wine Club: a spectacular six from Swig (plus free champagne)

Cooee, we’re back! And back in some style with a corking offer from Swig, stalwarts of the Spectator Wine Club under my sainted predecessors. I’m so pleased we’ve tempted them back, especially in this, their 25th anniversary year. Founded by Robin Davis in north London’s Belsize Park, Swig has become one of the country’s finest independents and is Decanter’s 2021 Best Midsize Online Retailer. Just saying. As always, only the best is good enough for Speccie readers. Like you, I’m sure, I rather overcooked it during the festivities. My sister-in-law is convinced she’s an alcoholic having received a personally signed Christmas card from her local Majestic manager, whereas my wake-up call was finding a passer-by photographing the New Year’s Day empties in my recycling and beckoning a friend: ‘Chum, you’ve got to see this!’ As so it is I cling desperately to the wagon.

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