Steven Spurrier’s wines of the month – December

From the cellar

Domaine Chantal Remy, Chambertin Grand Cru, Burgundy 2009

Having worked for almost two decades in France, the concept of taking most of August off is firmly ingrained: two weeks and more in Tuscany, preceded by a stopping-off drive down through France and the same back, on very different routes. Many bottles are enjoyed of course, but few ‘grands vins’; however, a lunch at Denise Diesen’s fine ‘manoir’ in Fleurie broke this rule.

Diesen is Canadian, married to a Norwegian, and for many years created Burgundy investment funds for private clients, from the Côte d’Or’s very top domaines. After Pol Roger’s superb Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 2002, the four of us sat down to a summer lunch with a Domaine Lafarge, Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes 2009, still so youthful, and the Domaine Chantal Remy, Chambertin Grand Cru 2009. This wine had memories for me, since Monsieur Louis Remy, a discreet gentleman of great class, allocated a few cases for my shop in Paris.

France’s inheritance rules have since diminished the domaine, but his daughter Chantal maintains the superb, elegantly understated quality from her own vineyards. This 0.14ha parcel of 80-year-old vines showed a deep colour, richness of slightly earthy fruit and beguiling vigour that still stayed forever in the glass (£266.67ib/150cl Justerini & Brooks).

For the cellar

Clos Apalta, Colchagua, Chile 2016

Under the theme ‘The times they are a-changin’, at the start of the tasting season this September, Mathieu Chadronnier of négociant house CVBG, one of the principal players on La Place de Bordeaux, presented wines from 40 estates – 19 from Bordeaux and 21 from other parts of the wine world.

Ranging from his own beautifully made Château Marsau, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux 2016, through the just-released Château Latour 2011, a simply stunning Y d’Yquem 2018, to end on the superb Klein Constantia, Vin de Constance Natural Sweet Wine 2016, it showed triumphantly that the international icon wines have finally been accepted by the Bordeaux merchants for distribution across Europe.

So high was their quality here that the ‘foreigners’ hugely justified such an unprecedented move, the choice for the Spurrier cellar finally falling on the Marnier Lapostolle family’s Clos Apalta 2016. The Clos Apalta vineyard is certified organic/biodynamic and the vines dating back to 1920 on original rootstocks are low-yielding, with the new parcels higher up benefiting from the afternoon shade.

A blend of 64% Carmenère, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot, the nose is fragrant and spicy, the fruit deep with natural vineyard grip, a very exciting wine for the next decade or more (97pts, £71ib BI, Corkr, Farr Vintners, L’Assemblage, Lay & Wheeler, Nickolls & Perks).

The Spurrier Selection