Steven Spurrier’s wines of the month

Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor and 2017 Decanter Man of the Year hand-picks fine wines for drinking now and recommends others to lay down, all priced from £25 / $30 upwards

From the cellar

Revisiting the Judgement of Paris

A dinner held at London wine club 67 Pall Mall, hosted by Alan Davies under the theme ‘Revisiting the 1976 Judgement of Paris’, produced a stunning range of wines. As aperitif, an elegantly fresh Schramsberg, Blanc de Blancs NV preceded a rich J Schram 2000 of great complexity.

With the lobster thermidor pot pie came four magnificent Chardonnays: El Molino, Rutherford 2001 still very much there; Mayacamas, Mt Veeder 2007 showing its high-elevation origins; Aubert, CIX Vineyard, Sonoma Coast 2012 elegantly crafted; and Hanzell, Ambassador’s 1953 Vineyard, Sonoma 2013 with great precision and grip.

To match fillet of venison and haggis dauphinoise, a superb range of Cabernets appeared, all but one from the 1976 tasting: Mayacamas 1971 still fragrant and firm; Clos du Val, Stags Leap District 1972 whose rich colour belied the vintage, fruit and tannins in perfect harmony – the wine of the night; Heitz, Martha’s Vineyard, Oakville 1970 with dense colour and mint flavours; Ridge, Monte Bello, Santa Cruz 1984 with a great future; then Mouton Rothschild 1970 and Haut-Brion 1970, this time the latter taking the palm. With cheese, Cain Five, Spring Mountain 1994 and Diamond Creek, Calistoga 1994 added to Napa’s reputation.

For the cellar

Weingut Bercher Weingut Bercher, based in the Kaiserstuhl village of Burkheim south of Baden, between the Rhine river and the Black Forest, can look back on 10 generations of winemaking since Franz-Michael Bercher built the cellar in 1756. The estate’s primarily volcanic soil is planted to Chardonnay, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) in two of Burkheim’s VDP Erste Lage (premier cru) and three Grosse Lage (grand cru), producing wines of the highest quality. While the whites were excellent, the reds were even more impressive. As in Burgundy, three levels of wine are offered, beginning with a characterful QbA Burkheimer village wine. The Erste Lage Sasbacher Limburg 2014 had great clarity and depth, while the Grosse Lage Feuerberg Kesselberg 2015 stood out for its full colour, pronounced florality on the nose and a very fine expression of velvety textured fruit on the palate – a wine of great purity and presence that reminded me of a top premier cru Vosne Romanée, with a decade or two in front of it from 2020. Another German Spätburgunder with star status.

The Spurrier selection