Steven Spurrier’s wines of the month

Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor hand-picked fine wines for drinking now and for the cellar, based on tastings that he has attended recently.

From the cellar

Hommage à Jacques Perrin 1999

Marc Perrin, one of the seven members of the fifth generation to work in the Famille Perrin estates at Château de Beaucastel and across the best appellations of the southern Rhône, was at 67 Pall Mall in London to show a range of Châteauneuf-du-Pape vintages from 2016 back to 1989, which offered convincing proof that Beaucastel’s reputation as the region’s finest estate is fully deserved.

The 100ha of biodynamically farmed vineyards are planted with all 13 grapes allowed – Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Vaccarèse, Counoise and Terret Noir; Roussanne, Muscardin, Clairette, Picpoul, Picardan and Bourboulenc – and all are used for the Beaucastel red.

For the flagship Hommage à Jacques Perrin (father to Jean-Pierre and François, jointly Decanter Hall of Fame, 2014) a tighter selection is made based on Mourvèdre, Grenache and Syrah from the oldest vines.

Having spent an afternoon with Jacques Perrin in the early 1970s, tasting a range of his own Beaucastels going back to the 1920s, the magnificent 1999 vintage (98pts) is a true monument to his memory: superb colour with black autumnal fruits on the nose, vibrant vigour and an envelopingly rich texture on the palate, and still masses of energy and vineyard tannins for another decade and more.

For the cellar

Kumeu River Chardonnay

Well known to wine lovers, the Kumeu River estate is surrounded by the suburbs of Auckland in New Zealand’s North Island. The Chardonnays are handmade by Mike Brajkovich, the country’s first Master of Wine, and marketed by his brother Paul.

Last September, Farr Vintners’ The Greatest Kumeu River Tasting Ever showed all 12 vintages from its four bottlings – Estate, Coddington, Hunting Hill and Maté’s Vineyard – from 2006 to 2017, all under screwcap. Over a morning, 18 tasters sampled 48 wines and there was not a single disappointment: far from it. Jancis Robinson MW pondered: ‘Do we need white Burgundy?’ The florality, fruit, precision and depth of these wines was unmatched.

While the Chevalier-Montrachet-like Maté’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2014 and the Corton- Charlemagne-like 2010 (both 97pts from me, with a decade in front of them) took the group’s vote, they are both sold out. So, I recommend the 2017, to which I gave a modest 94, drinking from 2019-2032 (£23ib, Farr Vintners).

The mostly clay soil is friable, the 2.6ha vineyard is sheltered, so the fruit is both rich and dense, texture coming from long skin contact. Compared to the 2017s in the other ranges, this has something more, as the Brajkovich family had realised from its very first vintage in 1992. A triumph.

The Spurrier selection

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Château de Beaucastel wines for your cellar

Producer Profile: Kumeu River