Wine of the week: a bracingly dry, complex white

A bracingly dry everyday Vouvray with masses of class and more complexity than seems possible – you don’t find these very often, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
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2010 Vouvray Sec Ammonite, Alexandre Monmousseau, Loire (£10.30, £9.28 by the case, Haynes, Hanson & Clark, 020-7584 7927, www.hhandc.co.uk).

I rocked up to the wine merchants HHC the other day for a fabulous wine tasting with the ever-genial Jim Eustace. Loire and Burgundy always form the cornerstones of my tastings with Jim, but he chucked in a few smart Bordeaux and a number of other oddities, too, for good measure. If you are looking to bolster your house claret' selection, why not load up with 2008 Chteau Haut-Colombier, which looked suave and swaggering at only £11.85. A devastating 2010 Falanghina Taburno from Campania was sensational too, and it took me immediately back to the Amalfi coast with its sea spray and stone fruit nuances.

If you are tiring of Kiwi sauvignon blanc, and find sancerre often a little dear, then look to 2010 La Galope from Gascony (£9.15) and discover truly perfect balance. The star of the show was this dry Vouvray. Ammonite is breathtakingly beautiful with whispering floral notes and a heavenly finish. This style of wine is usually off-dry or sweet, and it is so lovely to see a bracingly dry chenin blanc with masses of class and drama in the glass. A modern, pretty, everyday wine with more complexity than seems possible I don't find these very often.

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Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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