2016 HMR White: the finest still xarello I have ever tasted

published 18 May 2018

2016 HMR White, Mont Rub, Peneds, Spain£13.95, Jeroboams, 020-7235 1612, Jeroboams.co.uk

I popped into the newly revamped Jeroboams store on Pont Street in London's Belgravia district the other day and set about tasting 20 wines, all of them priced at under £20. It was a tremendous experience, not least because the emporium's wine director, Peter Mitchell, is eminently aware that although it's a doddle to buy the dear stuff, it can be fiendishly difficult to track down competitively priced but decent wine. He puts an enormous amount of effort into this sector of his portfolio and this is very evident when you dive into his selected wines.

A summer indulgence

HMR White is my pick for spring/summer indulgence and it is guaranteed to impress your palate. Mont Rub sits high up in the hills 60km west of Barcelona in Spain. At an altitude of 700m, this estate used to make cava, but in 2001 they changed tack and started to make still wines out of their cava grapes and also some reds from the rare variety sumoll.

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HMR White is made of xarello and it is the finest still version of this grape I have tasted. It reeks of class, with delicacy, control and length that belie its price. I would pay a lot of money for this wine in a fancy, Spanish, three-star restaurant, and so it is shocking that it is only £14 retail in the UK.

With a flavour reminiscent to the local limonera pears, spiked with tart green apples, this is a stunningly pretty wine and it will shock you with its purity.

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

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.