The ultimate gift for your palate this Christmas season

2018 Blackbook, Pygmalion chardonnay, England

published 24 December 2020

2018 Blackbook, Pygmalion chardonnay, England

£25, blackbookwinery.com The Battersea-based Blackbook “urban winery” is run by the mercurially talented husband and wife team Sergio and Lynsey Verrillo. I popped into their brilliant set-up, based in an old British Rail arch not far from Battersea Park, the other day and found no less than four wines which I wanted to alert you to immediately. These wines will recalibrate your palates for what we all hope will be a far happier year next year.

Pygmalion is sourced from the Greyfriars Vineyard in the North Downs of the Surrey hills. The grapes are whole-bunch pressed into Burgundy barrels where they undergo natural fermentation using indigenous yeast. The wine then stays in these barrels for a further 20 months and the results are nothing short of sublime. The 2018 was a relatively warm vintage so there is extraordinary flavour and also finesse here. Sergio is a master at barrel selection and so the balance and class are unmistakable, making this one of the only white wines in the country which can truly stand shoulder to shoulder with elite-class white Burgundies.

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In addition, 2019 Painter of Light chardonnay (£19) is a crystalline, tangy, energetic wine with a chablis-shaped attack; 2019 Nightjar pinot noir (£19) is tremulous, hedgerow-soaked and plum and cranberry-smooched; and 2019 The Mix Up Vol II (£17.50) is a zany chardonnay/pinot gris mash-up which leaves you gasping with joy. Grab The Lock-in Case: 2 (£110) and get a bottle of each of my tips and a couple more beauties besides. This is the ultimate gift for your palate this season!

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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.