James Bercovici - The Big Red Wine Company

Davy Strange of Elitistreview.com was the grateful recipient of a bottle sent to him by one of our more unusual customers - unusual in that he sent a bottle of wine he had purchased from us to a self-declared madcap reviewer he didn't actually know. Davy has had quite a lot of experience of Jean-Marc Joblot 's wines but I think this may be his first taste of anything put together by daughter Juliette and Davy certainly seemed a little upset that Juliette had dared to blend his beloved Servoisine with anything else, even if it was with the other Premier Cru wines from the same village and vintage. Not to worry, he clearly loved the resulting cuvee, the 2016 Givry Premier Cru 'L'Empreintes' and sent me a note the following day, raving about it and demanding that I hold some wine back for him. The great British public don't generally rush to buy £30 bottles of wine so I didn't think this would be a great problem Jancis Robinson doesn't appear to have ...

It is a rare dinner - other than with just the family - where I am one of the older people but the average age of the people around the table last night was very slightly lower than mine. An Italian theme seemed to fit the mood but I can never decide what to serve with asparagus, even when wrapped in prosciutto and sprinkled with parmesan before being baked so I went with the simple solution of encouraging everyone to continue with their pre-dinner drink which, in most cases, meant more of i Campi's rather fun Prosecco (I had, by this time, moved on to a delightful Mosel Riesling brought back from a trip there a couple of summers ago). The main course was more straightforward: egg yolk pasta with a wild boar sauce (NOT ragu). This was to be followed by a simple cheese course of 36-month matured parmesan so this seemed a good opportunity to crack open a magnum of Enrico Nada's 2007 Barbaresco 'Casot' which sports the black label normally reserved for Reserva wines. 200...

Recently returned from our annual trip hopping across the Alps (we managed the journey over the top of the Colle Madelene/Col d'Arche which affords stunning views and around 22 hairpin bends on the Italian side - not good if you get stuck behind a camper van) having visited lots of wineries both in Piedmont and the Rhone. As every enthusiast knows, 2015 was an exceptional year throughout Europe (certainly all the major wine-growing regions of France and northern Italy where we work) with wines that often need a bit of cellaring but have the capacity to age magnificently. In the main, these are the wines we offered 'en primeur' this time last year. Now it is the turn of the 2016s. In Piedmont, I was struck by the explosion of fruit in the Langhe Nebbiolo wines I tasted from 2016. Actually, it was probably more the acidity levels in these wines which kept the fruit very much alive on the palate. Fantastic food wines. Of course, it is only the basic Nebbs that are currentl...

They've never been regarded as a bad thing in Champagne but multi-vintage blends (MVBs) have rarely been taken seriously in still, unfortified wines. Ant Rose, in an article for Decanter, has attempted to point out that this is not always justified. I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of non-vintage wines are of low quality, the emerging MVB category is trying to do something rather more exciting. What's the difference between NV and MVB, you may ask? Legally, nothing as far as I can see. They are simply designations conjured up by winemakers and wine critics (and, of course, wine merchants) but, as a rule of thumb, NV wines are probably going to look cheap - thin bottles, dull labels etc - and taste it. MVBs are prestige bottling with price tags to match. If nothing else, that's one way to measure the pretensions of the winemaker. Xavier Vignon , with whom we have been working for about 15 years, is a pioneer of the style. His 'Debut' cuvee, ...

Pound for pound (or should that be euro for euro), I doubt there is an estate in Burgundy producing higher quality wines at such (comparatively) low prices as Givry's Domaine Joblot . Year after year, this is a producer that makes wines that are better than many in the more illustrious Cote d'Or but, at around £25 or so a bottle, there is little - beyond basic Bourgogne Rouge - that can match these wines for price. Now, don't get me wrong, Bourgogne Rouge can be very good indeed when it comes from some of the better producers' stables but they are always north of £20 these days and don't often match the most basic wine in the Joblot range which, from 2016, bears the moniker ' Preface ' . This is their village Givry and its youthful, pretty nose offers good fruit weight and perfume. The length is good for this level and there is no reason to doubt that this wine will develop extremely nicely. Definite notions of stewed plums here and a hint of cinnamon perh...