Wine club - Roger Scruton puts Thongue in cheek
Published 04 July 2005
The Cotes de Thongue has begun a regime of penitence, whips included
Saving the planet is high on everyone's agenda: almost as high as holidays. On the other hand, holidays destroy the planet far more rapidly than anything we can do to repair it. They pollute the atmosphere, erode the biosphere and interrupt the prayers of the people on whom we pitilessly plummet from the skies. Now that people have acquired the insatiable hunger for Elsewhere, however, there is only one solution, and that is to bring Elsewhere to the table in bottled form. Corney & Barrow has made its contribution to ecological virtue by offering France, Portugal, South Africa and Argentina in one mixed case, each bottle containing an unspoilt aspect of its place of origin.
You don't hear much about the Cotes de Thongue, whose wine is sold as a vin de pays to a discerning clientele of bondage freaks. Made from the Sauvignon Blanc, this thong-song is far removed from the crystal purity of Sancerre. Thick and earthy, it has a backbone of acidity groaning under a donkey-load of ripe fruit. It came down on our tinned sardines like the Last Judgement and wiped all trace of them away. A huge and stunning rebuke to our culinary habits, it has begun a regime of penitence, whips and thongs included.
The red from the Estremadura region of Portugal is a full, black, mouth-coating wine, made by the traditional method of foot-treading in lagares, followed by ageing in French oak. This gives you all of Portugal in a mouthful - the burning hillsides, the beautiful 16th-century Quinta of the Tavares da Silva family, and the leathery feet of peasants who have pressed the aroma of cigars and the taste of dead badger into the grapes. This is a wine that is as well made and interesting as any you will find, were you to make the mistake of travelling to Portugal. So cancel that holiday now.
The Pinot Gris from Argentina is really two holidays in one, as it is made by the French Lurton brothers, and is a remarkable attempt to re-create the floral freshness of Alsace from the dull, dry sierras of the Andes. We served this wine to my publisher, and the terms of the contract seemed a lot better at the end of lunch than they were at the beginning. Unfortunately, I don't now remember what they were.
You will be surprised by the South African rose, from the estate that used to be known as Nelson's Creek. One thing you learn from South Africa is that names such as Nelson, excised from British history by the culture of repudiation, live on in the former colonies, to be acquired by people who have no connection with our national past. This wine has the firmness of the hero of Trafalgar, with some of the light touch and clarity of his South African namesake.
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