Chateau Martin 2003

I bought this some months ago on a trip to Calais, and I’ve got no idea how much I paid for it. I’m absolutely certain that it wasn’t the £9.99 that Tesco were charging for it over here, and I’m equally certain that if I knew what I was getting I’d have bought a lot more. It’s not a big, thick, dense, muscular wintry wine, which as I look at the blanket of snow which has just been dumped on London and shiver in memory of the sub-zero, wind-affected temperatures I fled home from work in a few hours ago, would perhaps be more fitting. It’s a relatively summery red, but there’s nothing wrong with a taste of summertime at this time of year. So it’s from Graves, a left-bank Bordeaux appelation which usually produces denser, cabernet-dominated blends. This, though, is two-thirds merlot, with a splash of cabernet franc in the blend. It’s soft, almost buttery, “all sorts of tasty, ripe, herby, green pepper-scented fruit”, says Jane MacQuitty in the Times, long finish, really rother lovely. Now out of stock at Tesco’s, and you can’t get it anywhere else. Yum, though.