Drinks of the Month

Wine of the week: Virgile Joly Bourret Pays d’Oc 2014

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on August 7 2015 at 15:56

Those of you who have followed me for a while will know I’m not a great fan of Naked Wines but occasionally they come up with a corker that almost tempts me to sign up as an ‘Angel'.

This characterful (and by that I mean full of flavour and texture, not weird) crisp, dry white from Languedoc producer Virgile Joly is a case in point. It’s a blend of Piquepoul and an indigenous local grape, Terret Bourret and has much more flavour and finesse than your average Picpoul de Pinet. It’s the kind of wine I’d happily carry on drinking through the rest of the summer, especially with seafood. £7.99 seems a more than fair price though the notional ‘normal’ price of £10.99, were you able to buy it, would be pushing it a bit.

If you’re ordering from Naked Wines two other wines I’d go for are the 2012 Bravado red from Chilean producer Garcia + Schwaderer, a big ripe supple blend of Carignan, Syrah and Grenache that would be great with a steak (£11.99 to Angels) and the juicy bright spicy Cordero Calabria Rosso 2013 which at £9.99 may be fractionally on the pricey side but it's a perfect wine for a pizza. The 'normal' price (which doesn't make sense if you can't buy it) is £13.99 which is definitely more than it’s worth.

This, by the way, is my issue with Naked. They make it sound as if Angels are getting an exceptional deal but their ‘normal’ price is meaningless. However I know that they have many fans and that they have made it possible for a number of winemakers to start up on their own or expand their business. And should you be accepted as an Angel (there is, believe it or not, a waiting list*) you can apparently stop your membership at any time. Up to you.

* Out of curiosity I’ve signed up to see how long it will take them to accept me. At the moment there are 8026 applications ahead of me and they say mine should be processed by August 31st. I'd be amazed if it wasn't before that. Let's see!

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