Blank Bottle Moment of Silence, Wellington, South Africa 2017 (from £15.95, Swig) In music you have your Warp Records or ECM completists; in the world of books, it may be Fitzcarraldo Editions or Pushkin Press. These are labels that, for all the diversity of their output, have a certain consistency of house style, their names a shortcut to something great or at the very least interesting. The wine trade’s equivalents of the cult record label or publisher are the small importers who make their living form supplying restaurants and independent merchants (although many double up as retailers, too) – and seeking out their names in the small print on back-labels can be a time saving way of navigating the wall of wine. To take one example, the jaunty logo of West London-based Swig always raises my spirits. Among many other strengths, the company’s selection of new-wave South Africans – such as Blank Bottle’s gorgeous rich but tensile white – is second to none.
Château la Canorgue Côtes du Luberon, France 2015 (£15.50, Yapp Brothers) Swig is part of the Dirty Dozen, a group of 12 of the UK’s best small importers who each year put on a London tasting of some of their latest finds. At this year’s event, a small pick of many highlights included a lipsmacking, light, racy red Portuguese Triangle Senha Bairrada 2015 (£18.50, Bottle Apostle) from Iberian (among other things) specialists Indigo Wine; the deep, dark, suave blackberry-juicy Georgian Orgo Separavi 2016 (£19.99, Noel Young Wines) from Clark Foyster Wines; and the latest, berry-tangy vintage of cult Jura-inspired Californian red, Arnot Roberts North Coast Trousseau 2017, (£35, imported and sold by Roberson Wine). The Dirty Dozen members (listed at Dirty Dozen Tasting) are all worth seeking out, as are the six members of a rival grouping, The Bunch, who held their own London event the day after, with fine bottles such as Wiltshire-based Yapp Bros’ wild and spicy southern Rhône from Château La Canorgue.
Bissani Girapoggio Sangiovese, Emilia-Romagna, Italy 2015 (from £12.95, Lea & Sandeman) The Bunch, which has been going for 25 years now and has among its members some of the UK’s longest-running wine merchants, tends to be regarded as the more traditional counterpoint to the Dirty Dozen, a collection of younger businesses that came together earlier this decade. But when it comes to the wines they offer, The Bunch is by no means staid. Among the highlights were: a silky-pretty, bargain Adnams Malbec El Dominio, Mendoza, Argentina (£9.99, Adnams); dashing minty-herbal Greek dry white Domaine Lyrarakis, Dafni, Psarades Vineyard, Crete 2017 (£13.25, Berry Bros & Rudd); mouthfilling stone fruit, creamy yet tangy Hungarian dry white Oreg Kiraly Dulo Dry Furmint Barta 2015 (£23.50, Corney & Barrow); the intensely tropical but tautly balanced and classy Austrian dry white Müller-Grossmann Grüner Veltliner Ried Silberbichl, Kremstal Reserve 2015 (£22, Tanners); and the combination of cherry purity and savoury freshness of Vini Bissoni’s Girapoggio Sangiovese from Emilia-Romagna.
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