Vignerons Ardéchois Ardèche Chardonnay, 2014 (£9.95, Yapp Brothers) Yapp Bros has been one of the UK’s best-loved wine merchants since dentist Robin Yapp first set up shop in the village of Mere in Wiltshire in 1969. The secret of its success? An unabashed love of small-producer French wine, often from lesser-known regions – or regions, such as the Rhône and the Loire, that Robin and, for the past couple of decades, his son Jason and stepson Tom Ashworth, have helped to establish in the UK. The Ardèche, a Rhône appellation, is a very Yapp sort of place, and the co-op provides two of the best-value wines in the company’s portfolio: this bright, pretty chardonnay and, from the south of the region, the brambly spicy syrah-grenache blend of Côtes du Vivarais 2014 (£9.95).
Domaine La Tour Vieille Collioure Puig Oriol, France 2014 (£16.50, Yapp Brothers) The Yapp Rhône range is perhaps the best in the country (it recently won a prize at the International Wine Challenge), and includes some of the region’s best producers. If you love this corner of the wine world as much as I do, you may be tempted by the mature vintages from star growers such as Domaine Clape in Cornas (2007) and Jean-Louis Chave in Hermitage (1996) that the company has just made available. At £52, the fluent, unforced herby-meatiness of Le Vieux Donjon’s 2005 Châteauneuf-du-Pape was the most tempting of these ‘library releases’. More affordable, but just as impressive in its way, is a wine from the opposite corner of France, in Roussillon: the deep, rich, sweetly spiced Puig Oriol.
Domaine Jean-Louis Tissot Arbois Trousseau, Jura, France 2013 (£13.95, Yapp Brothers) Another happy Yapp hunting ground can be found back east, into the Alps in Savoie. The ultra-delicate white Cuvée L’Orangerie has long been a favourite (£10.95 for the 2015 vintage). But at the latest tasting, a red Mondeuse 2015 (£12.50), made by the same producer, the Tiollier family, is just as distinctively refreshing, with its bright streak of black cherries. In a similar vein, Domaine Jean-Louis Tissot’s Arbois Trousseau, from further north in the Jura, has a pinot noir-like lightness with subtle earthy tones, while the same domaine’s dry white Vin Jaune 2008 (£27.50) is all sherry-like yeasty intensity, nuts and hints of curry leaf.
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