Lifestyle & opinion

Forgotten bottles: Sebastian Payne MW's last bottle in lockdown

Rather than his usual Last Word column, Sebastian sent in this story about a long-forgotten last bottle!

Sebastian Payne MW swaps the tasting room in Stevenage for a more relaxed approach to tasting at home
Sebastian Payne MW swaps the tasting room in Stevenage for a more relaxed approach to tasting at home

As I expect are many others, my wife and I are confined to our house, though we are lucky enough to have a garden and some local walks that aren't crowded. A bottle of wine in the evening is an enjoyable diversion as are telephone calls and video links with grandchildren. We were caught out, however, by the temporary Wine Society closure without stocks of dry white wine just as spring temperatures were rising, but I discovered a long-forgotten bottle of Montlouis 1989 under the floorboards and decided, much to my wife's horror to drink it with the salmon tails baked on a bed of garden sorrel. Having said that she did not like drinking sweet white, she admitted that it did taste delicious.

Montlouis, across the river from Vouvray is one of those half-forgotten appellations and its wines have become rather unfashionable, so much so that the value of vineyard land planted with chenin blanc in several parts of the Loire Valley is some of the lowest in France. I haven't seen the wines of this particular grower, Delétang, for years and fear he may have thrown in the towel. What a shame because the wine was beautiful, its sweetness balanced by acidity and clean as a whistle. We are all having to re-learn patience and such wines are best sipped and enjoyed slowly, and anyone who thinks they don't go down well with salmon is missing a trick.

Sebastian Payne MW

Society Buyer

Sebastian Payne MW

Sebastian, our longest serving wine buyer, joined The Wine Society in 1973. He served as Chief Wine Buyer from 1985–2012.

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