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Christmas
wines from H&H Bancroft
H&H Bancroft are a relatively small merchant, but one with a
growing reputation and a really good list, aiming towards the top end
of the market. They recently sent me 12 wines to try, from two of
their Christmas mixed cases, and here are my notes. The missing wine
was an off bottle of Grand Veneur Châteauneuf
du Pape which I didn’t write up. These wines are available
individually at the prices stated, or discounted as part of mixed
cases.
Gold
collection (two bottles of each for £99)
Santo
Stefano Prosecco Extra Dry NV, Italy
Crisp, fruity nose is nice and fresh, with a lemony
edge. The palate shows lots of presence with some bright, slightly
sweet lemony fruit contrasting nicely with good savoury acidic depth.
Very fruity but great balance. Delicious. Very good/excellent 87/100 (£7.95
H&H Bancroft Wines)
Cairnbrae
‘The Stones’ Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2004 Marlborough, New
Zealand
Really vivid, piercing, grassy Sauvignon, but the nose
shows a bit of restraint, with a rounded grassy character that is
half-way to Sancerre. On the palate there’s some rounded
blackcurrant and gooseberry fruit. It’s a nice Sauvignon. Very good+
88/100 (£7.99 H&H Bancroft Wines)
Francine
& Olivier Savary Chablis 2002 Burgundy, France
Sweet nutty edge to the appley, lemony fruit nose.
Quite full and accessible. The palate is fruity and nutty with a nice
sweet and savoury character. It’s full of flavour: quite broad and
open for a Chablis with an appley sort of tang on the finish. Very
good+ 88/100 (£9.85 H&H Bancroft Wines)
Beresford
Shiraz 2003 McLaren Vale, Australia
Dark coloured, this has a sweet, open alluring nose with a vanilla and
coconut sheen to the dark fruits. Very sweet and soft fruit on the
palate with a distinctive sweet coconut character and some spice. A
rather extreme style with concentrated sweet fruit and prominent
American oak – whether or not you like this wine will depend on your
appreciation of this rather extreme style. Very good+ 88/100 (£8.75
H&H Bancroft Wines)
Bodega
Lan Rioja Reserva 1998 Spain
Quite a subtle elegant style of Riojs showing a
gravelly, spicy, tarry edge to the dark fruits. Midweight palate with
a nice expressive earthy character. A nice well balanced food wine
that’s reminiscent of a good Bordeaux and which is ageing quite
nicely. Very good+ 87/100 (£10.25 H&H Bancroft Wines)
Jean Foillard Morgon ‘Côte du Py’
2004 Beaujolais, France
Red/black colour. Not dense and impenetrable, but quite dark. The nose
shows a wonderful sweet, pure fruit character (cherries and
blackberries) with a haunting complexity. Initially the fruit is
supplemented by spice and some earthy notes; later I’m getting a bit
of dark chocolate and herbs. On the palate, there’s a wonderful
transparency. Sweet fruit is complemented by a smooth, silky tannic
structure and some spice. Elegant, soft, smooth and pure. After a
while longer, herb and tea elements begin to emerge. Very
good/excellent 93/100 (£12.75 H&H Bancroft Wines)
Premier
collection (two bottles of each for £148)
Pierre
Moncuit Grand Cru Champagne Blanc de Blancs NV
Fresh nose is showing appley, yeasty, lemony notes.
There’s a nice savoury, yeasty depth to the palate which shows
yeasty, toasty notes. Plenty of concentration and weight: a nice wine.
Very good/excellent 90/100 (£15.50 H&H Bancroft Wines) 11/05
Billaud
Simon Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons 2003 Burgundy, France
2003 was an atypically warm vintage here, and it shows
in a richer style of wine than you might expect. It’s full flavoured
with plenty of ripe, herb-tinged fruit, but there’s still some
minerally seriousness. One of my favourite Chablis producers. Very
good/excellent 90/100 (£14.95 H&H Bancroft Wines) 11/05
Domaine
Girault Sancerre Le Chêne du Roy 2004 Loire, France
Nice ripe fruity noise with a distinctive grassiness
and subtle gooseberry notes that are characteristic of Sauvignon.
Quite perfumed and nicely balanced, somewhere in between the old-world
and new-world styles. Very good+ 88/100 (£9.95 H&H Bancroft
Wines) 11/05
Lenton
Brae 2000 Wilyabrub Valley, Margaret River, Australia
A blend of 83% Cabernet and 17% Merlot, hand picked and
estate grown, aged for 20 months in French oak. Wonderful nose of open
blackcurrant fruit and earth, with a sort of minerally, gravelly edge
to the sweet but not OTT fruit. The palate is savoury with a lovely
earthy undercurrent to the fruit and a nice smooth but prominent
structure. It’s brilliantly balanced and quite elegant: a marriage
of old world elegance with forward new world fruit. Very
good/excellent 92/100 (£12.95 H&H Bancroft Wines) 11/05
Capafons-Osso
Sirsell Priorat 2003 Spain
A blend of Garnacha, Mazuelo, Merlot and Cabernet
Sauvignon. Deep coloured. Wonderfully sweet raspberry and blackcurrant
fruit nose with hints of chocolate and ginger. The palate has a
savoury, spicy structure under the smooth fruit, with a bit of tannic
bite. Otherwise, this is an alluring, ripe, forward wine and it will
be interesting to see how it develops. Very good+ 89/100 (£13.95
H&H Bancroft Wines) 11/05
Plus the Châteauneuf du Pape Grand Veneur 2003
Contact
details
H&H Bancroft Wines
1 China Wharf
29 Mill Street
London SE1 2BQ
www.bancroftwines.co.uk
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