Lay & Wheeler of Colchester (order hotline 0845 330 1855) have lots of fine wines in their summer sale which closes on 3 August. Most notable is a dramatic reduction in the price of El Principal 1999, that very fine Chilean I recommended as Wine of the week last March when Lay & Wheeler were charging £29.95 a bottle to Tanners' £22.95. L&W have now reduced the price to £19.95 which is really worth a punt.
Other wines in L&W's offer that caught my eye were Les Ailes de Berliquet 1998, second wine of the elegant St Emilion Ch Berliquet in a great right-bank vintage reduced from £15.95 to £13.50 (this is a more typical discount than El Principal, made by the same winemaker Patrick Valette. The delicious Napa Syrah/Cab blend Alexis 1999 Swanson (see tasting notes) is reduced from £46.95 to £39.50 but that's still too expensive, I'm afraid, as all their Californian reds are. A reduction from £29.75 to £19.50 for a Verget Meursault 1996 looks good on paper but deeply suspicious to me. Many a simple 1996 white burgundy is tasting awfully lean by now and this may well be one of them. L&W is also offering Verget's Pouilly Fuissé Tête de Cuvée 1996 at £14.00, and a 1998 Macon Pierreclos Le Chavigne from Guffens' personal domaine (as opposed to the Verget négociant business) reduced from £19.95 to £15.00. The one thing I'm tempted by in whites is the offer of magnums of Albert Mann's Riesling Cuvée Cinquantenaire 1997, reduced from £41.45 to £32.50. Alsace magnums just look so beautiful, and this, made substantially from botrytised grapes to celebrate a good domaine's 50th birthday, should be an excellent wine, usefully rated 4/10 for sweetness by L&W.
Justerini & Brooks of London SW1 (tel 020 7784 6400) have a handsome catalogue of reductions but none of them are really substantial and there is not the raft of German bargains I was hoping for, given their exceptionally large inventory of German wines. (Perhaps they're actually selling them – in which case this is good news.)
Tanners of Shrewsbury (order hotline 01743 234455) meanwhile, whose profit margins have always seemed more modest than many of their peers', have already sold out of the Tyrell Riesling QbA 1997 Mosel, reduced from £8.95 to £7.50 and the only English wine, reduced from £5.95 to £4.95, went even quicker which is also surprising but heartening for us lovers of underdogs. Parker fans may like to note that Tanners have substantial quantities of Artadi's particularly solid riojas, including Viñas de Gain 1997 and 1998 reduced from the £8.99 which Booths supermarkets also demand per bottle to £7.95. Señor P gave the 1998 92 points out of 100 and at the start of their sale on 19 June Tanners had 1000 bottles of it.
