RED Mourgues du Gres Les Galets Rouge, 2009 List Price: £9.99 Offer Price: £8.99

WHITE Tamellini Soave, 2010 List Price: £10.99 Offer Price: £9.89

BUBBLY Bonville Champagne Grand Cru NV List Price: £25.99 Buy 5 bottles and get a 6th free!

P.S. Why not mark the Jubilee with something different and try the Pirie Sparkling NV from Tasmania, declared by wine writer Matthew Jukes as the greatest sparkling wine outside of Champagne!

The substance, called piceatannol, is said to delay the generation of young fat cells and prevent them from growing into mature fat cells. It works by blocking insulin’s ability to activate genes that carry out further stages of fat cell formation.

The agent is also thought to help protect against neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The groundbreaking research was carried out at Purdue University, Indiana.

Lead researcher Dr Kee-Hong Kim, assistant professor of food science at the university, commented: “We are now testing our idea using animal model obesity to see if it has the same beneficial functions.”

Dufouleur Frères

From one of the greatest wine producing regions in the world we are thrilled to introduce the red wines of Dufouleur Freres. A must for Burgundy aficionados, the range is new to the UK, exclusive to Cadman Fine Wines and is guaranteed to delight your tastebuds without breaking the bank.

Dufouleur offers exceptional quality across the board and lovers of Pinot Noir could do much worse than to check them out. These wines are available now with a saving of 10%, in advance of the release of our brand new wine list for 2012.

Please click here for details of the Dufouleur red wines. Alternatively why not try the following 6-bottle case which provides a perfect introduction to the range.

A Taste of Dufouleur
(Comprising 2 bottles each of Le Fouleur, Pinot Noir 2010, Mercurey 1er Cru Clos L’Eveque, 2009 and Vosne-Romanée Les Jacquines, 2009)

List Price: £132.96      Offer Price: £119.66

Jean Claude Berrouet worked at Pétrus for 43 years, being appointed in the early 1960 as the château’s first permanent winemaker. In the years since, Jean Claude built Pétrus to be one of the finest wines on the planet. In 2007 he retired and was succeeded by his son, remaining as a consultant for the famous winery of the Pomerol.

Tapiz has employed his services in what will be its tenth harvest to principally achieve higher goals in their vinification process. He will be jointly involved with the estate in developing the greatest potential of its varietals; to help complement the strong personality and varietal identity of Tapiz’s high altitude vines, with the elegance that distinguishes Jean Claude’s wines.

We very much look forward to future vintages, and expect even greater things from one of Argentina’s most exciting estates.

Auntsfield Sliding Hill 2008

Lovely floral aromas along with grapefruit,
citrus and stone mineral notes. The palate
is juicy and refreshing with white stone
fruits to the fore. Zesty with a surprisingly
long finish.

List Price: £10.99
Offer Price: £8.99

In contrast to the Auntsfield we have a wonderful new release from Bellbird Spring, this time from the Waipara region. This small, boutique winery produces a highly sophisticated style of Sauvignon Blanc, very much in the European mould and offering a great contrast to New World styles. Available with a saving of 10% per bottle, there is no excuse to avoid making the comparison for yourself.

Bellbird Spring Block Eight 2010

“Sophisticated Sauvignon Blanc… Barrel
fermentation has restrained mineral,
capsicum and lemon grass characters and
added an extra, subtle toasty dimension.
Quite Sancerre-like…” Bob Campbell MW
List Price: £17.50
Offer Price: £15.75

The 2011 vintage will be the last that Latour will sell en primeur, and they will no longer be part of the traditional promotional barrel tastings in spring each year.

Latour’s director, Frederic Engerer, announced the chateau’s exit from the en primeur system in a letter to negociants (traders) on Friday 13th April.

AFP obtained a copy of the letter, in which Engerer said he wanted the commercial life of the wine to coincide better with its technical life, arguing that Latour’s wines are often drunk too young, as consumers demand wines which are ready to drink.

Bordeaux wine brokers earn 2% on every transaction and negociants typically earn 12 to 15%. The move would favour emerging markets, like China which do not buy in the en primeur market.

Tags for Chateau Lafite (left) and Carruades de Lafite (right)

The seal, which is applied to the bottle neck (partly on the capsule and partly on the glass), has been affixed directly at the Château on all bottles of Château Lafite Rothschild and Carruades de Lafite labelled since February 2012. It will be present on all bottles of Château Lafite Rothschild from the 2009 vintage, and all bottles of Carruades de Lafite from the 2010 vintage. This initiative will also apply to bottles of earlier vintages released from the Château after February 2012.

The seal provides two levels of protection:

1. A unique ‘bubble code’ that cannot be reproduced.
2. A 13 character alphanumeric code that is associated with the bubble code.

The combination of the bubble code and the alphanumeric code enables the owner to authenticate their bottle and access information about the bottle, previously registered by the Château and stored in a database.

Lafite Rothschild, Bordeaux

The 4-acre property is to be constructed in the coastal city of Penglai in the eastern Shandong province, one of China’s largest wine-producing areas. CITIC East China (Group) Co. is said to be the local partner. The project will comprise a vineyard, winery and related facilities, and will be Rothschild’s third Lafite production base, outside of Bordeaux, after Argentina and Chile.

The first phase will cost around $15.8 million and a date for completion is yet to be set. Annual wine production in Penglai has doubled since 2005 and the number of winemakers increased from 39 to 70 in the same period, according to the statement.

According to Robert Parker, the world’s most influential wine critic, the answer is a resounding you bet.

Parker, who recently said of the 2009 vintage that it was “unquestionably the greatest Bordeaux vintage I have ever tasted,” has just republished his scores for the vintage, awarding an unprecedented 19 wines (18 red, 1 white) his magical 100 point rating.

More often than not, Parker’s 100-point ratings are awarded to wines at the more expensive end of the spectrum. However, in 2009 Parker also identified several more relatively affordable wines. Affordable at the moment that is, as the Parker effect can significantly increase profit margins for producers and investors.

2009 has topped off a successful millennium for Bordeaux, following the excellent 2000 and great 2005 vintages. And to put Parker’s 2009 scores into context, he delivered more perfect scores for 2009 than he gave for the 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2005 vintages combined.

Needles to say, demand for Bordeaux 2009 has surged following the release of his scores, accounting for over 60% of Liv-ex turnover in one 24 hour period, with Super Seconds (2nd growths) generating the largest share of trade.

2009 Vintage characteristics

The 2009 growing season saw relatively benign weather conditions, and consequently individual terroirs (the unique characters of vineyard sites) shone through rather than, say, a particularly hot year determining the style of wines.

As a result, many châteaux took full advantage of the opportunity to let their own style to manifest itself into their wines. Both banks claimed equal success, but looking objectively, the left bank showed greater consistency: the Cabernet-based blends being tannic, structured and polished, with simply stunning balance. That being said, the top dogs of Pomerol and Saint-Émilion were simply breathtaking, and the right bank in general produced many strong, powerful wines with enough fruit to sink a battleship.

From the moment the gates opened on Monday morning until just before they closed on Wednesday afternoon, I sampled some of the very best, (as well as some of the not quite so inspiring) wines that Portugal has to offer. What quickly became clear is that there is currently a wealth of winemaking talent in all regions, producing sensitively-styled wines, often from the innumerable indigenous grape varieties, at an extraordinary quality to price ratio.

On balance I would argue that the regions offering finest table wines are Douro in the north (famous of course for its production of Port), Dão just beneath it (from whose high-altitude vineyards come some of the most elegant and subtly complex wines of the country), and Alentejo in the south.

A personal highlight was undoubtedly the opportunity to taste Blandy’s, Terrantez 1976 medium dry Madeira. Not officially on show, not given to many of the attendees, and certainly not widely available today, it had been slowly aged in very old US oak casks for 23 years before bottling, and offered up an immensely complex nose of rich fruit cake, black tea, chocolate, dried prunes and figs, all of which continued on the palate in a very smooth style with little suggestion of the alcohol level, becoming savoury and nutty on the long and complex finish. It was an unforgettable experience for which I consider myself extremely lucky.

Oh, and wine aside, there were some truly wonderful, cholesterol-raising, artery-clogging biscuits, olive oil, cured meats and chorizo sausages on offer at every turn.

The diet starts here.