Gifts - To keep for a few years .....................................................................................................................................................................................................
Here are some suggestions for wines which could be tucked away for a few more years.

Château Lassègue, 2000 - Grand Cru St. Emilion - £17.43 per bottle Exuding Merlot fruit, generous and beautifully structured. The very impressive 2000 has a deep colour, exudes Merlot fruit on the nose and is deliciously round and full of generous ripe fruit in the mouth but with that tell-tale 2000 structure and balance. This is a property that has won many friends over the last few years. 45% Merlot 35% Cabernet Franc 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink 2007 to 2015. Jean-Pierre Freylon is now being very ably assisted by his son, Erick, and they are continuing to produce some benchmark Grand Cru wines from their 23 hectares in the commune of St. Hippolyte. The vines, with an average age of 30 years, are planted in one single parcel surrounding the eighteenth century château and are grown on a wide variety of soils on south-facing hillsides in the most southerly corner of the appellation. OXTAIL/GAME/LIVER/VEGETARIAN ..................................................................................................................................................................

Chablis, Grand Cru Les Clos, 2002 - Domaine Pinson The 2002 is one of the great Chablis wines of this vintage and a wine that will repay cellaring for 5 to 8 years. A grand Cru Chablis is the very pinnacle of great Chablis and Les Clos is recognised as being one of the best grand cru sites. Pinson holds the largest single plot in Les Clos. Just as the 1er Crus are one step up from the Chablis Villages so this wine is up several notches again. With Pinson's Les Clos you get richness of fruit without too much fatness. Laurent is not looking to disguise the inherent concetration and ripeness in his wines by exposing them to too much oak. Oak is there but in a supporting role where it provides a framework in which to display the essence which is the wine. SMOKED FISH/CHICKEN/SHELLFISH/CHEESE/VEGETARIAN ..................................................................................................................................................................