Had a fun few hours in Netil Market just down the road in London Fields at the inaugural ‘WINE C4R BOOT’, where some of the city’s indie wine shops had set up to pour and sell some of their wines. There were wines from Sweet Thursday, Noble Fine Liquor, Roberson, Bottle Apostle, WineChap, Borough Wines and Planet of the Grapes. It was a friendly, unpretentious event which benefitted from Netil Market’s usual cohort of food stalls, keeping us nourished with such trendy E8 snacks as tacos, fresh pasta, and, if you were there early enough, cracking fish&chips from Fin&Flounder. Also, the little stemless plastic glasses from GoVino that we all received were a stroke of genius (a huge improvement on bog standard ISO glasses that you so often get).

 I kicked off proceedings with the impressive baked apples, dried herbs and fresh yeast of the 2011 Berthet-Bondet Crémant du Jura, available for £15.95 from Roberson. Characterful and worth the asking price. From the same retailer I enjoyed the Mas Coutelou 7 Rue de la Pompe 2012, which at £9.95 was a natural red from the Languedoc that flirted with funkiness but came out a winner with its lively fresh blackberries and juicy, sweet/sour palate. I actually wrote ‘touch of raspberry vinegar, in a good way’, so there you go. The Château Falfas 2010, a Cote de Bourg at £16.95, came across a little muted and soupy - it was a warm day - but I can see it hitting the spot if you need a hit of the Bordeaux with your Sunday lunch.

From Bottle Apostle I enjoyed the Cleto Chiarlo Lambrusco Pruno Nero NV (£14), which was towards the fun, fruit-sweet end of the Lambrusco spectrum, and the elegant Eben Sadie Sequillo Red 2010 from Swartland, a very classy, savoury red that illustrates the exciting direction that Swartland is taking South African wine. I also got on very well with the Apatsagi Prior Riseling 2009 from Borough Wines, a Hungarian wine which combined a classic, sprightly Riesling nose of lime and meadow flowers with a grippy, refreshing palate that left me wishing that Fin and Flounder hadn’t run out of fish and chips.

The biggest hits of the day came from WineChap - all of our party left with some of his wines, which included the beefy Vina Magana Dignus 2007, a Navarra red at £15.50 that would be a perfect accompaniment to the shortening evenings, and, my pick of the day, the Bourgogne Rouge Dom. Jane & Sylvain Raphanaud 2009. This is a sub-£20 Burgundy that does much more than be ‘surprisingly decent’, or however you would ordinarily describe wines in that category. It won me over with its velvety-sweet red fruits and, crucially, fine and serious texture. No thin and short Pinot here; this is the real deal for £17.50 and I’d pick some up if I were you. It might be even better in a couple of years as that remaining touch of oak slips into the background. My wine-minded friends, who are well-acquainted with Veneto wines, also really enjoyed the La Giaretta Valpolicella Volpare 2011, so I’ll pass on that recommendation too at £13.50, though I didn’t get to try it myself (ditto the 2012 Vermentino di Gallura from Cantina Giogantinu, which you can spot being taken home in a little wine carrier in the picture).
All in all a big thumbs up for this event. We went round the corner to the excellent La Bouchon Fourchette to round off a fine day - here’s hoping there are some more to come!