Better value is the Diamond Hills range at Waitrose the Chenin Chardonnay 1995

Better value is the Diamond Hills range at Waitrose, the Chenin Chardonnay, 1995, pounds 3.75, a good, clean, crisp, dry quaffer, and 1994 Pinotage Cabernet Sauvignon, pounds 3.75, sweetly spicy and plummy with a rustic, dry aftertaste. Sainsbury’s new Cape offerings include a zesty, dry 1995 South African Fume Blanc Reserve Selection, Robertson, pounds 4.45, with a touch of oak failing to extinguish the typically crisp, mouthwatering character of the grape, and the 1995 South African Chardonnay Reserve Selection, pounds 4.25, Stellenbosch, lightly smoky, with tropical fruit sweetness and a brisk, saving spritz. Elsewhere, the 1995 Kumala Cinsault Pinotage, pounds 3.39-pounds 3.99, Booths, Safeway, Somerfield, is a, warm, softly spiced, southern- Rhone-like blend.
Thresher’s joint venture in California with British wine maker Hugh Ryman has been partially successful, with his aromatic, rounded, tropically fruity 1995 King’s Canyon Sauvignon Blanc, pounds 3.99, Thresher, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up – again better this year than the chardonnay – and the 1994 King’s Canyon Petite Sirah – a misnomer. Far from petite, this is a bruising, sweetly ripe, damson-skin red, with hefty tannins to chew on California is usually worth paying a bit more for. Kevin Wilson at Greenalls Cellars Wine Cellar has unearthed a little gem in the 1993 Reds, pounds 5.99, a luscious, sweetly ripe, concentrated red from Sonoma’s Laurel Glen Vineyard.A final excellent white and red this month. The 1995 New Zealand Dry White, pounds 4.25, Waitrose, is a fresh, clove-pinks-like, floral white with a delicately cinnamon character.

From Spain, Hugh Ryman’s 1993 Santara Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, pounds 4.79, Sainsbury’s, is an authentic Bordeaux blend showing the capsicum character of cabernet with spicy, sweet oakiness.Unmissable oddball of the month is the 1994 Peter Lehmann Botrytis Semillon, pounds 6.99 half-bottle, Oddbins Fine Wine Stores. This is a beautifully crafted, ultramodern dessert white with refreshing, citrus-zest fruitiness and clean, strong, semillon character. Fizz of the month: 1992 Seaview Pinot Noir Chardonnay, pounds 7.99, Oddbins, Thresher, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up, a toasty blend of the two main champagne grapes with that distinctive yeastiness the French like to refer to, with a disparaging Gallic shrug, as “le gout anglais”.. On days set aside for copying, the galleries at the Louvre were a sea of easels, professional copyists vying for space with students.

Berthe Morisot first went there, chaperoned by her mother, at age 16. A descendant of Fragonard and a pupil of Corot, she had by 27 spurned marriage for a life devoted to art. That was the year – 1868 – that fellow painter Henri Fantin-Latour brought Edouard Manet to the Louvre

Morisot knew Manet by reputation – everyone did. His Dejeuner sur l’herbe had been the scandal of the Salon des Refuses in 1863, and his Olympia was almost hooted off the wall two years later. His family came from the haute bourgeoisie, like hers; he was handsome, witty, nine years her senior, and married – not that that concerned her, of course. On the day of the meeting she set up her canvas in the Grande Galerie and selected a delicious Rubens nymph to copy.