Towards the end of last year I was approached by the folks at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art.

As 2017 would be their 30th birthday, and as they have wonderful representations of boats under full sail, they asked about the possibility of a custom label featuring one from their collection.

It would have to be on a reasonably priced bottle of wine that they could use at functions in the year and by the glass in their restaurant, Homer’s Café. We asked Bermudian David Butterfield if he would scout around for us as he lives in and makes wine in Burgundy.

The end result is cases of white wine from a quite new appellation created in 1999 and named for two villages that closely resemble each other in soil type and climate. Only chardonnay is allowed, as the soils of limestone pebbles are considered best for this variety. So it is Viré — Clessé 2015 Vielles Vignes. The wine is white-gold and yellow and the immediate sensation on the nose is May flowers and springtime honeysuckle. You will also find lemon, white peach and mint.

Although I cannot attest to the actual age of the vines used to make this wine, it does tell us on the label that they are “old vines” and of course, this normally means more complexity. There is no agreement on exactly when this term can be used, but as a guide it is unusual for a vine to survive for 100 years and most start to produce smaller crops after 20 and so are often replaced. Slovenia claims the very oldest, that was planted over 400 years ago and is still having a crop of grapes.

So, why am I telling you of this wine with the billowing sails on the label? We have also decided to carry it in our three shops and, for each bottle sold we will make a contribution to Masterworks. The cost is $22.80.

Oracle could lay claim to being a word on the minds of all of us at this time and what better way could we have to enjoy a fine dinner than have a bottle of exceptional Napa Valley wine on our table, that tells us in gold lettering that it is “The Oracle”. To understand this, we must first go back to 1977 and hear the story of Bob Miner, a co-founder along with Larry Ellison of the Oracle Corporation (like Miner and even Ross Perot, I also worked for IBM in the 1960s — makes me wonder, but I would not change a thing).

In 1989 Bob and Mary Miner were looking for a place to relax away from the city and bought a 334-acre parcel of land in Napa Valley; the fact that 60 acres were planted with cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay was almost secondary to their purpose. The potential of these vines, first planted in the early 1900s was not lost on them though and the 1989 Oakville Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon was one of the valley’s big success stories.

Sadly, in 1995, Bob passed away from mesothelioma and his nephew David, who was working for the Oracle Corporation, was brought in to manage the winery. In 1996, Dave and his wife Emily decided to start their own label and so we now have The Miner Family Winery. In 2004 the first release of The Oracle 2001, a Bordeaux-style blend, was judged by Bon Appetite Magazine as “one of the top-five American wines of that year”.

We have a few bottles of The Oracle 2010 in stock and this week we have just unloaded the 2012. The 2010 vintage rates 89/100 on any of the charts that I have and this wine has the advantage of being from a good year and it has some bottle age. To find an even better overall vintage than 2012, one has to go all the way back to 1997; the former at 96/100 and the latter 95/100. All of the fruit for this new vintage originates in one of the most respected Napa properties, the 600-acre Stagecoach Vineyard, that incidentally sells fruit to some of the most renowned wineries. Sitting above the fog line in the eastern hills of the valley, it enjoys the advantage of long sunlight hours. Afternoon winds that reach this higher elevation keep the berries dry after summer rains, important for preventing mildew.

Miner Family The Oracle 2012 is a Bordeaux-styled blend of 54 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 25 per cent cabernet franc, 15 per cent merlot, 3 per cent petit verdot and 3 per cent malbec. The wine is full-bodied, elegant, silky, reserved and supremely balanced and lush with aromatics of raspberry and dark cherry and a hint of eucalyptus. $98.55. Food, wine and sailing — now all we need is the music.

• This column is an advertorial for Burrows Lightbourn Ltd. E-mail mrobinson@bll.bm or 295-0176. Burrows Lightbourn has stores in Hamilton (Front Street East, 295-1554), Paget (Harbour Road, 236-0355) and St George’s (York Street, 297-0409). Visit www.wineonline.bm.