Fine Wine

A great value offer. A superb 'Classico' Barolo wine in the superb 2019 vintage that is still under £40. A LOT of wine for the money. You really cannot go wrong here. "The 2019 Barolo has a pretty bouquet that is laced with light fruit, licorice and lots of blue flower. On the palate, the wine is mid-weight and lively. This is a nice expression of classic Nebbiolo that shows depth and elegance. It ferments with ambient yeasts and sees 40 days of extended maceration with submerged cap. This 29,400-bottle production represents a blend of fruit from seven sites: Altenasso and Solanotto in Castiglione Falletto, a part of Cerretta, the younger part of Bricco Voghera where the vines are from 55 to 60 years old, part of San Rocco, and Cerrati and Broglio in Serralunga d'Alba". Wine Advocate 93/100 "From 5.5 hectares in Castiglione Falletto, including a selection from Bricco Voghera - from which Luigi and Lorenzo Scavino usually pick the grapes for their Riserva. Here is a Barolo full of details: intense sweet violet and cinnamon aromas with smoky minerality, pomegranate and red currants. The freshness on the nose is allied to a lot of sucrosity on the palate, with lifted acidity and firm, dusty and even slightly rustic tannins. Good concentration for a village Barolo, and one of the greatest price-quality ratios". Decanter 92/100

This is a richer, full bodied and more complex white wine with minerality and almonds. Tbh this wine is so special that it’s difficult to describe. Although it’s a heavier white, it can also taste light and even sometimes a little floral. It’s contradictory. And that’s why I love it. Serve it only lightly chilled. This is a heavier white so it can take on some heavier white meat dishes. But as Piemonte is the home of Risotto, we think a really simple cheese, pumpkin or saffron risotto is a great pairin Timorasso is one of Italy’s rarest grapes. It’s only grown in a tiny area by a few winegrowers. It’s spectacular, though. The Italians call it the ‘White Barolo’ and you know how obsessed everyone is with Barolos.

This is top-class. Silky, seductive and concentrated but with a light touch typical of the genre. From the website of UK agents Thorman Hunt: Domaine Grosbois is a 9h Domaine run by two brothers, Nicolas and Sylvain. Their family vineyard is located at a place called “The Pressoir” Panzoult in the Chinon appellation in the heart of the Loire Valley. Nicolas arrived at the family estate in 2008, after spending 10 years as a “flying winemaker” and having spent time in New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Oregon. After his time abroad, Nicolas strongly believes in not vinifying and ageing in wood, choosing concrete instead to preserve the freshness and vitality. No old oak has been used since 2015. Sylvain similarly spent time abroad in Chile, Oregon working for Domaine Drouhin and Australia. The brothers are passionate about organic viticulture and show their wines at The Raw Wine Fair. The Gabare cuvée comes from the old vines of a clay limestone vineyard. The grapes are destemmed and undergo a 2 to 3 day cold maceration. The wines undergo a 20 day cuvaison in concrete tanks and are then also aged in concrete.

A wonderfully fresh and juicy Chinon, perfect for summer drinking. Chill it and enjoy in the sun! From the website of UK agents Thorman Hunt: Domaine Grosbois is a 9h Domaine run by two brothers, Nicolas and Sylvain. Their family vineyard is located at a place called “The Pressoir” Panzoult in the Chinon appellation in the heart of the Loire Valley. Nicolas arrived at the family estate in 2008, after spending 10 years as a “flying winemaker” and having spent time in New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Oregon. After his time abroad, Nicolas strongly believes in not vinifying and ageing in wood, choosing concrete instead to preserve the freshness and vitality. No old oak has been used since 2015. Sylvain similarly spent time abroad in Chile, Oregon working for Domaine Drouhin and Australia. The brothers are passionate about organic viticulture and show their wines at The Raw Wine Fair. The Cuisine de ma mère comes from their young vines from clay and sand and is designed for early drinking. The grapes are destemmed and undergo a 5-day skin maceration, fermented in concrete and then aged in concrete.

Tasting note: Deep ruby color. Ripe mountain blackberry and cassis, anise, lavender, violets, sweet toasted oak and earthy, mineral components. Bold fruit at entry coupled with fine-grained tannins and firm acidity. Layered and complex mid-palate with a long, intense finish. Vintage Notes: Warm weather in August, especially at the higher elevations, expedited ripeness. For the first time, we harvested from the top vineyard at Perrone to the bottom at Klein. The drought reduced yields by more than a third, resulting in small berries with exceptional tannin and color concentration. This year, instead of all parcels finishing malolactic in barrel as in the past, sixty percent finished in tank. This classic Monte Bello will develop over the next twenty to twenty-five years. Winemaking: 100% new oak barrels: 92% American oak, 8% French oak; nineteen months in barrel. Hand-harvested; estate grown Monte Bello Vineyard grapes, destemmed and sorted; fermented on the native yeasts; full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur 35 ppm at crush, 108 ppm during aging; depth filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

The latest vintage from the legend of Lebanon.

Very bright, polished platinum with green, vivacious hue. Complex, appealing nose with quince, citrus and floral notes developing into lemon cream, oatmeal and marzipan richness. On the palate the wine is full bodied and generous, but still balanced by crisp acidity. There is ripe tropical fruit and creaminess balanced by a pure minerality typical of the variety. The wine has a long, very pleasant lingering finish indicating the richness and persistence of the vintage.

A quite thrilling and utterly extraordinary Nebbiolo d'Alba from the brilliant Enrico Rivetto. The Nebbiolo vines grow on the Lirano hill at Sinio at an altitude 400m with exposure to the west on clay-limestone soils - on the border of Barolo. The grapes are manually harvested late September, destalked and fermented naturally in Amphora with its wild, indigenous yeasts. The wine macerates in these terracotta containers for a very long time. The wine has great energy and tension, it is extraordinarily elegant and wonderfully complex too. A neo-classical marvel of a wine. Enrico has dedicated this wine to the hill where he lives and grows. It's an absolutely extraordinary offering that regularly gets scored in the mid-to high nineties in the American journals, if that's your thing: 94/100 in Wine Enthusiast for the 2021, 96/100 WE and 96/100 in Wine Spectator for the 2019, 95/100 in WE for the 2017 etc, etc. "Lustrous mid ruby. Serious and slowly opening up. Lots of minerals and subdued fine cherry fruit. Lush, cool yet ripe perfumed red fruit with long, sandy tannins. Great balance and length and very fine". 17.5/20 Walter Speller on jancisrobinson.com July 2025 "Vibrantly intense and vividly pure, this must-try pick gushes with crushed raspberry, candied violet and fragrant wild herbs. It feels as light as a feather yet crams in buckets of red berries with an evocative undertow of baked earth and stony minerals. Gorgeously fluid and energetic, it flows seamlessly, dispersing suede-like tannins all over the mouth. Absolutely moreish! Enrico Rivetto chooses the more restrictive Nebbiolo d'Alba denomination to distinguish this amphora-aged version from his more classically crafted Langhe Nebbiolo. It spends a full six months on skins and is bottled with less than 60ppm of SO2". 93/100 Michalela Morris, Decanter Magazine June 2025 An absolute, slept-on beauty that we are very proud to bring to the UK.

Only 24 bottles available from this small and prestigious vineyard in 2018. Briccolina is the pioneer vineyard for Rivetto's biodynamic approach, introduced in 2015. It is the only Barolo Cru granted the Demeter certification. It is a vineyard-garden, a poly-culture entirely worked by hand. Situated in Serralunga d’Alba at 340 meters with west/south-west exposure. The soil is clay-limestone, with an abundant presence of marl at a depth of two meters. Soil with sub-alkaline reaction. Scaled selection, carried out three times during the 45 days before the grape harvest. Manually harvested as late as possible. Stalk and grape seeds removal/pressing and maceration for sixty days, half of which with submerged-cap and the other half with a floating cap. No controlling of temperature during the fermentation that occurs naturally on the wild yeasts of this special garden in large, open-topped wooden vats. Malolactic completed. Aged in 15-hl oak barrels for 36 months, then aged in bottle for a further 16 months before release. Sometimes the bottles are held back a further five years. "This Barolo opens with darker fruit notes of black cherry and warmed raspberry. Wild herbs, dried leaf and cedar notes waft from the glass as it opens. The palate is brooding with roasted wild berries, black tea and savory spices giving way to an earthy finish and fine and firm tannins. Drink 2028 - 2045". Jeff Porter in Wine Enthusiast 94/100

A very Alsatian-styled Chardonnay, and really racy, clean and pure in 2022. The Clos Windsbuhl vineyard was acquired by Domaine Zind-Humbrecht at the end of 1987. They realized quickly that some parts needed to be replanted in order to choose either a better suited grape variety/root stock combination and/or change the density of plantation. The part of the Clos the nearest to the forest had to be replanted. While considering the options, they decided to choose slightly earlier ripening cultivars to compensate for the cooling effect of the nearby forest. Instead of planting the classic combination of Auxerrois/Pinot-Blanc, they replaced the latter with Chardonnay. Unfortunately, Chardonnay isn’t permitted for still wines in Alsace, so we have to declassify this wine to Vin de France every year. Chardonnay is part of the Pinot family, but compared to Pinot-Blanc can produce lower yields and retain beautiful acidity on limestone geology of the Windsbuhl. In 2019, production was actually quite small, so we also added a small percentage of Pinot-Gris in the blend that fermented bone dry. Pale yellow colour. The nose shows the strong limestone influence: mineral, stone driven, citrus fruits and some white fruits (peach) after some aeration. The wine fermented in a large recent oak cask (foudre) and was on full lees until bottling. The palate is quite strict, bone dry, with a racy sapid acidity that gives a juicy texture on the finish. The wine has a nice concentration, but because it is bone dry with a ripe acidity, it feels elegant and delicate.

Enrico Rivetto is one of the pioneers of the Nascetta grape in these times, and a seeker of truth for the varietal expression in his clay-limestone soils on Sinio at 400 metres altitude with northern exposure. The soils have a sub-alkaline reaction, low in nitrogen. Nascetta is a semi-aromatic grape native to Lange with excellent aging potential. Historical texts liken this varietal to the great wines of Rhein. Manually harvested, sometimes at different stages depending on the vintage conditions. Nascetta sees wild, spontaneous fermentation. 80% of the wine is macerated on skins for three days then sees spontaneous fermentation and then breeds in concrete tank. The other 20% is vinified in Amphora with post ferment maceration lasting for several months. These two portions are then blended just before bottling. The 2021 shows gorgeous yellow plum, honeysuckle and herbs on the nose. The wine is citrus-juicy, yet with good minerality and a lean and waxy structure that shows good tension. Quite wonderful and delightfully curious. "Macerated on the skins for 72 hours, this golden Nascetta lifts from the glass with aromas of baked apples, roast lemon and dried yellow flowers. The sublime texture is highlighted by dried orange, dried wild herbs and crunchy acidity" Jeff Porter in Wine Enthusiast 92/100 "Deep, almost golden yellow. Enticing, distinctive nose of dried quince, orange blossom, lemon and the merest suggestion of curry powder, pressed orange and bruised apple. Very subtle and long and unfolding only slowly on the finish with the perfect dose of ripe acidity. Super-fine but noticeable texture. Still not at its peak". 17++/20 Walter Speller on jancisrobinson.com July 2025

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Ripe red fruits combine with interwoven oak to give touches of spice, cherries and a hint of licquorice. A beautifully elegant, lasting finish. 12 months in French oak & 6 months in American oak

Pale yellow colour. Expressive Riesling nose typical from limestone origin: citrus, light mineral notes, stony flavours, honey. Vivacious palate, crisp, amazing acidity and freshness. This is a very classic Roche Calcaire that finishes bone dry with a lacy texture. This wine will still need some time to open up and it is highly recommended to decant it in the first years after bottling.

This wine comes from two complimentary vineyards within a close proximity of our vineyard and winery. Each parcel of chardonnay was direct-pressed then cold settled before racking to French barrique and puncheon barrels (10% new) for fermentation and maturation for 9 months. Some battonage was used during maturation. There is a tight freshness here, with white stone fruits and a healthy dose of lemon on both the nose and palate. Gorgeous length too, helped by a touch of gentle oak and lees complexity. It all adds up to a beautiful, understated wine, but with plenty going on under the hood. Serve at 12c. "This is a combination of a Balhannah vineyard and a Piccadilly vineyard; an ‘off estate’ wine. It has the right pluck and charm to take you on a journey while satisfying your itch for fine chardonnay. Depth, vigour, excitement, drinkability all in the right spots. Quite a bit of honey-nougat in the wine though the coursing push of brine and crushed rock minerality elevates things and pierces the palate. There’s nectarine, white peach, green pear in the mix too. It’s marries the seasoning of the winery impeccably in apt, medium bodied fruit flavours. In all this, ticking many boxes." 93/100 Winefront Review by Mike Bennie "Fruit from two vineyards in the Piccadilly and Balhannah districts, crafted in a light and delicate style, focused on a citrus zest influence to the regional white stone fruit characters that are the core flavour note. A touch of grapefruit juice as well. There’s a 10% new oak regime with battonage in the winemaking, which gives the wine the lightest textural weight. Very easy to pour again and again. 12.4% alc Drink now - 2028" 92/100 Review by Tony Love at Winepilot 2025 SA Wine Guide "The 2023 were such a protracted vintage - something more of the 80s than most these days being warmer and earlier. They are really starting to show nicely now". Sholto Broderick

Bright pale-yellow colour. Discreet nose which is slowly opening on fresh citrus fruits and light smoky aromas, a characteristic often found on this grape variety. This is almost a Riesling like nose with lots of precision and tension. Palate is dry and is supported by a ripe acidity. The finish shows an enjoyable velvety and elegant mouthfeel with again fresh white fruits flavours. The Windsbuhl character shows strongly in this wine and will allow for a nice evolution over the next few years.

When Zind-Humbrecht acquired the Clos-Saint-Urbain vineyard on the Grand Cru Rangen in 1977, about half of the land wasn’t under vines and needed to be planted. This very steep vineyard requires a lot of hard manual work and some surfaces were left abandoned in the middle of the 20th century. Most vintages, the vines planted in the 70s and 80s are separated from the very old vines that qualify as Grand Cru. This wine clearly show all the originality of a volcanic geology which is unique in Alsace. They are also cultivated the exact same way as the older vines (ploughing with a winch for example). The biggest difference would be on the crop size. The Roche Volcanique is made with low yields, but the older vines produce even less! For these ‘younger vines’ they aim for very healthy grapes (no noble rot) in order to achieve a dry wine. Bright pale-yellow colour. Expressive fruity and smoky nose (smoked ham, grilled hazelnuts). The palate has a velvety texture, lots of depth and length without too much power. Gentle balance showing a saline acidity on the finish. Very easy wine to enjoy today. Dry, but with a certain softness due to a good dry extract that brings volume on the palate. Obviously Rangen in taste…

From Sholto Broderick at Basket Range Wines: This wine is the evolution of the style my father made using the same fruit; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. These vines were planted first in the early 1980s and at our new adjacent vineyard in 2001. Growing these varieties and making them into wine, I see the quality of the site and concentration of the fruit. Each block sits at a northern facing aspect on loamy clay over sandstone. The wine shows ripeness of tannin, structure and balance, while having energy and elegance. A reflection of an excellent site for these varieties. This is a Cabernet Sauvignon predominant blend (75%) with Merlot (19%) and Petit Verdot (6%). Each component was fermented in 2000L vats and matured in French barriques for 10 months. The 2022 Estate Cabernet is a pretty special wine for me. The 2021 Estate Cabernet was awarded the "Best Cabernet Trophy" at the Adelaide Hills Wine Show in 2022. I feel the 2022 vintage release is the best job of it I have made so far. Only 230 dozen produced. From Mike Bennie in The Wine Front: "From the Basket Range, of course, and a blend of 75% cabernet sauvignon, 19% merlot, 6% petit verdot. Sholto Broderick guides the process here, a young fella with a lot of clever stuff going on in his head, and a steady hand on the idea of legacy for the family estate. This feels like a very mature human made it. So even, so precise, so balanced, so serious yet so drinkable. Succulent texture, a freshness in the mix, dark cherry, faint mocha, liquorice, clove, blonde tobacco, alpine amaro characters in bouquet and palate. A web of emery board tannin shapes things nicely, the persistence is notable with graphite and crushed rock minerality finishing things in the distance, with a lick of clove spice there too. So wonderfully poised and offers concentration yet lift throughout. It’s decidedly serious. It’s fabulous". 94/100 The Wine Front

This is an astonishing and almost perfect expression of Gewurztraminer; floral, smoky and spicy, then terrific concentration and balance and length, with some juicy sweetness detectable and adding to the enjoyment of the whole. Very, very fine. The sedimentary limestone geology, mostly located on the Vosges mountains foothills in Alsace, has always been the prime choice for producing long lived and structured Gewurztraminer wines. The presence of clay, more or less important, brings a cooler element in the soil, slowing down the ripeness process and preserving better acidity. The presence of limestone influences the aromatic profile and texture of the wine. They become more spicy, less floral, with a recognisable tighter tannic structure so crucial for the balance of the wine. Gewurztraminer, more than any other in Alsace, requires an accomplished skin ripeness. Failing so can end up in an over aromatic, not complex and bitter wine. The quality of the terroir will help greatly, but so does harvesting later! Since the acidity is naturally low, harvesting later isn’t affecting the wine as much as other grapes that would suffer more from acidity loss. All the grapes going into this wine are sourced from the estate's top single vineyards or Grands Crus, where they use the 'younger' vines. Pale yellow gold colour. The nose is very expressive showing intense exotic fruits aromas (litchi, mango, passion fruit, grapefruit…). It sounds like a cliché, but the wine is actually elegant and racy. The palate is fresh, quite tense and vibrant. Nice sweetness on the finish very well balance by ripe tannins. This is a classic medium sweet Gewurztraminer that shows that it originates from good vineyards. It can be enjoyed young but will develop more complexity (spiciness) with age.

This Syrah takes inspiration from wines of the Northern Rhone with its full-bodied, savoury-sweet and complex style. Ruby coloured, it leads with a floral perfume of rosemary, red fruits and other violets. Intense on the palate, expect mixed berries, black plum, leather hide and smooth, creamy tannins. The finish adds a touch of pepper spice.

One of the best of Alsatian dry Muscats. Deftly crafted, lifted, lilies and blossom. Impressively concentrated and ripe, but so fine, so delicate.

For a grower famed for intense whites this is supremely bright and fresh and lifted. Apples and pears, petals and lilies all round.

Sangiovese 80%, Canaiolo 15%, Malvasia Nera 5%. Manually harvested in mid-September from all the company's organic vineyards, the Sangiovese from Rabizza and the Lago, the Canaiolo from Vertigne and the Malvasia Nera from Tombolo. The grapes are carefully destemmed and wild fermentation takes place with the grapes natural yeasts. Fermentation takes place In thermo-conditioned steel tanks with maceration on the skins for two weeks with gentle pumping over The wine is then bred in older French oak tonneaux (large barrels) until the spring following the harvest. The wine is put to bottle and rests for a further nine months. This is a real, authentic Tuscan bargain with wonderfully characterful fruit from beautiful established vineyards blended beautifully by the master Giampaolo Chiettini. Floral, earthy, brilliant and vibrant wine. The legendary and completely wonderful Giampaolo Chiettini helps the young (very young!) Rocco (24!) and his sister Meca (25!) on their beautiful estate in DOC Valdarno di Sopra. A very exciting estate to watch at this embryonic stage.