There are 142 products in this category
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Vondeling Wines
The Vondeling Babiana is predominantly made from old chenin blanc vines planted in 1986. Their age and low yield ensure consistent quality and concentration, which is why it forms the backbone of this blend. The fullness of the Chenin Blanc is tempered by the verve and high aromatics of the Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Roussanne. Platter's 2021 South African Wine Guide, 5 stars - Regular quartet, chenin with viognier, roussanne & grenache blanc, difference lies in vintage variation. Glorious 2019 symphonic assembly of honeyed spice fragrance, weighty silk texture, the layered complexity gaining futher depth from fine acid line. Natural ferment in oak, 8 months on lees, 4 months as a blend. 2018 (92 points) also gorgeous.
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Vondeling Wines
The wine has a bright hue with a golden straw colour. It displays a refreshing nose of bright pear and peach blossoms with subtle lemon meringue and notes of freshly rolled oats. A full-bodied wine with great palate tension. Crisp apple and chalky citrus are infused with mild layers of Crème Brulé, spun sugar and floral potpourri. The flavours are vibrant, and the finish refined
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JJ Prüm
Light, very fresh, clean nose. Green apples and light spritz. Lots of very clean acidity. Seems lighter than 10%. Stony finish with medium persistence. Strongly stony character. Already a joy to taste. 17/20 Jancis Robinson MW
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Charles Melton
Charles Melton's Nine Popes is a nod to the great wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and is as rich, powerful and beautifully balanced as the best examples from the Rhône in France. Almost a permanent feature in Matthew Jukes' 100 Best Australian Wines. The wine is aged on lees for 24-28 months in French oak, of which 60% is new oak. The wine is then naturally settled and bottled without fining. Nine Popes is deep red in colour with a floral bouquet. The palate is structured and spicy with sweet red fruit and floral flavours which will develop further over time. It is rich and complex in the Popes tradition.
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Tommasi
One of the top handful of Amarone. Dry, drinkable style, all spice and leather, very impressive
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Greywacke
Right from the get-go, this sets itself apart from the rest of the pack with a level of polish, complexity and balance. The nose has ripe peach and mango fruits; gentle savoury, yeasty complexity adds biscuity aromas too. The palate has an immediate sense of concentration and the textural richness builds in smooth layers; there’s pear and nectarine, and a juicy, precise finish. Scents of a summer orchard: juicy nectarines, plump sun-dried apricots and tree-ripened lemons mingled with musky oriental spices. The palate is silky and sumptuous – warm honeyed stone fruit with almonds and shortcake. A lithe, textural wine of intense richness, laced with a citrusy, sherbet-like zest.
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Dow's
This famous Port house's best vineyard makes great wines with distinctive aromas of mint and violet with intense concentration and fine peppery tannins. Dow's is owned by the Symington family, Port producers for five generations since 1882,
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Luis Canas
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
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Ricossa
Smells like LUXURY! Super-low yield Barbera from the best sunny spots, some serious winemaking and a lick of posh new oak. What a beauty. What a bargain. Dark, silky, last time I had a Barbera this rich and lush was in California, and it cost 3 tines as much! Nizza is a new top-end DOCG created to separate the best plots of Barbera - great success.
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Chateau de Beaucastel
Château de Beaucastel has long been regarded as one of the greatest wines in France. It is notorious for its elegance, balance and ageing potential. Beaucastel has an exceptional terroir at the Northern limit of Châteauneuf du Pape, exposed to the Mistral wind. All thirteen varieties of the appellation have been organically grown since the sixties. The vintage : 2021 is a vintage marked by freshness, which is similar to the vintages we had in the eighties and nineties. It is also what we call a "winegrower vintage", human intervention and the care given to the vines were decisive for the quality of the vintage. Marked by climatic vagaries, with an episode of frost in April and interrupted harvest because of rain, this year has indeed required constant investment from our teams in the vineyard. Their attention and their commitment have borne their fruit: this vintage is very promising with lots of freshness and great balance.
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Henri Prudhon & Fils
Les Enseignères is one of those stealth values in the complex world of Burgundy. Its western border forms the eastern edge of Batard-Montrachet, and it is one of the rare spots in the Cote d’Or where a grand cru slopes directly down into village-level territory with no premier cru in between. The Prudhons own just shy of a hectare of quite old vines here between 30 and 80 years of age.
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Vina Cobos
"A wine that has changed in style in recent vintages, with less reliance on oak and greater fruit focus, this combines grapes from Gualtallary, Los Chacayes and Villa Bastías. Pear and lemongrass flavours are complemented by a hint of cream from 10% malolactic." Tim Atkin MW, 91 points
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Kopke
An appealing golden colour, with an amber rim. Elegant and complex, it shows aromas of spice, with prevailing notes of dried fruit and elegant hints of wood and honey. Smooth and round on the palate, it shows complexity amidst intense flavours of dried fruit. An excellent finish.
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Vega Sicilia
2013 is a subtle, elegant, fresh, vertical, complex, silky, and well-defined vintage. This wine is a true paradox, enjoyable to drink now, but timeless when allowed to age in bottle. The rainy end to the harvest left its imprint on the wine from this vintage. 2013 was a year to spend time in the vineyard, tend to it with care, and not rest on your laurels during harvest. A more elegant, subtle, and complex profile. The grapes are harvested from the 40 hectares used to produce Unico, a wine that ages at least ten years between barrel and bottle, representing one of the world's longest ageing processes. For the first phase, we used 225-litre French and American oak barrels to start to structure the wine; the second phase involved using 22,000-litre wooden vats. A long, complex, yet wonderful wine construction, during which they obtain endless nuances, definition, texture, and depth over time. This incredible terroir and the unique ageing process make our wines timeless when they aged.
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Domaine Comelade
Lionel Comelade produces this stunning wine from ancient vine Macabeu and Grenache Gris grown on amazing black and white schist soil vineyards between Estagel and Latour de France in the Roussillon. Both white grapes were harvested later in the season in 1990 with high sugar levels. The grapes were partially fermented in concrete vats and then neutral brandy was added to stop fermentation and keep natural sweetness in the wine. Then the wine was passed to second use oak barrels and left in the cellar for 32 years before bottling (to order). No ‘topping up’ of the barrels occurred in the 33 years. The wine is tremendous, possibly surpassing the 1988. It is ‘ambre’ in colour. A bright, wild nose with orange rind, orange oil and warm spices. The palate is thrilling with great complexity and depth with thrilling, wild acidity which really charms. Astonishing and quite unique. The wine is one of the best value fortified wines in the world. 33 years of age, so interesting and delicious. A steal at this price.
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R. López de Heredia
López de Heredia - Viña Tondonia is particularly well-known and admired for its white wines, and Viña Gravonia is a very good option for getting to know its good work, a first step, and obviously much more affordable and accessible. Just its appearance, its colour, demonstrates clearly this winery’s exceptional work as true masters in the art of ageing wine: notice how little this white has been evolving; aged for four years in American oak barrels, with a long maturation in bottle until now, and yet it appears a lovely gold colour without evolution. Viña Gravonia is the house's most modest wine but its complexity is quite remarkable. The first impression on the nose is one of maturity and moisture: wet stones, sea breezes, gentle whiffs of iodine, which come as a surprise to anyone accustomed to lighter, younger whites, but which immediately captivates lovers of mature, complex whites. Swirling it round a little, straightaway it offers a blend of fresh, citrus aromas, with lactic notes (cheese) and ripe fruits, of ripe pear skin and lime blossom tea, with a very pleasant freshness once it becomes still in the glass. It is dry on the palate: don't expect a sweetish wine with this sort of maturity; its acidity is extraordinary and will enable it to continue evolving over time. The notes suggesting moisture and other aromas discerned on the nose are repeated now on the palate: evolved fruit, raw almonds and notes reminding us of cheese. It is an easy wine to drink, fluid, medium-bodied, a perfect companion for aperitifs and less complex dishes, mushrooms, full-fat cheeses and any mild dish combining these ingredients. Tondonia white wines relate extremely well to food and should be served at virtually the temperature of a red, remember: at about 14-16 degrees, or you will miss out on all its richness!
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Von Hovel
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Paololeo
Beautiful deep purple garnet. Nose of chocolate, cherry, violet and vanilla. Some liquorice. . Bitter chocolate, liquorice and vanilla. Some plum, blackcurrant and black cherry. The tannins are balanced yet well pronounced. It’s a proper Primitivo.
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Savage
Duncan Savage matriculated at Rondebosch Boys High School in 1995. In 2016. Savage Wines was set up in the heart of Cape Town in Salt River. Vineyards for his wines are leased and grapes sourced from around the Western Cape, maritime in nature where possible. Granitic soil is the focus. From Duncan Savage: Grapes sourced from the Langverwagt farm in Kuils River on the outskirts of Stellenbosch. Decomposed granite soils overlooking Table Bay and False Bay, a perfect home for maritime Stellenbosch Syrah. Three parcels of vines, all trellised but farmed as a sprawl canopy - a trellised bush vine of sorts. Soils are poor, vigour is low and grapes are scarce, all a perfect recipe for classically styled Syrah. All the fruit is sorted as whole bunches before spontaneous fermentation in conical foudre and open top fermenters. 30% of the fruit is fermented as submerged cap with regular aeration, the balance as a normal fermentation with 2-4 aerated pump overs per day. 2-3 weeks on skins is followed by basket pressing and aging in old 500L barrels for 13 months. The wine then spends a further 10 months in foudre prior to bottling. 2021 is a classic vintage. Obviously I’m slightly biased, but I do feel that this wine may be one of the best Savage Reds we have made to date. Plums, lavender, cola, violets and the characteristic Langverwagt white pepper. The palate is taught and focused compliments of the granitic soil tannin structure and a classic vintage. A wine that will drink well for the next 10-15 years
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Savage
Duncan Savage matriculated at Rondebosch Boys High School in 1995. In 2016. Savage Wines was set up in the heart of Cape Town in Salt River. Vineyards for his wines are leased and grapes sourced from around the Western Cape, maritime in nature where possible. Granitic soil is the focus. From Duncan Savage: Cinsault from a 41 year old dry farmed bush vine vineyard in Darling. The vines are grown in decomposed granite on a south facing slope which gets battered by the prevailing south east wind off the cold Atlantic. We have worked with this vineyard since 2011 and the level of consistency and purity never ceases to amaze. Grapes are meticulously sorted in both vineyard and winery, more so in 2022 due to the extreme vintage. 20% of the fruit was discarded to ensure only the best bunches were processed. 50% whole bunch spontaneous fermentation with gentle extraction and 2 weeks on the skins. Basket pressing is followed by a year in older foudre, amphora and old 500L barrels before bottling. Follow the Line always displays aromatic purity, strawberries, cherries, rose petals and violets. The 2022 vintage showcases all of this with a little more texture and richness courtesy of the warmer vintage. The vines adapted incredibly to the challenges and have yielded an extremely complex wine with the characteristic freshness of granitic soils. Follow the Line drinks beautifully young but will age well up to 10 years
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Gian Luca Colombo
After Gian Luca completed his Masters in Viticulture and Oenology after 11 years of study and worked as a wine consultant across Italy in 2011 he started his own small winery in the heart of his native Langhe. Within 3 years he won the Gambelli award for Young Winemaker of the Year. His small Segni di Langa estate is located in Roddi in Barolo country and working sustainably he takes a very minimal interventionist approach allowing each vintage to showcase itself. Making his wines in the 'garage' beneath his house he typifies the small scale, high quality, personal style of winemaking. Magliano Alfieri village, 290m, 88y-old vines. Roddi village 200-250m, 45 to 60y-old vines. Part of this wonderful Barbera d'Alba comes from a vineyard by Gian Luca's house. The wines has so much lovely fruit and richness with such vibrant freshness. It isn't in the least bit 'blockbuster'. No heaviness, no 'make up'. Simply a beautiful drink that delivers sheer class and great pleasure. Not blockbuster, but it is knock-out good.
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Gian Luca Colombo
After Gian Luca completed his Masters in Viticulture and Oenology after 11 years of study and worked as a wine consultant across Italy in 2011 he started his own small winery in the heart of his native Langhe. Within 3 years he won the Gambelli award for Young Winemaker of the Year. His small Segni di Langa estate is located in Roddi in Barolo country and working sustainably he takes a very minimal interventionist approach allowing each vintage to showcase itself. Making his wines in the 'garage' beneath his house he typifies the small scale, high quality, personal style of winemaking. 60% Barolo village, 370m. 40% Dogliani Village, 350 to 550m. North / North-East facing. From north facing vineyards that are well-protected from the hot sun. After fermentation with only natural, wild yeasts the wine is then aged in amphora and large Stockinger barrels. Gian Luca is a bit a dab hand with Pinot Nero, having started producing it prior to turning his hand to Nebbiolo and the rest. Truffley, with the scents of sous bois and woodland earth. Leading to spicy cinnamon and clove and piercing fruit - cherries, redcurrants and pomegranate. Fine, long, pure and vibrant Pinot Nero.