Organic and Biodynamic

A refreshing, dry white with citrus lemon/lime notes, flinty minerality, and crisp finish. In the mouth the wine is rich and textural, from the time spent on lees in the barrel. This is a great match with shellfish of any kind, or richer white meats such as turkey or duck.

Prélude is the entry-level Montagny, sourced from the vineyards of Le May (Saint-Vallerin) and Les Coères (Montagny). It was raised for 10 months, in a combination of tank (60%) and older barrels (40%). In contrast to the Mon Blanc, the villages cuvée displays more volume, yet it remains braced by a consistent thread of acidity. A feeling of nervy tension as well as a finely honed citrus flavour contribute weight to the solid skeleton - structure supports richness. It’s delicious, charming value, and has been described by Jasper Morris as "An exemplary source of characterful Montagny".

Wonderful new cuvee from the brilliant Daniel and Cathy Laffite based in Tautavel. These guys have some of the most beautiful vineyards we have ever seen, and they are worked with utmost care and respect in an organic way. Glorious Grenache and Carignan deliver so much pleasure with beautiful fruit, great minerality and supple, savoury tannins. DELICIOUS.

Mineral, taught. Fine and long. One of the unsung whites of the Roussillon. A blend of Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, Carignan Gris and Carignan Blanc. Outstanding wine. Ages gracefully for 10++ years. Beautiful vineyards that are beautifully worked.

Offering pretty notes of black and blue fruits, violets, pepper and hints of leather, it's medium-bodied, fresh, focused and tannins that emerge on the finish. Organic.

Old vine Grenache grown on decomposed black schist with a limestone sub soil, that produces something amazing. Ethereal, sublime and surprisingly fesh, this achieves a level of finesse akin to fine red Burgundy. Remarkable, special, very good indeed. JancisRobinson.com 17.5/20: "Very pale. Very spicy. And very very perfumed. There is an old red rose called Mister Lincoln. It has the deep, velvet, classic perfume of a red rose. This wine smells like Mister Lincoln dusted in cardamom. It tastes of wild cherry, white pepper, pink peppercorns, Szechuan pepper, truffle and, more than anything else, rain on warm slate. Petrichor. Complex, yet almost exquisitely simple. No noise. No posturing. In one sip, you’re in this wild, beautiful vineyard, nothing but the sound of the wind through trees. Pure, transparent, yet so layered-upon-layered that you can read a thousand stories in one sip. A haiku of a wine. (TC)" 18/20 La Revue du Vins de France "There is a particular grace to this old vine Grenache grown on limestone, vinified (or rather infused) as a whole harvest, with ethereal and exciting florality, which contrasts without clashiing with a tight, deep frame, but also very delicate."

A blend of Genache Blanc, Gris and Noir, from ancient 90 year old vines, this is beautiful, racy, elegant wine that is softly textured and very ‘modern’ in its freshness and balance.

The Guimberteau family has owned the Château Franc-Baudron estate since 1923. This is a vineyard on a human scale where each generation has left its footprint on the family heritage. Since 2010, the new generation of Château Franc-Baudron has embarked on an environmental approach by converting the entire vineyard to organic farming. The area hosts bee-hives, uses plants for treatments (horsetail, nettle and ferns) and seeds flowers to encourage biodiversity of wildlife in the vines. They have begun implementing new winemaking techniques by using minimal inputs to express at its best the nature of the grapes and the type of soil. Most of the family’s plots of Montagne Saint-Emilion are located on a clay-limestone plateau. Bright and intense in colour with aromas of blackcurrant, blackberry and oak notes.Well balanced, powerful and velvety.

Natural, biodynamic and vegan. Grenache, Carignan and now (for the first time) Mourvedre from 80 year old vines, Made without filtering or fining. Pale but gorgeous mid red colour. At first on the nose, you are like "What even is that?". Whatever it is, you know that you like it. Elegant, subtle fruit is intermixed with gentle herb, earth and savoury charachters. Deep and wonderful. On the palate the wine is elegant and deep again, but not heavy in the slightest. Ruffled fruit and savoury notes with minerality and real finesse. These wines are like no other from the Roussillon. Outstanding. This is the magnum.

100% Carignan from 80 year old vines. Complex floral aromas. On the palate the fruits, such as raspberry and morello cherry, are crunchy and fresh. There is also a very strong stony/mineral feeling. The finish is long and pure. A vibrant wine.

Natural wine from Simon Coulshaw: no cultured yeast, enzymes, chemical tannins or fining product. 90% old-vine Cinsault, 10% Syrah. I was instructed to chill this a bit before tasting. It was in the fridge for about 25 minutes and then left out for 10 minutes before tasting. Fresh red-berried nose. Hurrah! Here is another Languedoc producer who 'gets' Cinsault. Perky, bright, raspberries and with that lovely telltale Cinsault salty-sweet tang that always reminds me of the best prosciutto or jamon. A bit of white pepper and ground cumin tangled into feather-light sinews of tannin. This is absolutely YUM. Tapas/aperitivo wine, without a doubt. I could drink this all summer long. GV (TC) 17/20 Jancisrobinson.com

Saint Veran Domaine de la Croix Senaillet is a truly magnificent example of Maconnais Chardonnay from one of the area’s leading producers. It is a fleshy wine with vibrant lemon notes, apple and floral aromas all would round a fresh mineral finish. It’s posh enough for special occasions but affordable enough for Wednesday nights. Since the early 1990’s, brothers Richard and Stéphane Martin have been farming this Domaine along strict organic principals. They have grown their holdings from 6 to 25 hectares in that time with the majority in the Davaye commune. Their wines offer tremendous value from a region that is seeing prices escalate. Their attention to detail and quality is quite something to behold and really shines through in their wines.

It's here, the 'Coulsh-Rotie". Simon "The Coulsh'" Coulshaw's fabulous take on this iconic wine. "I put this glass of wine to my nose, and had I not been firmly anchored to a chair, would have taken five steps back. The aroma swept me off my feet. Indescribable. Wild. One Thousand and One Nights distilled into a glass. Heady and exotic and riddled with rose petals and spice and coiled with riddles and one sniff of this is poetry and myth and folklore and kitchen table and campfire and someone's cigarette stubbed out at 3 am in lonely finality. Garrigue-spiced aromatics spiral through rock, plant, seed, flower with dazzling complexity. One moment it's rose petals, so delicate you could brush a baby's lips with it; the next it's hot tar, underground angry, rocks shifting deep in the cracks of the earth. This is a velvety, cocoa-dusted, amped-up-then-restrained, dark-horse beauty. Vertical, dark, slub-silk fruit with overtones of tamari and dark chocolate, crushed coffee beans and sweet forest-floor earth. Long and the kind of wine that coils around you slowly, sinuously, sensuously. Worth every penny. You'd pay three times this for a Rhône of this stature". (TC) 18/20 jancisrobinson.com When to drink 2023 - 2035 Published on 29 Nov 2021 Date tasted 29 Nov 2021

The nose shows subtle floral notes, typical of the Gewurztraminer grape variety, but also complex, slightly reductive, mineral, leather and spicy/peppery aromas. It almost feels like the scent one would get after a rainfall on the pebbles of this vineyard. It will benefit from air (carafe) and will continue to open up with age. The palate is vigorous, elegant and full of energy. Bone dry, with a velvety tannic texture, the palate shows an almost light red wine structure with a salivating finish. This wine will be excellent with food (grilled fish, prawns, light spicy food).

"Comboi", is a local Valencian expression that is used when a group of people come together to have a good time, full of enthusiasm and joy, a bit like the wine! This is a Pet Nat lightly sparkling wine created "metodo ancestral" from 100% Bobal grapes. Strawberry coloured fizz made with minimal intervention, offering up fine bubbles, aromas of red fruit and brioche notes. An enticing bitter dry twist on the finish adds freshness and makes this perfect to serve with food.

Beautifully resolved and brilliant Faugeres in a handy lunch time 50cl format. A dreamy bin-end offer. Snap it up!

Natural, Organic, Biodynamic Macabeu, fermented and aged in barrels, racy and minerally with soft texture and generous fruit.

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 colour. The nose shows a restraint, almost mineral, smoky aromatic expression, so typical from a limestone soil. It eventually opens up and reveals ripe citrus, exotic fruits in a very elegant way. The palate shows a surprising freshness and acidity, and finishes with a balanced delicate sweetness. Clearly this wine will benefit from further ageing in order to allow it to express its full potential.

Possibly the last Rosé to be produced at Trinités? The wine has always been produced for the home market, for the restaurants and bars, in all the major cities. But since the market for such in the last few years has dried up/been somewhat difficult, vigneron Simon Coulshaw has decided to take a break for a while. This 2020 is unlike any previous effort, mostly explained below in Tamlyn Currin's note for jancisrobinson.com. It really is truly wonderful Rosé with real minerality, precision and class. an absolute stunner. 40% Cinsault, 40% Grenache Noir, 20% Mourvèdre. Hand-picked, organically and biodynamically farmed grapes. 100% saignée ie no pressing, just bleeding from the tanks. Winemaker Simon Coulshaw points out that the distinct difference in colour between the 2019 and 2020 (the latter being distinctly lighter in colour) is purely down to the maturity of the anthocynanins in the grapes. In 2019 he left the grapes for an hour and the colour was already dark; in 2020 it spent three or four hours and still didn't throw much colour. Bone dry (less than 0.5 g RS). "This is an outstanding rosé. If only Languedoc producers would sit up and take notice – this is what you can do with rosé. Real wine. Real depth, real texture, acidity so full and exciting and ripe that it made me want to helter skelter, go boogie on Brighton Pier, lick seashells dipped in raspberry sherbet, make cherry bombs filled with lime sorbet and eat them sitting fully clothed in the sea with salt on my tongue and fingers and toes. All of which sounds like fun fun fun, but don't be deceived. This is a serious wine, framed in spice and pink-grapefruit-peel bitterness. Very Good Value (TC)". Score 17/20 jancisrobinson.com When to drink 2021 - 2023 Published on 29 Nov 2021 Date tasted 29 Nov 2021

Established in 1446, Etienne Parahy is known as the first owner of the vineyards and the estate 'Puig Parahy'. In those near 600 years, the estate has passed through 19 generations to current owner and vigneron Georges Puig (the first son of each new generation is named 'Georges'). Nestled in Les Aspres region, a wonderful mixed-soil and fresh terroir of the Roussillon which is found between Mt. Canigou and the Mediterranean sea. The estate has a rich history producing outstanding rancio sweet wines that develop and live for decades, sometimes even centuries. Bottles from the 1800s are still available today. The estate was replanted in 1878 after phylloxera wiped out all of the vineyards. Many of these vines are still producing wonderful old vine fruit of outrageous quality that is carefully and naturally handled to produce a great range of dry table wines and VdNs of many styles. This is special wine. Ancient vines of Carignan, Grenache and Mourvedre and native, wild yeasts from this historic Roussillon estate have produced this pale, bright and gorgeous mid-red coloured wine - looking exactly like a current hipster favourite. The nose is alive with prickly bright fruits intermixed with beautiful secondary and tertiary aromas of old books, furniture and childhood memories of churches and other magnificent and curious things of wonder. The palate is equally as interesting and as equally sparkly bright and refreshing. But so rewarding, resolved and complex. An utter marvel from this unsung fresh terroir in the magnificent Roussillon.

Laure Dubois runs this excellent estate with her husband Romain and started conversion to organic farming in 2019. The wines they produce are consistently good and elegant, mainly from the Lirac appellation, north West of Chateauneuf-du-Pape but also this Cotes du Rhone from just outside. The 2019 is the second year in a row that the wine has won a coveted Coup de Coeur top award in the Guide Hachette, the 'bible' of French wine. Charming, 'irresistible' and ready to drink it also offers outstanding value for money.

Fruity, brambly and supple, this distinctly Argentinian Malbec will impress with generous lashing of plum, blackberry and hints of vanilla spice. About the winery: Bodega Sottano was founded in 1890 by Mr. Fioravante Sottano who settled in Mendoza after moving from Italy. Today the estate is a byword for quality, modern Mendoza wines that express a delicious sense of place.

This is lovely, gluggable Nero d'Avola from a sustainable winery in Sicily that is making excellent value certified organic wines for everyday drinking. We'll drink to that!

"Comboi", is a local Valencian expression used when a group of people come together to have a good time, full of enthusiasm and joy, a bit like the wine! This is a Pet Nat lightly sparkling wine created "metodo ancestral" from 100% Tardana grapes. Beautiful and refreshing, with delicate bubbles and fresh fruity aromas.