In July 2011, Nicolas Thienpont bought three hectares in the Côtes de Castillon area. This new wine admirably reflects the finesse, class and minerality of these soils.Old vines 50+ years. Very dark crimson. Smells of little ripe wild berries. Hint of Cab Franc's more linear character even though it is only 5%. Good combo of dry minerality and sweet fruit. VINIFICATION AND AGEING Vatting: 24 to 28 days Ageing time: 16 to 18 months Barrels: 50% new wood, 50% one-year-old wood SPECIFIC METHOD The whole berries are placed in the vats (no pressing). The vats are temperature controlled. Extraction by pumping over during the first fermentation. Malolactic fermentation in barrels and in vats. Aging on fine lees to bring down the alcohol content: first racking after 6-10 months (before the summer) and the second a year later before bottling. Fining and filtering are done only if necessary.

Remi Jeanniard’s neighbours say that he and his wife are always in the vineyards; even on 2nd January, they were seen out pruning the vines. Remi has just over 7 hectares of vines in and around Morey-St-Denis. The vines are much older than average, with all of his Vieilles Vignes village bottlings being at least 50 years old. This gives a natural concentration to the wines which are both well structured and elegant. Dried fruits, figs, cherries, currants, and violets. Exciting. Less plush than the jeunes vignes, but more vibrant and intense. Supple tannins.

To quote Allen Meadows; ‘the quality of these wines is nothing short of phenomenal compared to the usual quality of the respective appellations’. Claude Marechal makes his wines as naturally as possible, taking his inspiration from his late friend Henri Jayer who he trained with early in his career. In common with Jayer he makes wines above and beyond the expectations of his terroirs. His wines are pure and sleek with vibrant fruit and great potential to age. In the vineyard ripeness is the watchword and the vines are maintained in order to maximise phenolic maturity every vintage whatever the conditions. No chemical fertilisers are used and the harvest is hand picked each vintage, Claude says he is usually the last in each appellation to pick which shows on the ripe fruited nature of his wines. After harvest the bunches are sorted by hand and gently de-stemmed before vinification using natural yeasts. The fermenting must is pumped over twice daily and once alcoholic fermentation is finished the wines are placed into oak barrels where they mature for between 10 and 15 months. From tastings of back vintages at the domaine it is clear these are wines that are built to age well. Claude has not changed his prices for the 2021 vintage.

Fine and very expressive, there are citrus and white flowers, on the nose, with vanilla from some nice oak. On the palate, there is complexity, ripe fruit and a pleasant freshness. It is a very aromatic wine with notes of citrus fruits. The whole wine is well balanced between body, freshness and oak. The Château Bonnet Réserve comes from a selection of a few hectares, among the 120 of the estate's vineyard, producing white wines in sustainable viticulture. The grape varieties selected are Sauvignon and Sémillon.

Exhibiting aromas of minty berries, spices and licorice, the 2021 Beau Site is a medium-bodied, lively and nicely balanced wine. It derives from a gravel "croupe" near Calon-Ségur. "Beau-Site" means beautiful site and lies just behind Grand Cru Château Calon-Segur on one of Medoc's highest points with fantastic views over the river Gironde. It was originally classified as a Cru Bourgeois Superieur in 1932 but in 1966 Beau Site was reclassified as a Cru Grand Bourgeois Exceptionnel. The Castéja family, who also own Château Batailley and Château Trotte Vieille, bought the château in 1955. The château has nearly 100 hectares of vines with an average age of 35 years. Beau-Site's 18th century underground cellar is one of the oldest in the Médoc and presents the perfect maturing conditions for a wine that is vinified with the same care and technique as a Grand Cru Classé. Beau-Site's wine is full of power and temperament, a typical Saint-Estèphe with tannins allowing for keeping this wine for some years.

Fermented in steel or concrete tanks. Aged 12 months in barrel, 20% new. Deep cherry red and an impression of freshness in the aroma. Still lots of pure dark fruit, stony cassis and a hint of oak. On the palate, this is refined in texture, fresh in a warm year, with a touch of chocolate sweetness on the finish that seems to be from the oak. Elegantly structured by the tannins, tightly wound even with that chocolate smoothness on the finish. Needs time and should age thanks to the balance between fruit and structure.

The only thing ancient about this wine is the name - here is the new generation of Beaujolais-Villages Once tasted, forever conquered. Its creator is a genius: Jean-Paul Brun, a counter-conventional winegrower, has reinvigorated the reputation of Beaujolais wines. Of a quality equal to the wines of Côte de Beaune, its winery, Terres Dorées, offers excellent quality for the price.

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

Carignan, Grenache, Syrah. Lifted, natural, fresh and charming tasting Southern French red wine of great character. We loved this.

Jean Christophe Meyrot, ex La Violette (one of the top properties in Pomerol) . Full on but good structure. Juicy palate. Certainly ripe. Warm, good acid, persistent. More powerful than elegant. Forthright. Dark ruby color with black fruit notes like blackberries and black cherries, violet and dry herbs, leather and black pepper, nice minerality and French oak, some vanilla and tobacco. Nice balance and structure with a long finish.

Old vine Grenache grown on decomposed black schist with a limestone sub soil with some quartz, that produces something amazing. Ethereal, sublime and fesh, this achieves a level of finesse akin to fine red Burgundy. Remarkable, special, very good indeed.

Old vine Grenache grown on decomposed black schist with a limestone sub soil with some quartz, that produces something amazing. Ethereal, sublime and fresh, this achieves a level of finesse akin to fine red Burgundy. Remarkable, special, very good indeed.

Old vine Grenache grown on decomposed black schist with a limestone sub soil with some quartz, that produces something amazing. Ethereal, sublime and fresh, this achieves a level of finesse akin to fine red Burgundy. Remarkable, special, very good indeed.

100% Sauvignon Blanc from four terroirs: clay, limestone-clay, marl, gravel. 93/100 Jane Anson "Bright Sauvignon Blanc aromatics on the nose, this is good quality. Power, concentration and spliced citrus and slate minerality. Maintains momentum, easy to love. A yield of 31hl/ha, with 10 months ageing on lees with regular stirring in to fatten up the mouthfeel. An impressive La Louvière, stands out from recent vintages at this estate."

A blend of Viognier 40%, Roussanne 40% and White Grenache 20%. 20 year old vines are planted in mixed soils of clay, limestone and round pebbles. Peachy aromas, with a fresh and expressive palate that's juicy and very pleasing. More peach flavour from the Viognier and a weighty mid-palate from the Roussanne. Excellent value for money. Grapes are mechanically harvested and vinification takes place in temperature controlled stainless-steel tanks, with regular stirring of the lees. This preserves the freshness and fruitiness of the wine. Domaine La Lôyane was voted Winemaker of the Year in 2018 by the Guide Hachette, France's wine bible. La Lôyane refers to the place where the estate is built, a place formerly occupied by wolves! The estate, founded in 1994, is located in the south of the Rhône Valley, near Avignon in the Lirac cru. The Dubois family has been cultivating its 20 hectares of vines there for 4 generations! And the last, with Romain Dubois, has cnverted the estate to organic farming. An extremely precise estate, which is constantly moving upmarket and producing wines from vines that are sometimes more than a century old!

50% Viognier, 25% Clairette Blanche, 25% Grenache Blanc from sandy, galet stone covered clay soils on Boislauzon at Orange, Saint-Dominique at Courthézon, hand harvested, all varieties steel vat fermented apart, 25 days at up to 18°C, raised 5 months, then assembled, malo blocked. Organic wine. 9,000 bottles produced. **** on Drink Rhone "Bright yellow robe; the bouquet is exuberant, parades an open air of pineapple, with salted lemon freshness, goes for it well. The palate drinks fluently and agreeably, carries a tasty flavour of mixed white fruits, white peach, a little late grapiness. It’s free running, w.o.w. Côtes, full of beans, the aftertaste clear, a little salted. 14°. Now to 2027-28". Tasted Feb 2024.

"The 2019 Siaurac has a more introverted bouquet than some of its Lalande-de-Pomerol peers: deep broody black fruit, touches of undergrowth and black plums. The palate is more vivacious and provides the energy thanks to the keen thread of acidity. It is quite a muscular wine, firm grip with a tang of black pepper towards the finish and a citric aftertaste. It is a bit rough around the edges but the component parts will come together with time." Drink 2024 - 2040 90 - 92 Points, Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate, June 2020

100% old vine Carignan that was bred all in concrete tanks. Notes of leather, black cherries, plums and savoury herbs all emerge from this medium-bodied, fresh, lively wine. This is seamless and gorgeous stuff from Daniel Laffite. It would cost twice the price if it was from Priorat.

Pineau - a fortified wine, made from either fresh, unfermented grape juice or a blend of lightly fermented grape must, to which a Cognac eau-de-vie is added and then matured.

Pessac-Leognan, just south of the city of Bordeaux, features gravel-rich soils that produce wines with excellent clarity and definition. Odyssée is a cuvée by Château Haut Nouchet, and its vines are some of the highest elevation in the appellation. The blend is about 60/40 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, with a splash of Petit Verdot. We found this wine impressive in its combination of intensity and restraint. The nose is dark and polished with plum and wild cherries, and notes of liquorice and spice. The mouth is inky and dark but the fruit is laid over a beautifully clean structure of fine gravely tannin. This is a classy, sleek Bordeaux with a beautifully balanced mouthfeel, that tastes a lot more expensive than it is.

CWM Ranking - High 2:1 The best wine I have tasted from this usually reliable estate, an improvement even on the 2016 vintage. Packed with ripe fruit the extraction is well controlled, allowing the palate to build and remain fruity to the finish.

This Loire Valley sweet wine has a lovely golden colour with rich aromas of peach and pear giving a "chewing the fruit" sensation. A very complex, persistent and well balanced wine.

Another cracking vintage of this fresh and aromatic - easy drinking - white from the Languedoc-Roussillon with delicate fruit and a bright finish. The Vermentino is concentrated and characterful with delicate aromatics.

This 100% Cabernet Franc is full of red fruits, light perfumes and delicious acidity. Red-berry flavours shine in a vibrant wine with good acidity and a crisp aftertaste. Drink now

CWM Ranking First Class Well judged extraction leaves the sense of silky tannins with lovely ripe fruit and a cool fresh palate. Understated and elegant.

Really tasty. Full colour, but light on it's feet. Lots of staisfaction here. This wine is soft pressed after five hours of skin contact to produce a light pink wine. Fermentation occurs under controlled temperatures in stainless-steel tanks. Five days resting on the lees are followed by two days of cold settling. The vines that produce this wine are grafted from Argentine Malbec, which of course comes originally from Cahors in France. The wine maker is Argentine, and he searched all over the Languedoc for a place that would produce the characteristically bright and intense Malbec of his home country. He found this possibility in partnership with winegrowers from the Coteaux d’Ensérune, who follow a 1,000-year-old viticultural tradition marked by an historically un-French willingness to develop varieties from other horizons. The unique soils on the Montandy plateau outside Béziers are red, chalky and acidic with traces of iron. This combined with the classic Mediterranean climate, make the area an ideal home for Malbec The nose is intense with concentrated red berry aromas mixed with hints of springtime flowers. The expressive palate is bursting with gorgeous, ripe fruit followed by a bright, tangy finish. Pair with Mediterranean cuisine like fish with Provençal sauce and seafood paella or try with grilled chicken and fish. Also delightful as an aperitif.

Fruity that expresses a beautiful aromatic complexity, and which presents a beautiful balance carried by a great freshness.

100% oak aged Cabernet Franc grown on yellow limestone tufa. Deep ruby colour. An intense wine with aromas of blackcurrant and pepper and 'sous bois' =undergrowth, ripe spicy black fruits on the palate, and a lush, almost chocolatey, ripe fruit finish.

Rolly-Gassmann is a domaine like no other and has a unique style. It is located at Rorschwihr, a sleepy village on the northern rim of Haut-Rhin. The vineyards are located in Rorschwihr and the neighbouring Rodern and Bergheim. The wines are small masterpieces with very good definition. They all carry the signature of Rolly-Gassmann, a certain shameless, velvety sweetness. The fruit is rich and manages to balance the fruit with a vibrant acidity to form wines that melt on the palate.

Certified organic grapes from Roussillon. Long with light bitterness with some saltiness. Nice tension, medium body and real structure.

The wines of Château Tronquoy-Lalande know how to seduce from their youth and gain in elegance after several years in cellar. In their blends we find the particularity of the estate's grape varieties, atypical for a Saint-Estèphe wine, dominated by Merlot, which fruit combines with the power of the Cabernet Sauvignon. The hint of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc adds freshness, finesse and aromatic complexity. 90/100 Jane Anson "From the same team as Château Montrose, this is always a great wine, full of finesse and drama. This is very good quality, with a lovely rich, deep texture with sexy, ripe fruit. The alcohol is perhaps the highest of the appellation in this vintage, but it's balanced. 1% Cabernet Franc rounds out the blend."

Silver Medal winner. The Simoneau family make beautifully aromatic, clean and crisp Sauvignon from their home in Touraine.

A delightful, stylish blend of Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc and Picpoul. This wine has a bright straw yellow colour. On the nose, it reveals subtle aromas of citrus, melon, peach, with delicate notes of infused white flowers. The palate is rich and deep, both smooth and juicy, offering a beautiful balance and a cool, mineral and persistent finish. Lovely stuff.

A blend of Clairette 70% and Grenache 30%. 80 year old vines are planted in mixed soils of red sand, clay and round pebbles. Grapes are hand-harvested and vinification takes place in 100% old wooden casks. The wine is matured in large ‘demi-muid’ barrels for 6 months on the lees. Domaine La Lôyane was voted Winemaker of the Year in 2018 by the Guide Hachette, France's wine bible. La Lôyane refers to the place where the estate is built, a place formerly occupied by wolves! The estate, founded in 1994, is located in the south of the Rhône Valley, near Avignon in the Lirac cru. The Dubois family has been cultivating its 20 hectares of vines there for 4 generations! And the last, with Romain Dubois, has cnverted the estate to organic farming. An extremely precise estate, which is constantly moving upmarket and producing wines from vines that are sometimes more than a century old!

Lemony, bright fruit, with steely acidity. Pure and balanced.

Another perennial favourite, this is an old vine Syrah-dominated cuvee that comes from vines around the village of Roaix, which is northeast of Gigondas. Its vibrant ruby color is followed by terrific notes of blueberries, blackberries, pepper and resinous herbs, and it has a kiss of vanilla that will be completely integrated by the time this sees the inside of a bottle. This is a medium to full-bodied, ultra-pure beauty.

A rich effort from this well-known property in St Christoly. Lovely rich mouthfeel, ripe and tannic with a luscious long finish. Low acidity suggests drinking this wine young, say 2018-2024.

The Lurton family that owns the property has also made it their home and HQ for their brilliant stable of wines now headed by Jacques Lurton. A crystal clear wine with with pure fruit aromas and crisp acidity, this is immediately refreshing. The wine's freshness is infectious

Natural wine from Simon Coulshaw: no cultured yeast, enzymes, chemical tannins or fining product. 90% 130 yr 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

Another cracking vintage of this fresh and aromatic - easy drinking - white from the Languedoc-Roussillon with delicate fruit and a bright finish. The Vermentino is concentrated and characterful with delicate aromatics.