We quite simply only sell wines we like to enjoy at home. Take a look at our choices this month.

 


De Chanceny Cremant de Loire Rose NV

“I am writing this thinking about summer days whilst the snow is falling!” ahh the irony, especially after a lovely Easter weekend where temperatures hit double digits, triggering a family lunch outside with a glass or two of this delicious fizz.  Made just like Champagne from Cabernet Franc and aged for almost 16 months in bottle before the cork is popped, this humble sparkling wine really shows it’s class.  Packed with delicious summer crunchy red fruits and a super silky soft, raspberry yoghurt style finish, it really is everything you will ever need for an impromptu get together.  Pop a few in the fridge because I can’t help thinking you won’t need many excuses to celebrate in style in 2021”

TARQUIN DE BURGH – M.D.

 


Chateau La Verriere Rouge 2016

Alain Bessette, the owner of Chateau La Verriere, is the man who makes Rival Bellevue for us. I’ll never forget the look of surprise, alarm, and delight on his face when I requested the first special bottling run of Rival in magnums. He asked if I was selling to supermarkets, to which I replied “No, just Scottish people”. Chateau La Verriere is Alain’s main wine and collects gold medals with the ease of Usain Bolt. It is aged longer in oak than Rival Bellevue and so benefits from some bottle age to fuller reveal its beauty. Alain very kindly let us have his last 96 bottles of the excellent 2016 vintage in six-bottle wooden cases. These have been cellared at the winery and were shipped over to us in March this year. It is a stonking bottle for £15 and has matured beautifully to produce a rich and full-bodied wine with lots of dark damsons and plum fruit, warm spice, wood smoke, and soft mocha. If you miss out, don’t panic, we have some of the 2018 and more on the way arriving in late April which is just as good but you’ll need to tuck it away for a few years to get the magic aged flavours! 

WILL NICOLSON – DIRECTOR

 


 


Pinot Noir ‘Tradition’ Pfluger 2019

Pretty much all New World Pinot Noir is a bit too jammy and confected for my tastes, and other Old World expressions can sometimes prove a tad overpriced and underwhelming.

This example of Pinot Noir from the Pfalz region in Germany however, hits the spot both financially and indeed tastebud wise. Made by the up and coming ‘natural’ wine all-star Alexander Pfluger, this has bags of depth to the red cherry fruit and smoky, earthy notes coming through on the palate. Light in body as a Pinot should be but the remarkable rich texture really makes it hang together beautifully.

ROSS MCKENZIE – OFFICE/WAREHOUSE MANAGER

 

Chateau Rival Bellevue Bordeaux Superior 2017

As we head towards the hopeful easing of restrictions and the possibility that we might be able to socialise in the garden I thought about good party pleasers and our Chateau Rival Bellevue Bordeaux Superior 2017 came to mind.  It is such an easy to enjoy wine and has been glugged at more than one family gathering in times of olde.  Everyone always says, ‘ooh that’s delicious’ and it doesn’t break the bank.  A merlot blend, it is rich with a mingle of blackcurrant and smoky oak making it extremely moreish.

FIONA HOLT – ACCOUNTS

 


Vire Clesse ‘Harmonie’ Domaine de la Verpaille 2018

I’ve always been a huge fan of wines from Burgundy. It was my go-to when I was selling wine in retail and a customer asked for something special. My rule of thumb is that, if you are looking for a Chardonnay that is crisp, citrusy, and oozes with minerality then Chablis is the one. However, the wines further south in the Maconnais become richer, fatter, and more honeyed. I absolutely love this southern style which is packed full of  ripe candied fruits, dried apricots, peach and a touch of exoticism. The intense bouquet is complemented on the palate with fresh citrus, orange and hints of toffee. The wines from Verpaille  are all produced Biodynamically  and with very little intervention, which makes them a true example of a wine produced as naturally as possible. You are getting a whole lot of quality for your money with this Harmonie Vire Clesse!

CHRISTINE NICOLSON – MARKETING

Sybille Kuntz Riesling Qualitätswein Trocken 2022

KUNTZ002
£17.59
In stock
1
Product Details
Producer: Sybille Kuntz
Country: Germany
Region: Mosel
Grape Variety: Riesling
Additional Information: Vegan
Farming: Biodynamic
ABV: 12%
Style: White Wine

Sybille Kuntz Qualitätswein Trocken is a delicious dry Mosel Riesling which has an action-packed palate of crisp green fruit, lime, apricot and floral notes. It’s as fresh as a daisy and a delight to drink. The grapes come from the estate’s younger vineyards, up to 40 years old, located around Lieser and Kues. They are picked during the first two weeks of harvest, vinified dry and represents tremendous value for money.

Sybille Kuntz took over the running of her family vineyards in 1981. She had left her hometown of Lieser to study business administration in Wuppertal, a town about forty miles north of Cologne and whilst there opened a wine shop to help fund her studies. The shop was a success and sold a vast array of German wines, but Sybille felt disappointed by many of the wines and felt she could do better. She is a lady with high standards, and this can be seen in her meticulous attention to detail in the vineyards and the wines. The 20-hectare estate is farmed biodynamically with the aid of her husband, Markus, who shares the same passion and love for the Riesling grape as his wife. The jewel in the Kuntz’s crown is their large parcels of vineyards in the Grand Cru of Niederberg-Helden, which sits above the town of Lieser on a 70-degree slope. These vines, planted in the 1920s, get amazing amounts of sunshine due to their exposure and benefit from additional sunlight which reflects off the Mosel River with mirror-like intensity.

German wine labels can be confusing, but Sybille has done everything possible to make the wines easy to understand. Her wines (except for the Auslese) are fermented dry with an alcohol content of around 12% ABV. They are bottled by style rather than by vineyard, so the range is smaller than other producers. They are easily identifiable by their label colours which are modern and like something from a Fallow & Ball catalogue. Their wines are all made from Riesling. The grapes for Qualitätswein are picked first, then Kabinett a little later and riper (more sugar in them) followed by Spatlese and finally Auslese, the off-dry style. As a result, the Qualitätswein is fresh, dry and fruity, the Kabinett fuller and more mineral is style, the Spatlese more complex, richer and rounded, whilst the Auslese is off-dry and drinks beautifully with some bottle age. To buy and drink a bottle of each is a great journey through German wine styles.

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