They don’t come much more buxom than this! Weighing in at 17% alcohol, this densely coloured purple-ruby wine has an intense blackcurrant and plum bouquet enriched with oak spice. Full-bodied, sweet and spicy, it offers plum and chocolate flavours with a tobacco note. Firmly structured with a tannic finish.
Ann Sperling’s blend of Bacchus (45%), Pinot Blanc (40%) and Perle of Csaba (15%) unleashes thrilling aromatics. The perfumed nose explodes with floral and spice. The palate exudes fresh, rich, fruity flavours, led by nectarine, apricot and lime. Medium sweetness ensures a delicious quaff on its own.
The warm 2016 vintage has given this wine fantastic concentration of dark cherries, cassis, wild raspberry and currants with earthy/brambly notes, violets and elegant oak spices on the nose. It’s all about the integrated red and dark fruits, even at this early stage, that are juicy yet poised and polished and meld perfectly with the oak spices.
Louis-Antoine Luyt went to Chile at 22 years old, fell in love with the country and especially her native grape Pais, which was entirely unappreciated back in 1988. After a return to France, wine studies in Beaune and harvests in Beaujolais (where he became great mates with natural winemaking legend Marcel Lapierre), Luyt returned to Chile to make wine. He sources high altitude, dry farmed vineyards in the south of Chile, where he found ancestral vines up to 200 years old. Pipeño, a term used to denote peasant wines, are his 'entry level' tier, smashable and approachable. He vinifies using the traditional Chilean methods dating back to the 16th century: pressing the grapes on a zaranda sieve made of sticks, with free run juice falling into lagares. The wine is kept in pipas, casks made of redwood. Blanco, a blend of Muscat of Alexandria, Torontés, Corinta and Cristalina from Maule and Itata, spends three weeks on the skins and is lightly filtered before bottling. You can feel the grippy/gritty skin contact housing elderflower, Oolong tea, jasmine, crystalline lemon and fine white pepper and star anise spicing on a light palate. Very herbal, earthy and fine, this is a distinct, remarkable wine and amazing value. Fortunately this comes in a 1 litre bottle.
From some of the oldest vines in the valley, floral perfume and tropical notes, lychee, melon plus pear all intermingle in harmony with gentle, mouth-filling acidity.
This is the kind of Champagne that you wouldn’t waste on launching a ship. Pale straw in colour, it has a gorgeous minerally, apple nose with yeasty-bready notes. Medium-bodied and crisply dry, it’s mouth-filling with lemon and apple flavours and an engaging note of bitterness on the finish.
This English Pale Ale pours a brilliant amber with a long-lasting tan head. Its digestive biscuit and caramel notes move back and forth between sweet malts and a leafy English hop bitterness, all washed down on a silky, gently carbonated body. The firmly bitter finale caps things off perfectly. Try it with a cheese plate, roast chicken or fish and chips.