Wines £30-£45

The wine has lots of warm black fruit and plum aromas, with cinnamon, spices, pepper and a hint of vanilla. The palate is concentrated with damsons, red fruit, spice and stony minerality with a very elegant and warm finish. The mouth is initially very silky but gives way to some mouth watering acidity and firm tannins.

Domaine Chante Cigale

A toasty marmalade, pineapple, lime and honey nougat character on the nose gives way to a fresh acidity on the mid pallet ending, in a long lingering finish, with tropical fruits and charry vanilla.

Longridge Wine Estate

Ripe, warm and generous on the nose with abundant plum and cherry aromas, roasted coffee beans and hints of dried fruits. Full bodied and richly flavoured with berry and plum fruit, wild cherry acidity and a hint of dark chocolate. Supple tannins lead to a spicy finish, with the characteristic dry bite of good Amarone.

Montressor

Robust, mature & biscuity style of Champagne from a small family-owned company whose insistence on the very highest level of quality has afforded them an international reputation.

1/3 Pinot Noir, 1/3 Pinot Meunier, 1/3 Chardonnay, with 25% aged in barrel.

Champagne Gardet

Fiona and Niall Shiner had been living in Hong Kong for 18 years when they returned to Britain to take on Niall's parents' property at Amberley. Niall continued with his career, but mother-of-three Fiona decided to plant some vines at the property following a comment by her mother-in-law that the Romans could have grown vines there. The first acre was planted in 2007, with the acquisition of an old cattle farm on the (really quite steep) hill opposite and converting an old barn into a winery in 2016. A third vineyard side since been acquired taking the current area under vine (but not all producing grapes yet) to 58 acres (23ish hectares), still firmly in the ‘tiny’ bracket.

This non-vintage Reserve Cuvée has a minimum of 30 months lees ageing in bottle which is expressed by the toasted autolytic characters of this Pinot dominant blend. The wine shows great complexity both aromatically and on the palate, expressing ripe red fruit and subtle red apple with great balance, a fine mousse and an excellent lingering finish.

Outstanding single-vineyard Sancerre from Bourgeois; intensely flavoured with a bone-dry finish.

Famille Bourgeois Sancerre

Modest and passionate about his vineyards, Abel and his wife Maite have been making understated wines in San Vicente since 1988.

Lying in the shadow of the Sierra Cantabria, Abel has vineyards in the finest parts of the Alavesa. His knowledge and understanding of the soils is enthralling and to taste in his cellar can be an education on the effects different soils have in different years. He wants only to express the fruit and the soil and unlike many Riojans, he leaves it more or less at that. He does not want to stamp the wines with any particular style or mark of his own other than his respect for the very natural quality of the grapes and for the magical places that they were grown.

Straw yellow. Intense aromas, floral, very perfumed, with good fruit expression in the foreground, and well integrated wood notes of balsamic and dried grass. In the mouth it has superb acidity with a bright, smooth, silky and pleasant finish.

An unusual blend of Viognier (30%), Picpoul Blanc (30%) and Grenache Blanc (40%). Sourced from clay limestone soils in Richerenes in the Vaucluse for the Grenache Blanc and Picpoul, with the Viognier sourced in the Northern Rhône (so legally the wine is classified as Vin de France). Easy-drinking, unoaked and a classic french-style table wine. Citrus and pear on the nose with citrus flesh. There is nice weight on the palate, more ripe pear and some silky minerality on the finish. Great with coconut heavy Thai and Vietnamese dishes

An intense nose, packed with aromas of nuts, spice and vanilla leads on to a palate showing great structure and roundness.

Domine de Savagny

Its green gold color has some bright and luminous reflects. Its nose is quite expressive and complex. It evolves all along the tasting. It opens beautifully on exotic fruits, green mango, citrus, honey and a hint of menthol. The mouth is powerful, round and harmonious. One can taste fresh grape but also a refreshing and sharp minerality. It is a particularly long lasting wine.

Famille Bourgeois Sancerre

Modest and passionate about his vineyards, Abel and his wife Maite have been making understated wines in San Vicente since 1988.

Lying in the shadow of the Sierra Cantabria, Abel has vineyards in the finest parts of the Alavesa. His knowledge and understanding of the soils is enthralling and to taste in his cellar can be an education on the effects different soils have in different years. He wants only to express the fruit and the soil and unlike many Riojans, he leaves it more or less at that. He does not want to stamp the wines with any particular style or mark of his own other than his respect for the very natural quality of the grapes and for the magical places that they were grown.

A very classy and compelling wine. Deeply coloured with a pure, intense bouquet of crushed fruits, spice and oak. Elegant oak aging enhances the wine’s complexity and class.

Produced from a small (0.49 ha) plot of 50 to 68 year old vines, this is classic Chambolle. Hand harvested and fermented using only indigenous yeast it then underwent maturation in 35% new oak barrels.

Maison Roche de Bellene

COLOUR Bright and deep ruby.
NOSE A loaded and dense perfume of cassis, licorice and strawberry sorbet is deepened by ocean scents of dried shells and crayfish bisque. Ironstone rock brings earthy notes which give way to dried rose petal and vanilla butter intrigue.
PALATE So intense, tight, lengthy and exciting. A fresh and succulent entry pulls inward with firm, linear tannins driving the flavours long. Fresh raspberry, wood spice, vanilla and peanut complexities linger.

Vasse Felix

Château Mercian is the oldest established winery in Japan, starting out in 1870 having sent two young men to France to understand wine making in the European tradition. Indeed the descendants of these two men are still growing grapes for Mercian today.

“Muscat Bailey A” is a Japan’s indigenous grape variety born by crossing Bailey and Muscat Hamburg. It has been widely grown in Yamanashi Prefecture since its creation in 1920. It is thick-skinned, late budding and grown on overhead trellis. The grapes are harvested by hand and fermented in stainless steel tanks for about 14 days. The wine is then split in to two portions, half is aged in tank and half in oak barrels for 17 months.

The wine is a brilliant ruby colour. Fresh aromas of red fruits such as raspberries and strawberries, sweet aromas reminiscent of cotton candy, and notes of vanilla derived from barrel fermentation are blended together. The wine is well-balanced with a vibrant acidity and soft tannins.

Nose: Powerful nose dominated by red berries and delicate oak aromas.
Palate: Powerful attack. Round and supple tannins.

E.Guigal

Stunning Pinot from the Talinay Vineyard. Winemaker Felipe Müller planted the best, limestone rich slope with a field selection from Vosne Romanee and Gevrey Chambertin. This is the first vintage and has already been hailed as one of the best Pinot's from Chile.

Two massal selections from Vosne-Romanée and Gevrey-Chambertin were planted ungrafted and with a very high density of 12,500 plants per hectare on a steep slope (30%) inside the Talinay estate vineyard. It's a unique 1.15 hectares of vines that were planted in 2012, and the first commercial wine was produced in 2018. This site has some of highest concentration of calcium carbonate (limestone) in the Talinay vineyard. It’s fermented with 40% whole bunch, with native yeasts and then matured in used French oak barrels for 12 months.

The nose is attractive with brooding cherry fruit, floral lift and an underlying stoney minerality. The palate is taught with delicious red berry fruits, layered upon precise minerality and freshness. It’s a very long and clean wine with extremely fine, chalky tannins.

The name of this unusual Bourgogne Pinot Noir refers to the latitude of Burgundy, and it is a blend of out best Bourgogne Rouge, Cote de Nuits Village, Marsannay and Vosne-Romanee.

From right in the centre of Sardinia, this is 95% Monica Nero (one of the many grapes found pretty much only in Sardinia)with a little Bovalleddu (Graciano) and Tintillu (Mazuelo/Carignan). The vines are all between 60-120 years old and provide intense dark peppery fruit. Hand harvested with wild yeast fermentation, 1/3 in steel and the rest in oak barrels before 12 months lees aging; the wine is big and structural with a nod to intense Southern Rhones but a bit more rustic in style.

The Gómez Cruzado winery dates back to 1886 when Angel Gómez de Arteche started to produce and bottle his own wine in Haro, at the very heart of Rioja Alta. This was in the day when the wine trade between Rioja and France passed along the Tudela-Bilbao line, and the key Rioja wineries were located around the station of Haro. The winery sits just 100m from the station to this day.

One of Gomez Cruzado's ‘Terroir Selection’, Pancrudo is an expression of selected vineyards around Badarán, in southern Rioja Alta. Here the high elevation, limited yield, red iron-rich soil, northern exposure and continental climate produces a wine with distinctive character. The old bush-trained Garnacha vines are planted in red ferrous-clay soils in the rolling hills of Badarán (near the upper Najerilla), due south of Haro. The vineyards are north-facing at around 650m altitude. The grapes are hand-harvested into 200kg crates, and are sorted by hand at the winery. After fermentation in stainless steel, gently plunging the cap, malolactic fermentation takes place - 65% in new French oak, and 35% in egg-shaped concrete tanks. The resulting wine is blended and bottled.

Awarded 96pts in Tim Atkin MW's Rioja 2022 Special report

Bodegas Gomez Cruzado

Robust and generous, this Gigondas is characterised by its power and structured tannins.

A blend of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, and 10% Mourvedre from vines with an average age of 40 years. Low yields of 32hL/hectare ensure this is a wine with great concentration. Maturation is two years in oak foudres, 50% of which are new oak.

E.Guigal

A serious wine of real complexity that balances fine tropical fruit with lively citrus in a pure and precise whole. Delicious now but easily capable of developing and improving further over then next decade, possibly even more

The appellation is located on the left bank of the Rhone, between Orange and Avignon, in Chateauneuf du Pape at the highest point of the appellation, on the Fargueirol plateau.

The terroir is characterised by large rolled pebbles that store the generous sun of Provence during the day and restore it at night. The height of the pebbles is about 2 metres, underneath there is a clay bench where the roots of the vine draw their water needs – a truly exceptional terroir.

70% Grenache. 20% Syrah. 5% Mouvedre, 5% Cinsault.

Deep purple in colour with a violet rim. Nose – a perfectly clean nose with an explosion of aromas of black fruit, exotic spices, roasted coffee and hints of cocoa. One can also distinguish some liquorice and violet flavour that combines perfectly well. On the palate this wine is very generous. The tannins are there, silky and ample, ready for the palate but also promising a great future.

Chateau Fargueirol

Readers will find a rich, flamboyant wine in the 2016 Barde-Haut. There is not a ton of subtlety here, but I am not sure that matters all that much given how immensely pleasing the 2016 is. Crushed rocks, graphite, lavender, blackberry, plum, and violet infuse a Saint-Émilion that offers tremendous textural richness as well as vibrancy. Most importantly of all, the 2016 is flat-out delicious. This is a decidedly opulent, dark Saint-Émilion with all of the elements impeccably balanced. I loved it. Drink 2021-2036.

96 points, Antonio Galloni

Lastly, the 2016 Château Barde-Haut might end up being the best wine ever made at this address from the Garcin-Lévêque family, and it certainly ranks with the crème de la crème of the vintage. Dense purple-hued with awesome notes of cassis, black cherries, spring flowers, damp earth, and violets, it hits the palate with incredible purity and precision, a deep, multi-dimensional texture, sweet tannins (from ripe fruit, not sugar), and a building sense of minerality that shows on the finish. It has the depth of fruit and elegance to shine even today yet will benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age and evolve for two decades.

95+ points, Jeb Dunnuck

The 2016 Barde-Haut has a crisp and well defined bouquet, very pure, with black cherries, blueberry, violet and a touch of crushed stone, all very focused. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, silky smooth in texture with pure black cherries, raspberry and light orange rind notes towards the finish. This represents an impressive follow-up to the 2015. Tasted at the Barde-Haut vertical at the château. Drink 2025-2045.

94 points, Neal Martin

Chateau Barde Haut

Areore is a field blend from the vineyard that surrounds the winery. Chardonnay, Sauvignon and Tocai Friulano combine to offer a truly beautiful, very complex and really long wine. The grapes are pressed slowly and remain in the press overnight before starting co-fermentation next day. Open top stainless steel for the start of the fermentation then taken from the skins and moved to large oak once the initial phase is complete. Remains on fine lees in cask for 12 months but with no battonage, bottled and rested for a further 4 months before release.

Intense, deep ruby red colour. The nose is complex, with red fruits and notes of spice, as well as a great mineral content coming from the granite that constitutes the soil. In the mouth it is elegant, with good structure, lots of energy and good acidity. This makes it fresh, vibrant and juicy, as well as helping the wine in its potential in the bottle.

Good fruit concentration and weight with an open quality. Complex notes of plums and black cherries with a hint of cocoa and cloves.

This rich and complex wine emphasises the smoky notes and dark fruits that lead you in it as soon as you open the bottle. The moderate acidity and well inegrated tannins shows a freshness that belies its age with real elegance.

Chanzy is a 80 hectare Estate, divided between Côte Chalonnaise, Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits with their base in Bouzeron. They are one of the few Burgundy producers to achieve Haute Valeur Environnementale level 3; the most highly regarded certification for agriculture in France. Their farming regime demands a holistic outlook that goes beyond organics: ensuring biodiversity, reusable energy and reduced water usage. The vineyards are in conversion to organics and will be certified from 2024 vintage onwards.

This wine has slightly straw colour undertones with pale gold reflections. Its aromas of white flowers combine with honey and are reminiscent of gingerbread. On the palate, its elegance is sure, pleasant while retaining the freshness of the grape variety without giving in to excess mellowness.

Chanzy

The name of this unusual Bourgogne Pinot Noir refers to the latitude of Burgundy, and it is a blend of out best Bourgogne Rouge, Cote de Nuits Village, Marsannay and Vosne-Romanee.

A delightful nose of honey and peaches, delicate and graceful on the palate with traces of citrus fruit and spice. Very elegant and perfectly balances with a refreshing crisp long finish.

Villa Maria's finest Sauvignon, the grapes come from the Fairhill vineyard which surrounds Villa Maria's Marlborough winery in the Wairau Valley. The typically warm days and cool nights during the growing season lead to intense concentrated flavors with a fresh energetic line of acidity while the predominantly clay based soils give weight and structure to the wines. Sustainable practices and an emphasis on biodiversity brings life into the vineyard ensuring healthy, resilient vines that produce complex and characterful wines

The summer was dry and mild with Marlborough’s signature high sunshine hours and cool nights delivering fruit in the best possible condition. The early autumn in 2021 provided Marlborough with very stable weather conditions therefore fruit was able to reach optimum physiological and flavour ripeness. The fruit was impeccably clean and the lower yields meant that the grapes packed a punch in flavour and concentration. The grapes were fermented in a mix of Franch oak puncheons and barriques followed by 11 months aging in barrel and a further 6 months on lees in stainless steel tanks.

With vibrant citrus aromas accompanied by lifted florals and smoky notes on nose, this is a multi-dimensional wine with a zesty acid backbone and a structured mineral texture.

Maison Roche de Bellene