Cape Mentelle Wallcliffe Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2015, Margaret River, Australia, 13.5% (AU$40, WineSquare) If you follow us on Instagram you’ll already be aware that I was lucky enough to spend a glorious ten days touring some of Australia’s finest vineyards in December. It was a trip that...
Chinuri Skin Contact 2015 Iago Bitarishvili, Chinuri Skin Contact 2015, Kartli, Georgia, 13% (£19.60 for the 2016 vintage, Les Caves de Pyrene) If a recent trip to Georgia proved anything, it was the fact that no one single phrase neatly sums up the style of Georgian wine, whether...
Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1976, Oakville, California, 13% (Not commercially available) California’s Mondavi Winery is owned by Constellation Brands, a principal supporter of the Institute of Masters of Wine and sponsor of the IMW’s Robert Mondavi Winery Award. This award is given each year to...
Château Lynch Bages 2014, Pauillac, Bordeaux, 13.5% (c £70 per bottle in bond, BBR, Farr Vintners etc) This was a standout wine at a big tasting of 90+ Bordeaux wines from the 2014 vintage held at Vintners Hall by the Institute of Masters of Wine. Also impressive were the...
Pinot Noir in Essex?! Pinotage in Sussex?! It's all happening in English still wine at the moment. The sparkling wines of the UK go from strength to strength - and now they are being joined by a raft of still wines rapidly gaining critical mass and...
Flint Vineyard Bacchus 2017, 11.5% (£15.99 from the winery or £16.95 at BBR) The 2018 vintage will be a game-changer for many reasons in English and Welsh wine. This was the joint warmest summer on record, with beautiful weather from June to August, and then a very gentle...
Is old wine better than young wine? It’s a common question. And the answer is, as ever, a qualified one: it depends. Largely, it depends on your preferences. Which do you prefer? The freshness and firmness of youth? Or the smoothness and so-called secondary or tertiary characters...
Adnams Riesling 9% (£9.99, Adnams) ‘Seriously, what’s the point of wine with no alcohol in it?!’ Such was the reaction of a good friend when we told her we’d been doing a tasting of low-and-no-alcohol drinks. (The category is known in the industry as ‘low-and-no’.) On one level, the...
Cà dei Frati Rosa dei Frati 2017, Lombary, Italy, 13% (c. £15, independents) I gave a bottle of rosé to a friend recently. He took one look and almost gave it straight back. ‘That’s not real wine, is it?!’ he exclaimed. ‘I mean, it looks like it’s a...
Màquina y Tabla Páramos de Nicosia Clarete 2017, Toro, Spain, 13.5% (from £13.95, Lea & Sandeman) We’re both big fans of Màquina&Tabla’s characterful, energetic Spanish wines, which dare to be different. It’s an operation based out of Valladolid and a lot of the fruit comes from the nearby...