Calvados, cider, White Blend, ...

Estate Malbec mixes grapes from different terroirs and altitudes where they have vineyards: 1,800, 2,300, 2,600 and 3,111 meters!

Dried herbs, smoked tarragon and cherries with a touch of roasted spices. Full-bodied on the palate with structured, fine-grained tannins and a long, pristine finish. Well-structured. Drink from 2025. JAMES SUCKLING

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

Matthieu Cosse and Catherine Maisonneuve created Domaine Cosse Maisonneuve in 1999 after taking over the  5-hectare estate in the small region of Prayssac, near Cahors in the south west of France. The property was planted with 40-year-old Malbec (locally known as 'Cot') and they have now moved towards Certified organic and work with some biodynamic principles. Everything is by hand here and the wines are uncommonly elegant and round compared to the more rustic versions we are used to seeing.

No oak in this cuvee and it is so much better for it. That typical mulberry and boysenberry fruit leap out of the glass with a touch of licorice interspersed between wild bracken aroma. Approachable and fruity, with a soft, supple texture and dressed with a fine layer of smooth rich tannin. Vibrant and full of energy but still solidly built without feeling cumbersome or heavy. They really pull this off beautifully.

Matthieu Cosse and Catherine Maisonneuve created Domaine Cosse Maisonneuve in 1999 after taking over the  5-hectare estate in the small region of Prayssac, near Cahors in the south west of France. The property was planted with 40-year-old Malbec (locally known as 'Cot') and they have now moved towards Certified organic and work with some biodynamic principles. Everything is by hand here and the wines are uncommonly elegant and round compared to the more rustic versions we are used to seeing.

No oak in this cuvee and it is so much better for it. That typical mulberry and boysenberry fruit leap out of the glass with a touch of licorice interspersed between wild bracken aroma. Approachable and fruity, with a soft, supple texture and dressed with a fine layer of smooth rich tannin. Vibrant and full of energy but still solidly built without feeling cumbersome or heavy. They really pull this off beautifully.

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

STAGE 14 - MOUNTAIN - PAU > SAINT-LARY-SOULAN PLA D'ADET 151.9 KM

Franck Lihour is a relative newcomer with only his first vintage in 2014. But within a short amount of time, he has lifted his family's estate, Domaine Castera, to be one of the top producers of Jurançon. His ability to tame the searing acidity with concentrated fruit while keeping the wines bone dry and without ever losing any balance is exceptional. His work in the vineyard, slow & long pressing, time in old neutral oak and use of whole clusters the key to maintaining the knife edge wines he has endeared his fans with.

Waxy citrus, pear and white orchard fruit entice you in while a gentle floral lilt and softly spice nose keep you coming back for more. The palate is refined and electric, with a long, slightly leesy finish, that seems to build and build in on its self as you continue to sip it. This is at once luxurious and broad that seems to paint the flavours across your palate while sitting up, fresh and bright on a web of tightly woven acidity. Very cool!

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2023 was a brilliant year for Cabernet Sauvignon and proved perfect ripening for Cabernet Sauvignon and merlot and Cullen vineyard. Made from 100% bio-dynamically certified fruit a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot,1% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Malbec has created a wine of great depth supported by delicious fine grained tannins.

The wine was matured in barriques of which 20% were new. CULLEN

Pinot Gris 25%, Sauvignon Blanc 25%, Vermentino 25%, Verdelho 25%. All fruit sourced from organic vineyards in Lodi and San Benito (Verdelho). Each variety is fermented separately with natural yeasts in a mix of stainless steel and neutral barrels before blending. Matured for 5 months in neutral oak.

Known more as a cutting-edge cider maker, Eric Bordelet was a top sommelier at Arpege in Paris, before returning home to Normandy in 1992 to take over the family business. He biodynamically grows more than 20 apple varieties and 15 pear varieties. JASON WILSON, Vinous

Eric Bordelet approaches Cider-making with the same intensity as a passionate oenologist brings to winemaking. Bordelet worked as sommelier in the leading 3 star Parisian restaurant, ‘Arpege’ where he became deeply familiar with the top winemakers and wineries of France. In 1992 he took over the tiny patch of family farmed orchards in Charchigné, in the heart of Normandy’s premium Cider producing area. Since then he has set about rescuing the ancient ‘heirloom’ varieties of pears and apples that produce tiny quantities and amazing flavour.

Produced from pear trees estimated to be about 300 years old. Poiré Granit has 25-80 grams of sugar per liter, yet it doesn't taste particularly sweet.  This is due to the tannin and acidity, which Bordelet says is twice as high as the apple! Stunning as aperitif or with cheese or desserts. With just 4% alc/vol this can be enjoyed any time. Cider simply doesn't get better than this !!

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Made with grapes from Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley, the 2022 Malbec Mendoza revives the plush Malbec profile that gained popularity in the U.S. market in the 2000s, now with added intensity and concentration from the vintage. It offers a rich fruit blend, from ripe plum to blackberry, with a subtle hint of oak and fine tannins on the finish. This is well crafted and enjoyable. JOAQUIN HIDALGO

A sense of elegance, energy, and complexity with nuance. Mouth-washing acidity with a focus on freshness. Both delicious and pretty. Flavours of citrus blossom, bitter almond, and fresh melon. Accents of flint and oyster shell. Pleasant, lightly textural palate. Beautifully done. (17.5/20) JANCIS ROBINSON

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Really fresh and fruit-expressive with plenty of dark cherries, mulberries and violets. Lots of fruit and fine-grained, yet powerful tannins on the palate. Peppery and tightly wound. Mineral. Malbec from Las Compuertas co-fermented with malbec from Gualtallary. 50% whole bunch in oak butts. ZEKUN SHUAI, James Halliday

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

A sweet spice and floral blend complements candied lime and crushed apple notes as the 2021 Bianco Manna opens in the glass. This coasts across the palate lifted and finessed with a stunning mix of zesty acidity and ripe citrus under an air of tropical inner florals. The 2021 leaves a salty flourish and the mouth watering for more as Granny Smith apples slowly fade. The Manna is a blend of 40% Riesling, 20% Chardonnay, 15% Kerner, 15% Gewürztraminer and 10% Sauvignon Blanc. ERIC GUIDO, Vinous

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

The Keber family settled at Localita’ Zegla 300+ years ago, when Collio (Italy) and Brda (Slovenia) belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, they have been instrumental in the push for a new DOC, one that would be a world first between two countries and unite Collio and Brda once more. In 2008 they took the radical step to produce just a single white wine, a blend of Friulano, Ribolla and Malvasia that they feel best expresses the uniqueness of their territory. The wine has become an Italian/Slovenian benchmark.

The vineyards are all terraced and the climate is moderated by two competing elements, warm breezes from the Adriatic and the chilly Bora from continental Europe. Farming is certified organic and Kristian uses some biodynamic preparations.

A blend of 70% Friulano with 15% each of Ribolla Gialla and Malvasia. Typically Friulano gives the body and structure, Ribolla for acidity and freshness and Malvasia for complex aromatics. The wine is co-fermented with natural yeasts (in concrete) and aged in concrete for 16 months. This extended ageing, over two winters, allows for a slow natural decantation of the sediment and the wine can be bottled unfiltered. Aromas of white stone fruits, apple, almond and yellow flowers. There's the classic textural push and pull on the palate that the Friulano grape, and wines from Collio, do so well, adding complexity and intrigue. The palate balances a sense of richness and body with minerality and an almost salty finish that really holds your interest. Great, and interesting, white wine.

 

A blend of Riesling, Pinot Gris and some Pinot Blanc, the 2021 Riquewihr was harvested along the Schoenenbourg Grand Cru, on the more exposed side of the grand cru Sporen, and from parcels towards Kientzheim. After some funky reduction has dissipated, luminous candied lemon notes appear. The palate, however, is fuller and seems buffered and airy, with very concentrated freshness, soft fruit and defining pithy bitterness that makes the mouth water. The finish is bone-dry and rapier-like, edged with ginger. (Bone-dry) ANNE KREBIEHL MW, Vinous

This wine comes from the parcels of Domaine Marcel Deiss located on the end of Riquewihr (places called Engelsreben and Rosenbourg) conducted biodynamically. The siliceous superficial framework of these soils resting on deep marls, gives a wine extremely salivating, precise, robust, thick, aristocratic and cold in primitive youth, but fleshy. Complete and very long aging. This is the complex message of a vibrant fruit from a deep cold earth.

If you have never had the wines of Deiss this is a great place to start. He has always been adamant that the great wines of Alsace are 100% about place and grape second, so much so that he famous for his field blend wines that combine several grapes and that which for Deiss represent one of the great expressions of the region.

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Aged in small apple brandy casks for over 12 months, this rich and generous liqueur is a result of blending pressed French and British heirloom apple varieties with our apple spirit.

Complex and well-structured with baked apple and spice, balanced with firm tannins and cask influence.

Our take on the traditional aperitif from North-West France – enjoy as such or serve with blue cheese or dessert. WILLIE SMITH

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+ Trophy Best Cabernet Blend 2022 Yarra Valley Wine Show +
A blend of 80/20% 1995-planted cabernet and 1990-planted malbec. Matured in 225L barriques (15% new). A brilliant crimson purple. Aromas of cassis, blackberries, violets and a gentle whiff of cedar emanate from this beautifully put-together wine. Elegant, medium bodied and with super-supple tannins, Sarah Crowe has crafted an approachable and seductive cabernet. The well-deserved winner of the Best Cabernet Blend trophy at the 2022 Yarra Valley Wine Show. (96) PHILIP RICH

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

Aromas of peach, thyme and lilies. Medium-bodied with refreshing tannins. Bright acidity, but overall pleasant, mellow presence. Fresh stone fruit and jasmine on the palate. Well balanced with a soft finish. 63% roussanne, 20% grenache blanc, 14% picpoul blanc, 3% picardan. 95 points, JAMES SUCKLING

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Deep bright purple-red colour leading into a stylish bouquet of sweet mulberry and other berry fruits, violets and cassis, succulent and mouth-filling, with masses of fine emery-like tannins that run the length of the palate adding authority, structure, length and refreshment to the aftertaste. Concentrated, superripe blackberry, cassis and mulberry flavours; oak tucked discreetly into the background. (98) HUON HOOKE, The Real Review

Really delivers as you might expect from this excellent concentrated and powerfully frame vintage in Margaret River. It’s dominant cabernet with smaller portions of merlot, cabernet franc and malbec. Typical of this wine since switching to biodynamics, it is bright and brilliant with a nervy tense energy to drive the palate. The succulent fruit is harness by fine chalky tannins and neatly played oak of which 55% was new. A wine of extraordinary elegance and poise with a few of many decades. (98) RAY JORDAN

Needless to say, Margaret River enjoyed another superb vintage with the 2022 season. Slightly cooler, Cullen report that it was a vintage of “immense perfume and texture”. The wine is a wonderfully vibrant purple in colour. The nose gives up plums, cassis, spices including nutmeg, chocolate, mocha, bay leaves, cigar box notes – think a freshly opened box of Cohiba Siglo VI – and near perfect oak integration. This is finely balanced and exhibiting immense length on a palate that sees the emergence of aniseed, mulberries and coffee beans. An alluringly supple texture with the silkiest of tannins, though plenty of them – there really is some grip here. This will easily sail through fifteen to twenty years in a good cellar. (98) KEN GARGETT, Wine Pilot

Diana Madeline. The name evokes a lot of emotions, for what the woman stood for then and what the wine stands for now. The 2021 vintage equals 50 years of cabernet sauvignon plantings at Cullen. When released in early 2023, it was on what would have been her 100th birthday. It’s a wine that can come from nowhere else, so strong is its sense of place. Expect to swoon over aromas of roses, violets and mulberries doused in baking spices, a ferruginous quality as much as detailed if persuasive tannins. It’s complex, complete and structured. Gosh, what a wine. What a woman. The perfect combination. (97) JANE FAULKNER, James Halliday

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

We've come across a swathe of Argentinian wines that both excite and delight. There's a certain wild beauty to Argentine wine, and altitude plays a huge role. Many of Argentina's best vineyards sit far above sea level, where sun-drenched days meet cool crisp nights. This diurnal shift preserves acidity while ripening the fruit to vivid intensity, marrying freshness to flesh.

This 6 pack includes five malbecs and one torrontes blend:
1 x Bodega Colome Estate Malbec 2022
1 x Ernesto Catena Padrillos Malbec 2024
1 x Laura Catena La Posta Paulucci Malbec 2023
1 x Mattias Ricatelli Hey Malbec 2023
1 x Achaval Ferrer Mendoza Malbec 2022
1 x Amalaya Vino Blanco Torrontes 2024

There are only a select few, perfect locations, to grow great wine on this big blue orb of ours and those are between 30 and 50 degrees north and south latitudes. Those regions need to provide just the right temperature, humidity, heat and climate to grow high quality grapes. We are absolutely spoilt for choice when it comes to the northern reaches with the whole of Europe at our disposal, but travel further south and things are a little different.

While New Zealand and Tasmania provide us with plenty of choices (and we would be remiss not to include them) the southern reaches sitting on and just below the 40 degrees latitude offer a up a wholy unique drinking experience.

While grapes like riesling, cabernet and pinot noir are familiar to us, a number of the wines in this months pack aren't seen so regularly on your local wines list or on the shelves of your corner wine store. From Malbec's in Argentina to the infamous Pinotage and the more classic varietals like Chenin in South Africa this is an exploration of all that is good in these great southern lands of ours.

Where do we start with such an awesome selection of interesting wine? It's hard to decide we might just do a quick run down by country.

South America is relatively new to the wine scene but has come along in leap and bounds. WE start with a couple of classics with the Finca Los Moras Malbec and the Santa Ana Cabernet. These are text book varietal wines with plenty to love in their up-front fruit and modern styling. For something a little different we through in the Bouchon pais. For those who do not know, Pais is an old variety that is Chile's answer to pinot noir. With a little more bite and a wild flourish this a great introduction to this fascinating wine.

Closer to home in New Zealand we have few classic drops with the Palliser Estate Pencarrow pinot. A wine you would be hard pressed to find with the structure, concentration and complexity at the same price. Off to Hawkes Bay for some stonking Chardonnay from Bilancia fame and some of the world most underrated syrah from stars Te Mata. What a treat!

Just in our backyard, Tassie continues to pump out some of the best wine in the country and while we would never miss out on showcasing another great pinot there is some real winners with pinot gris and riesling on the rise. The Moores Hill gris is a freat example of textural and vibrant gris from the Apple Isle with the Riversdale riesling hot on its tale.

And for something a little different we have got the latest release Willie Smiths Cider. This is an absolute belter, and we couldn't help but included it once we were told it had been released. Perfect timing! We will take that one!

Last, and something we don't see much in Aus is a cracking selection of wines from South Africa. Long-term customers may recognise some of these wines and as far as we are concerned, they are some of the best modern day Cape wines to make it over. The Bare Bones cinsault is a zippy red full of energy while the Winery of Good Hope pinotage is a juicy and fun take on this classic red variety,

And what would a selection of wine from South Africa be without a chenin blanc. The Secateurs is clean and crunchy with a plush fruit profile that is cleaned up by chenin's zippy acidity.
All in al a pretty awesome and exciting collection of stellar wines from the great south!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!