Calvados, Gin, Blend, Cabernet...

Spirit: Blood orangecello Primary Flavour: Blood orange Secondary Flavour: Ancho Chilli

Let’s be honest - cellos sound kinda nice and we all pretend to love them if we are on a  first date, but most of the time: BORING. Not any more. This cello is a disturbed, unhinged, raging hot mess of a drink. How, you ask? We infused zesty Australian blood orange peels with the dried husks of ancho chilli. It’s smokey, vibrant, zesty, bitter and sour.

It’s everything you ever wanted in a drink but were too self-concious and idiotic to ask for. So top it with Prosecco, top up your Negroni or drink it like a heathen - because this little number is music for your mouth. A symphony for your senses. A tango for your tastebuds. You get the drift....drink it.

The 2018 Prieuré-Lichine is gorgeous. Bright and racy in the glass, the 2018 impresses with its magnificent purity of fruit. In 2018, Prieuré-Lichine has terrific energy and cut. It is perhaps a bit less creamy than the 2016, but also impeccable in its balance. Part of that is driven by the higher percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend in 2018. Rose petal, lavender, mint and spice add nuance to a core of red/purplish fruit. Tasted two times. (95) ANTONIO GALLONI

The 2018 Château Prieuré-Lichine is an attractive, elegant Margaux offering classic, pretty red and black fruits, cedary spice, and dried flowers aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, elegant, and again, with an incredible floral character, it has a supple, rounded texture that's going to allow it to drink nicely in its youth, yet it should also evolve for 15+ years or more. I suspect this will surpass the '14, '15, and '16. JEB DUNNUCK

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!

It feels like this pocket of Mount Barker does well with this variety. Very well. Bold scents of cassis, lavender, bay leaf and sea spray with well-judged clove and cinnamon spice. Refreshing and succulent to taste, spot-on medium weight, though the levity and vitality make it feel prettier than that. Dark fruit flavours but lots of herb and spice too, tannins in tow are ultrafine and, again, mineral-charged, all pulverised stone and talc. This has great mojo and feels as fancy as it is highly drinkable. What excitement! 95 MIKE BENNIE, wine companion

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 2018 Lilian Ladouys is such a gorgeous wine. Black cherry, gravel, scorched earth, leather and dark spice give the 2018 a brooding aromatic profile that suggests a potent wine. On the palate, though, the Lilian Ladouys is quite a bit more restrained than the bouquet indicates, in a good way. The 2018 is wonderfully deep and fleshy, but not at all heavy, with a natural sense of radiance that complements the more rustic leanings of Saint-Estèphe. There is plenty of pleasure to be found here. In a word: terrific. ANTONIO GALLONI, vinous.com

…From the lieu-dit Blanquet and with a deep purple-black color, the 2018 Lilian Ladouys gives up wonderfully spicy black fruit preserves notions: plum preserves, crème de cassis and blueberry with hints of exotic spices, menthol and violets. Medium to full-bodied, firm and fine-grained in the mouth, it has layer upon layer of rich, spicy black fruits with a lift to the finish. LISA PEROTTI BROWN, wineadvocate.com

Definitely the best vintage of Lilian Ladouys to date. The wine is loaded with licorice, black fruits, smoke and wet earth. Medium/full-bodied with a round, juicy, lush-mouth feel, there is a nice spicy character in the finish due to the increase of Cabernet Sauvignon in the vineyard and the blend…JEFF LEVE, winecellarinsider

A year-in, year-out value, the 2018 Château Lilian Ladouys checks in as 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot that was brought up in 35% new oak. Jammy blueberries, ripe cherries, damp earth, tobacco, and spicy wood notes define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a plump, rounded texture, opulent aromas and flavors, and a great finish. JEB DUNNUCK

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The 2019 Prieuré-Lichine is impeccable. Creamy, layered and resonant in the glass, the 2019 hits all the right notes. Sweet red cherry/plum, lavender, rose petal, spice, mint and blood orange all build effortlessly. Over the last handful of years Prieuré-Lichine has been the single most under the radar wine in Margaux. The 2019 is another fine edition. Class, polish and sensuality make Prieuré-Lichine absolutely irresistible. (95) ANTONIO GALLONI

Wonderful aromas of dried orange, blackcurrant and crushed stone follow through to a full body with beautifully polished tannins that are composed and fine. Lots of subtle and complex character on the finish. Extremely well done here. (95) JAMES SUCKLING

This Margaux estate fashions a classic, dependable red, and I think the 2018 and 2019 are the finest vintages I've tasted from this address. The 2019 Château Prieure-Lichine is impressive, showing lots of spiced red and black fruits, sandalwood, and dried flower notes as well as medium to full-bodied richness on the palate. As with the 2018, it has a terrific floral and spicy character, ripe tannins, and beautiful balance. JEB DUNNUCK

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Frank Moorhouse in his book Martini - a memoir states, "Every time it is served, the martini represents a journey towards an unattainably ideal drink". The idea of endlessly pursuing a perfection that does not exist is something well known to passionate winemakers. Having a winemaking background we thought we would delve into the mysteries of gin production. This was largely brought about by our fascination with martinis and all things gin.
The notion of the "unattainable ideal drink" led us into a series of trials and experiments and we have become fully immersed in the alchemy of batch distillation and the extraction of exotic and local botanicals. The MGC doffs its hat to London Dry Gin with the two major components being juniper berries and coriander seed. There are 11 botanicals in total (not including a lot of love) with the grapefruit peel and rosemary coming from the garden at Gembrook Hill Vineyard. The other botanicals are macadamia, sandalwood, honey lemon myrtle and organic navel orange, which are all sourced from Australia. The exotics in the mix are angelica root, orris root and cassia bark.

Each botanical is distilled separately and then blended to our recipe - essentially a winemakers approach. We use a copper pot baine-marie alembic still. A still traditionally used for making perfume. This allows us to preserve the delicate nature of the botanicals we work with. The final component is the water used to break the gin back. We use Gembrook rainwater which is pure and fresh and allows the botanicals to shine through. At only 60kms from Melbourne this local source contributes to the definition of the unique "Melbourne Dry Gin" style.

The MGC is not chill filtered. We didn't want to take out the oils that contribute so much to the aromatics and mouth feel of the gin. So when the gin is very cold the oils become slightly insoluble and form a light haze. The French use the word louche to describe this. In a different context someone who is louche is of a shady character! Each bottle is numbered to reflect the small batches in which it is made. ANDREW MARKS, Distiller & Winemaker

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The 2019 Lafon-Rochet is every bit as compelling today as it was from barrel. There is a feeling of elegance to the 2019 that is so striking. Sweet dark cherry, plum new leather, tobacco, licorice, spice and rose petal all grace the 2019 as it unwinds to its long finish. Lafon-Rochet is not huge nor obvious, as some Saint-Estèphes are, but it is absolutely compelling. (95) ANTONIO GALLONI

The 2019 Lafon-Rochet, which was picked from 25 September to 5 October, requires a little coaxing from the glass, eventually unfurling with blackberry, bilberry, violet and light crushed stone/clayey scents that is quintessential Saint-Estèphe. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins, fresh and saline in the mouth, old school in the best sense of that expression. No, it is not the most flamboyant Lafon-Rochet, but it is imbued with a sense of nobility and classicism that I much admire. Tasted three times with consistent notes. (95) NEAL MARTIN

Brilliant stuff, the 2019 Château Lafon-Rochet shows the best of the vintage with its pure, precise, elegant, yet at the same time concentrated style. Showing lots of ripe currant, plum, tobacco, Asian spice, and cedar pencil aromatics, it's medium to full-bodied, has nicely integrated acidity, and just seamless tannins. It's beautifully done and well worth seeking out. It's going to evolve for 20-25+ years. (95) JEB DUNNUCK

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The flagship 2018 Château Lagrange is a more dense, backward, serious wine, offering an unevolved yet incredibly promising bouquet of cassis, blackcurrants, scorched earth, graphite, and violets. A big, rich, full-bodied Saint-Julien, it delivers thrilling purity of fruit, plenty of background oak, ripe, silky tannins, and a great mid-palate. This is serious stuff, but it's going to require patience. Hide bottles for 7-8 years, count yourself lucky, and enjoy over the following two decades. (97) JEB DUNNUCK

Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Lagrange explodes from the glass with bombastic notes of crème de cassis, chocolate-covered cherries and baked red and black plums with suggestions of rose oil, cedar chest, pencil lead and hoisin. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has fantastic vibrancy for the ripeness, packed with juicy black fruits and compelling tension with a finely grained texture to support, finishing on a lingering mineral note. Nicely done! (95) WINE ADVOCATE

The 2018 Lagrange is off the charts. Bold, plush and beautifully resonant in the glass, the 2018 possesses tremendous richness and textural intensity. Super-ripe dark cherry, plum, espresso, mint and licorice build in a racy, sumptuous Lagrange loaded with personality. The 2018 is one of the best recent vintages I have tasted. Tasted two times. (95) ANTONIO GALLONI

This 125-acre vineyard is beautifully situated in the southern sector of the appellation of Margaux. Dense ruby/purple, with sweet cassis fruit, Du Tertre's 2012 has a perfumed, elegant, lush, velvety-textured mouthfeel and impressive purity and depth. Drink it over the next 15-20 years. WINE ADVOCATE

The 2012 du Tertre has a well-defined nose: fully-mature with hoisin, dark plum and a light, ferrous edge, not powerful but focused. The palate is well balanced with saturated tannins, fine acidity, quite cohesive and poised with white pepper and clove lining the finish. This is a stylish Margaux NEAL MARTIN, tasted 2022

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!

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!

As soon as you put your nose close to this wonderful single vineyard Cabernet you know you are in the heady zone of Coonawarra. The vineyard is located in the southern end of the Terra Rosa strip and displays a silky smooth and highly perfumed character. Bright red and black fruits on the nose with a subtle cedary oak influence. Fine chalky tannins and super fine-grained oak work their magic to bring the wine to life. Brilliant and alive through its long finish. Outstanding. (97) RAY JORDON, the west Australian

The Messenger Vineyard, a dry-grown plot in the southern section of Coonawarra’s Terra Rossa strip, shows perfume and silkiness in a mild year like 2021. It’s deceptive, with the flavours running long and fine on the current of a long, slender acid stream, but there’s lots of dark muscle lurking beneath the pleasant blackberry entry – a brooding, heavy-browed dangerman, reclining back in a creaky old leather Chesterfield, but when exactly will he pounce? That coiled-spring element of danger keeps you returning to this wine. So testy and willing for a medium-bodied wine, showing that Cabernet doesn’t have to be bloated and hefty to pack a punch. (96) DAVID SLY, decanter

Very deep, dark, brooding purple-red colour with a similarly brooding bouquet of blackberry, licorice, soy sauce, coffee grounds and creme de cassis, without any of the greener herbal elements of cabernet. The palate is intense and concentrated and backs up with taut, firm tannins which are nevertheless well measured and balanced. A very concentrated, plush, almost essency cabernet with a terrifically long carry, which will reward long-term cellaring. (97) HUON HOOKE, the real review

15 months in new and seasoned French oak hogsheads (16% new). A basket of collected blackberries and thistle. Fresh prune plums and bilberry. Allspice, clove and black peppercorn. Turned earth, granite and coal. Morello mushroom and undergrowth. There is juniper and wisps of lavender. Pinpoint acidity and laser focus to this cabernet. It drives seamlessly across the palate and pulls at the heartstrings. A stunning drink now and in 15 to 20 years. (96) GOLD MEDAL, SHANTEJ WAHL, www.winecompanion.com

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!

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!

It's like a Bordelaise immigrant in Friuli. I don't mean these varieties (merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon) are new to the area, in fact the cabernet family have been planted up here for centuries, I mean the style of the wine blends classical cabernet production - modern vinification and small oak elevage - with a local fruit spectrum which offer something different to their spirit home in France. 

Middle weight. Dark cherry. dark berry and leafy aromatic with a touch of earl grey tea. Palate is clean and pure, sweetly fruited but also lithe and direct. Dark chocolate and oak splice are woven into the core of the wine. It's a lovely example, the main feature for me being that it holds excellent ripeness but is also mid-weight and cool fruited. Excellent luncheon merlot cab blend that will age and improve for 10-15 years. MICHAEL MCNAMARA 

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Plenty of blackberry, currant and floral aromas. Some mint as well, following through to a full-bodied palate with layers of ultra-fine tannins and wonderful length. This is sophisticated and beautifully crafted with style and personality, displaying its terroir. Extremely well done. Drink after 2025. (96) JAMES SUCKLING

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Langoa Barton is a very pleasant surprise, singing of Black Forest cake, raspberry preserves and warm blackcurrants notions with suggestions of chocolate mint, forest floor and pencil shavings plus a hint of cinnamon toast. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has jaw-dropping tension and intensity, featuring ripe, grainy tannins and bags of evocative red and black fruits, finishing with a lively lift. The style of this 2019 is worlds away from the also very impressive 2018, showcasing an even brighter, immediately impactful and downright flamboyant side to the estate. Color me impressed! (95) WINE ADVOCATE

Checking in as 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Château Langoa Barton offers up a dense purple color as well as notes of blackberries, smoked earth, chocolate, and leafy herbs. This rich, medium to full-bodied effort has an expansive, mouthfilling texture, beautiful mid-palate density, and outstanding length. It's going to have some upfront appeal, but my money is on it benefiting from a solid 5-7 years of bottle age. (95) JEB DUNNUCK

The 2019 Langoa Barton has a very typical Langoa nose, which is a good thing, sporting vivacious black cherries, blackberry, crushed iris, cedar and light blood orange scents lurking offstage. Lovely oak integration here. The palate is beautifully defined on the entry, a structured almost big-boned Langoa with enormous grip on the spicy finish. I love the generosity of this Saint-Julien, one that I suspect will be seductive on release but don't be deceived - it deserves cellaring lest you get a smacked wrist for being impatient. (95) NEAL MARTIN

We were first introduced to the distillery by Melbourne (and San Sebastian) bar owner, Gerald Diffey. He was fairly passionate about this range of gins he'd seen on a trip back to the UK and urged us to import some. We knew Gerald knew his stuff so we were interested but wary given the number of Gins in the market, but once we delved deeper into the operation and then tasted the range we were sold.

The distillery is a relatively new operation headed by Bob Russell and sons, Matthew and Stephen. It is unique in several senses but first off it is housed in a Victorian-era pumphouse in the now derelict Chatham Dockyard south of London. The dockyard was at one time of huge importance to the Empire building ships for the Royal Navy from Napoleonic times through to the Falklands. The pumphouse # 5 was used to pump out water for the dry docks. Russell saw an opportunity to revitalise a magnificent piece of English architecture, give some locals a job and indulge his passion for making bespoke spirits. To do this he decided to take the road less travelled in distilling and instead of buying in bulk spirit to make his Gin

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!

Distilled using locally grown barley and Kentish water, this is as fresh and bright as a sunny spring day in the countryside. Elegant and refined gin, with a lovely, half floral, half herbal lift. I tasted it before learning what botanicals had been used in its production, and suspect its fragrant quality comes from the local elderflowers. MAX ALLEN

Ingredients: Italian Juniper berries, locally sourced elderflower, Bulgarian Coriander seeds, Spanish orange peel, Italian lemon peel, Guatemala green cardamom, grains of paradise from Africa, European Angelica root and Orris root, our own neutral grain spirit and Kentish chalk filtered water.
 

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