Calvados, Glassware, Tequila, ...

The idea behind 'Balance' was to design a glass that would bring out the best in new-wave artisanal/low-intervention wines that emphasise texture and structure as much as fruit. Michael Hinterleitner, whose family owns Zalto, explains, "We have been testing different prototypes for two years to create a glass that harmonises certain aspects of wines not often found in conventional winemaking."

So, after two years of intensive tastings and discussions with winegrowers and sommeliers, 'Balance' was born. Zalto recommends the glass for deep, complex whites-Chardonnay and full-bodied Riesling, for example-to fully show their depth and subtlety while harmonising aromas and flavours without concentrating one element. They also recommend the glass for complex sparkling wines, skin-macerated whites and reds made with high proportions of bunches.

62% Marsanne and 38% Roussanne. Vines planted 1973-85. The 2 varieties were picked & made separately, blended just before bottling.”

Apple, lime, apricot, ginger and honey, chamomile tea and cinnamon. It’s nutty and savoury, white fleshed fruit with a juicy peach and apricot richness, dusty and spicy, a fine chalkiness to it, a real white Rhône mouth-perfume about it, honey and almond, with a long rich and grainy finish. Terrific wine. GARY WALSH, The Wine Front

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!

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

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!

Part of the wine team, Gabrielle has chosen a tequila that reminds us of the way tequila used to  be made, here's why:

La Gritona is made by tequilero verteran Melly Cardenas and her team made up mostly of local women (all the men have crossed the border to find work) in the highlands of Jalisco. Made for LA based Punk guitarist Andy Coranado, this reflects a tequila that was made before the mass market took hold. There's no colouring or flavouring added, it's smooth with great depth and a lovely warming belly. Everything is thoughtfully done, nothing rushed that would compromise the quality. Even the charming green bottles are hand blown from recycled Mexican glass, just an hour's drive from the distillery. No need to mix this, serve it over a bucket of ice with a squeeze of fresh lime (and if you've got abit of lingering salt on your lips from your swim - even better). GABRIELLE POY, PWS


'La Gritona' is Spanish for 'The Screamer'. It's an appropriate name seeing that one of the people behind this outstanding tequila is LA-based punk guitarist Andy Coronado. The other significant player is the renowned tequilero Melly Cárdenas, who fashions La Gritona at her small distillery in Valle de Guadalupe in the highlands of Jalisco. One of Mexico's few female master distillers, the fiercely independent Cárdenas--who has 20 years of quality Tequila production under her belt--shares Coronado's love of the exceptional and unconventional, and leads a team staffed by only local women.

For a Reposado, La Gritona is light on colour and sweetness--Coronado and Cárdenas want none of the flavours that mask many commercial Reposados like vanilla, chocolate and dulce de leche. Instead this is packed with delicious, honest and savoury, roasted agave flavor, reminiscent of the old-style 'rested' Tequila, before the mass market took hold: "It's tequila like our grandparents drank," says Cárdenas. Working with 9- to 10-year-old, mature Blue Weber agave grown in the iron-rich red soil of the Jalisco highlands, every step of production after harvest takes place under Cárdenas' own roof. The agave is steam-cooked in a single, thick-walled earthen oven for 24 hours and then allowed to rest for another 24 hours before crushing. The collected liquid is naturally fermented (no additives are used to push things along) in open steel vats at a rate dictated by the ambient air temperature and the wild yeasts, usually lasting between six to nine days. The double distillation takes place in small steel stills. Those bespoke bottles by the way are made from recycled Mexican glass, hand-blown just an hour's drive from the distillery. Coronado uses any recycled clear glass he can find (mostly old Coke bottles) then chips in a few Dos Equis bottles for the green tint!

The distilled blanco is then rested in reused American whiskey barrels for eight months before bottling. These low-impact second or third fill barrels are given only the lightest char which allows for the refreshing, sappy notes of the agave to shine through, resulting in a Tequila that sips and mixes perfectly in equal measure--it's crisp, clean and elegant and kills it in a Tommy's Margarita. BIBENDUM BAR

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!