Calvados, Greco, tempranillo

The red 2020 Costumbres Tinto has a captivating and floral nose denoting elegance, freshness and balance in a warm region and a warm year. Carlos Mazo reckons this is around 80% Garnacha and 10% each Tinta Velasco (an obscure local grape) and Tempranillo that, despite the 14.7% alcohol, feels very balanced and even fresh. The tannins are very fine and the finish dry and chalky. The vines are now certified organic. 15,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2021. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

Combining grapes from Autol, Alfaro, Adeanueva and Rincón de Soto, Costumbres is a regional expression of the Rioja Oriental. Garnacha based with 5% Garnacha Roya, Tempranillo and Tinta Velasco, it's a very lightly wooded red with 100% whole bunch spices, subtle grip and layers of bramble, raspberry and red cherry fruit. TIM ATKIN MW.

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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!

The red 2019 La Calleja comes from a vineyard that could only be bottled in 2010, 2016 and 2018, as it has suffered everything—hail, frost or whatever. It's from a north-facing plot that was planted in 1992 in Fonzaleche on shallow sandstone soils on white limestone that is harvested late but keeps a moderate degree (14.2%). This 2019 feels darker than usual, with black rather than red fruit, but it is still vibrant on the palate with freshness and fine tannins. The vineyard is farmed organically (but not certified), and they started with regenerative agriculture in 2019. It had a long élevage of 23 months in foudres and 500-liter barrels. 5,200 bottles were filled in September 2021. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

La Calleja is a single hectare planted in 1992 by Eva with her father, when she was a little girl. 100% Tempranillo and typically yields 4500 litres (although the first vintage, 2010 produced just 3000 bottles). Its name means 'little street'. Mountainous, with lots of stone in the soil, Fonzaleche village produces light and fluid wines with excellent acid structure. Typical handling regime: lightly crushed (yielding only a half-litre per kilo of fruit), open fermentation in medium-sized old wood for 6 days without additions (total sulphur, 40mg/l).

Fruity-floral with violets, a fresh, mineral acidity and lovely texture, La Calleja is a genuine 'voice' distinct from the me-too choir of industrial-process Rioja.

Wine has been part of Victoria Ordóñez’s life for as long as she can remember. Her father, José María Ordóñez, was a pioneer of the Spanish wine industry, distributing fine wines across the Province of Malaga since the ’50s. Although Victoria’s own professional career took off in a different direction – she studied to be a doctor and has a PhD in Medicine – in 2004 she decided to enter the wine business, initially combining it with her work as a health service administrator.
Victoria admits that she owes everything to the Austrian oenologist Alois Kracher, with whom she worked side by side making Málaga wines until his death in 2007. It was at this point that her career took a fresh turn as she decided to focus exclusively on what had become her passion – the world of wine.
Tasting: Bright red fruits, fennel, and other Mediterranean herbs, chocolate, and violet aromas. Maroon color and fine tannins lend a pleasing structure. Vibrant with red berries and spicy flavors, the wine is at once concentrated and fresh. Beautiful silkiness and great finesse with a very fresh finish.
Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Syrah.20 months in barrels and 12 months in bottle. BARRICA WINES

This is so beautifully balanced with bright fruit, creamy and crunchy acidity and delicate tannins. Full and compressed with very polished tannins that go on for minutes. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. JAMES SUCKLING

Lanzaga a village wine, combining 35 plots, handled separately and blended after selection. Aged a year or so: half the wine matures in relatively neutral 1500-2000 litre wood; the rest in a mix of 225 and 600 litre barrels (at most 10% new oak).

One of the most intriguing trends in Rioja today, mirroring developments in other wine regions around the world, is the emergence of primary, reductive wines. A prime illustration of this is the 2022 Finca de los Locos, crafted from a blend of 75% Tempranillo, 20% Graciano and 5% Viura. Sourced from a vineyard planted in 1981 in Baños de Ebro, Rioja Alavesa, it was fermented with native yeast and aged for up to 12 months in large oak foudres. The 2022 displays a deep purple hue and unfolds enticing aromas of blueberry, violets and herbs against a backdrop of oak. On the palate, it is dry, juicy and chalky, with refreshing acidity that lends a compact and primary mouthfeel. This is definitely worth a sip. JOAQUIN HIDALGO, Vinous.com

Finca de Los Locos is often the chalkiest and most refreshing of Arturo de Miguel's reds and that's certainly the case here. Sourced from a parcel at 560 metres in Baños de Ebro, this is a well-judged cuvée of Tempranillo, 20% Graciano and 5% Viura, showing subtle stony reduction, good focus and depth, violet and mountain herb aromas, redcurrant and wild strawberry fruit and a pithy finish. TIM ATKIN MW, Rioja Report 2025

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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!

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!

This village wine is from a collection of vineyards in the highlands around San Vicente, at altitudes of 500m and above, from different sites and soils. Of San Vicente’s six valleys, all but la Rad figure. The composition is Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and a little Viura. Manual harvest; destemmed; all the plots are made separately, then blended. 

After fermentation in the concrete cubes in Briones, 40% of the village blend lingers in concrete, while the balance has ten months of gentle ageing is in old 500L barrels in the medieval cellar of San Vicente’s Castle Davalillo.

The whole orchard on display here, wood, flowers and fruits of cherries and apples, boysenberry, plum and blackberry. All is cut to shape by hyssop, juniper, dry brown spices and orchard bark. Savoury-but-juicy, it’s open, perfumed and round. Gravel and iron in the soil nuance the satin fruit-tannin sumptuousness. It’s a wine of great harmony and balance, and as it lingers, fruitfulness is beautifully trimmed by tannin to the finish where spice, bitters and easy nutty acid join in the violets-in-earth gorgeousness. SCOTT WASLEY

A river of black fruit, subtle florals and brown spices. Beautiful purity in the fruit, such detail and intensity and while there's a dusting of oak spice, the power and deeply pitched and mineral flecked fruit is very special. Bristling with energy. As I said above, long and aristocratic. Utterly convincing and delicious wine. MICHAEL MCNAMARA

Miguel Merino is a small family winery in the pueblo of Briones (formerly Brunes in Roman, itself a re-naming of from being that of the Berones, a pre-Roman Celtic people). Like most other Riojan villages, the vineyard land of Briones is a crazy patchwork of small grower holdings. Historically, during the tough years from 1940, these were organised by the village co-ops. More lately, since the 1980s conspiracy to eradicate the village from Appellation Rioja, fruit from these antique plots is mostly sold as cheap, anonymous kilos to ‘The Bigs’ for their reserva-etcetera industrial Riojas. As well as little good coming out of the co-ops and the reservas, a more disturbing sub-plot looms.

Many owners of these little parcels are now very old villagers, whose children are away in Madrid or somewhere, and interested in inheritance, not heritage. As the generational hollowing out of land ownership proceeds apace, many of these vineyards are being scooped up by The Bigs. BUT! In between these and the co-ops are a handful of owner-grower-makers intent on fashioning beautiful village Rioja.

Such a bright, fresh Rioja that shows vibrant fruit. Modern, glossy and structured, but the tannins are focused and polished. Long and concentrated. Drink or hold. ZEKUN SHUAI, JamesSuckling.com

The 2022 Sela comes from an early harvest after a very warm and dry summer, and the grapes had a shorter maturation cycle. It's 89% Tempranillo, 7% Garnacha and 4% Graciano from younger vines. The aim was to produce a more approachable red. This year, it has a deeper color, moderate 13.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.61 and 5.9 grams of acidity, possibly because of the blocking of some vines. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in oak vats and matured in used French barriques for 12 months. It has a creamy and spicy nose with notes of red and black fruit and a medium-bodied palate with good structure and abundant tannins, with grip and balance. It's very good for food. 98,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2024. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

Sela is Roda’s younger plantings, established in the late 80s at the inception of the Roda project. These three vineyards are north of Haro towards Villalba. Until now, this great young material was simply sold off on the bulk fruit market. Now, these vineyards are nicely mature and deserving release in their own right, but not yet qualifying as Roda or Roda 1 fruit, thanks to Roda’s insistence that these are only to be old vine (35 years or more) wines. ‘Sela’ maintains Roda’s hallmark of elegance and tannin fineness.

89% Tempranillo, 11% Graciano from sustainable vineyards, crianza of 12 months in used oak. The vines were ‘tutored’ on poles for their first 12 years, then released to be true bush-vines trained ‘en vaso’. The name is not a Rioja reference: Sela is named for the Scandinavian village where owner Mario Rottlant goes for ski holidays.

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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

Being part of the Rioja'n'Roll collective, Artuke is pushing the boundaries of Rioja. The 2022 Artuke Paso Las Mañas is a prime example of this innovation. It is 100% Tempranillo sourced from Samaniego, Rioja Alavesa. Aged for up to 12 months in foudres, this purple wine offers wild herbs and sour cherries on the nose, with violet and cedar hints. Dry and firm on the palate, the juicy and fine-grained tannins convey a compact, vibrant flow. This is a bold, fruit-forward wine bottled in a primary, reductive-like style, showcasing the dynamic spirit of modern Rioja winemaking. JOAQUIN HIDALGO, Vinous.com

Paso Las Mañas comes from one of the highest vineyards in Samaniego, planted as recently as 2013 at 720 metres. Denser and more compact than Artuke's other reds, even in a hot vintage like 2022, this is firm, chalky and very intense, with mountain herb aromas, damson, cranberry and blueberry flavours and a sturdy backbone of tannin.TIM ATKIN MW, Rioja Report 2025

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There is a new and impressive red 2020 Barrio Pastores, a village wine produced with old Garnacha grafted on Rupestris du Lot roots. It is perfumed and floral with moderate alcohol (13.8%) and with a medium-bodied palate with very fine tannins and a dry, austere finish. It has impressive freshness and a pH of 3.2 with 6.5 grams of acidity. The production tried to replicate the wines from yesteryear, and they achieved a clean, fine, soft, perfumed and happy red through foot-trodden grapes and maturing in large oak vats for 10 months. Superb debut. 2,000 bottles were filled in August 2021. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

This village wine is from a collection of vineyards in the highlands around San Vicente, at altitudes of 500m and above, from different sites and soils. Of San Vicente's six valleys, all but la Rad figure. The composition is Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and a little Viura. Manual harvest; destemmed; all the plots are made separately, then blended.

After fermentation in the concrete cubes in Briones, 40% of the village blend lingers in concrete, while the balance has ten months of gentle ageing is in old 500L barrels in the medieval cellar of San Vicente's Castle Davalillo.

Hailing from Rioja Alta, the 2022 José Gil Viñedos en San Vicente de la Sonsierra presents a unique blend of 75% Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and 5% white grapes. Fermented with 15% whole clusters, this purple wine exhibits a distinctive aroma of orange peel, accompanied by notes of blue and blackberry. Hints of elderflower and violets add further complexity. On the palate, it is dry, lean and intense, with a delicate and juicy character that lingers with refreshing ripeness. This wine offers an alluring and savory profile, infused with inspiration from the approach to Pinot Noir found in Burgundy. JOSE HIDALGO

The 2022 Viñedos en San Vicente de la Sonsierra was produced in the same way as the 2021 that I tasted next to it, trying to express finesse and purity in a warmer and ripe year. The wine has similar parameters, 13.9% alcohol. It's surprisingly fresh and harmonious for a 2022, close to the 2021 from the same village, with some floral hints and a seamless palate, juicy and with round tannins. 15,000 bottles produced. LUIS GUITTERREZ

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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!

Small parcels from the villages of San Esteban, Fuentelcésped, Hontangas, Cuevas de Provanco and Trigueros de Valle. 88%Tinto Fino (20% whole bunch) with 10% Garnacha (100% whole bunch) and some Albillo white. Aged 21 months, partly in Darnajou 225 and 600 litres, plus 2 Taransaud 1200 litre foudre in their third year.

Powerful but classy with fine fresh acidity and delightful earthen aromas developing with time open to air. Predominantly in a blue fruit register, with a crush of twig and glycerol tempered by fine minerality. Sweet spices and a vegetal tannin thread in the mouth replicates the woodsiness on the nose. Delicate bitters on the tongue elongate the finish, holding the mouth poised to notice the fine cloud of earthen-blue florals beyond. SCOTT WASLEY

The estate red 2016 Reserva comes from a late growing season and was produced with local varieties like Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and others from their 86 hectares of vineyards at 590 to 805 meters in altitude on limestone, sandstone and marl soils. The grapes were picked late with good ripeness and health and fermented with natural yeasts in stainless steel and open-top oak vats and then matured in oak containers of different sizes for 20 to 21 months. These are more classical wines, with a more evolved nose, with high ripeness and some balsamic and medicinal notes. It has a dusty palate with Nebbiolo-like tannins. 300,000 bottles and 8,200 magnums produced. It was bottled in May 2019. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

Today's Remelluri Reservas are consistent with those of the past: refined, elegant, and not much marked by racking - all oak influence is clean and meaningful. However, since Telmo's return it's a noticeably brighter, marginally richer, fabulously brambly red berry wine with wonderful florals. Tempranillo predominantly, with a little Graciano and Garnacha, plus field blend Viura and 'Malvasia'. Fermentation is in large conical oak vats, with pipeage. Malo is mainly in vats, with a portion in barrique. New oak ageing is reserved for the most structured fruit; most gains secondary character from 'oxidative' ageing in older wood. After about 17 months ageing, it's bottled unfiltered.

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The single-vineyard red 2020 Erosivo comes from a small plot planted with an unusual mix of grapes, 70% Tinta Velasco (that, confusingly enough, is locally called Graciano de Alfaro) and 30% white Calagraño (or Pasera) in the paraje Yasa de las Cuevas, in the Erosiva de Los Agudos. The nose is more Mediterranean with violets and red berries. The wine is ripe at 14.2% alcohol, and there are abundant, slightly dusty tannins. The alcohol is lower and the acidity higher, and the wine has some rusticity and character but comes through as balanced. It needs a little more time in bottle to polish the tannins. It was produced in a very hand-crafted way, foot treading the full bunches in open-top barrels and maturing the wine in a 600-liter oak barrel. Only 720 bottles were filled in July 2021. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

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The more classical 2018 Reserva showed a textbook nose of cigar ash, pencil lead, tobacco and forest floor, tertiary and developed, with a polished palate. It's elegant, has typicity and is balanced and fresh, really impressive and clean. It matured in American and French oak barrels for 22 months and has been in bottle since August 2020, getting closer to the profile of a Gran Reserva. Impressive. 8,620 bottles produced. This is the first vintage of Miguel Merino Junior for this wine. Bravo! (94) LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

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El Escolladero is a cuvée of Tempranillo and 15% Graciano from vines at 640 metres in cool climate Ábalos. Aged in larger foudres to soften its tannic structure, it has density and grip, damson, cranberry and black cherry fruit, muscular tannins, a hint of good reduction and plenty of texture and concentration.  (96) TIM ATKIN MW, Rioja Report 2025

The 2022 El Escolladero is 85% Tempranillo and 15% Graciano sourced from El Meadero in Ábalos, Rioja Alta. Aged for up to 12 months in foudres, this purple wine presents aromas of balsamic with an elder and sour cherry core, framed by an oaky touch. Dry, juicy and compact on the palate, this vibrant, fine-grained, chalky-textured wine lingers long with a whiff of pure, primary fruit—a modern Rioja wine. JOAQUIN HIDALGO, Vinous.com

 

 

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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!

The wine that stole the show this time is the 2020 Bahierra. It's from a single vineyard that they have worked organically for the past four years (but not certified) with some very old Garnacha and Viura on five terraces and some 35-year-old Tempranillo. It had a 15-month élevage in used 225- and 500-liter barrels and expresses the freshness of the place in Sajazarra. This vintage feels different, with red cherries and a touch of orange peel, more elegant and more Pinot Noir if you allow me. This is really a clarete with 60% red grapes and 40% white, fermented and aged like a red. The palate is vibrant and effervescent with acidity and acid berry flavors, ultra fine tannins and a long, supple and dry finish. Superb! Unfortunately, they had hail and had to sort to produce only 316 bottles. It was bottled in January 2022. It should age well. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

Located in the tiny pueblo of Villaseca, on the municipal footprint of Fonzaleche, Baherra is just north of Sajazarra, and features cold stony limey soil. It's a tiny 0.45 hectare field blend vineyard, planted 100 years ago to roughly 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 10% Viura and other unknown cultivars. Total yield is 1-1.5 tonnes (harvested in October).

Simply, the taste of a place. Tree and vine, wood and leaves, sky and earth. Brilliant, bright, savoury, lactic-electric fruit, centred and radiating. Floral, detailed, deep, fresh. Wonderful.

It has something special about it," says Arturo de Miguel of this remarkable 0.75- hectare parcel planted in 1920 and brought back from near abandonment in 2013. Rightly recognised as one of the world's great wines, this is a field blend of Tempranillo, 9% Graciano, 6% Garnacha and 5% Palomino. Floral, refined but concentrated at the same time, it has some subtle reduction, succulent tannins, sweet bramble, plum and wild strawberry fruit, a hint of garrigue and a long, satisfying finish (97) TIM ATKIN MW, Rioja Report 2025

The 2022 La Condenada is 80% Tempranillo and 20% Graciano, Garnacha and Palomino sourced from sandy loams in Baños de Ebro, Rioja Alavesa. Aged for up to 12 months in foudres, this garnet red wine offers a liqueur-like aroma of sour cherry and plum. Dry, lean and bold on the palate, the fine-grained tannins and juicy flow lead to a compact and flavorful experience. This wine embodies the essence of a primary, new-wave Rioja. JOAQUIN HIDALGO, Vinous.com

It's a battle royal of North vs South for our second premium pack where the only winner is going to be you! From the warm southern coast to the rolling hills of the verdant north, Italy's multitude of breathtaking terroir and incredible indigenous varieties is one to impress.

This is an exciting little pack, something a little different with some cracking little wines brand new to the country, some Prince Wine Store classics and a couple of wines, we know, you will be happily and wonderfully surprised by.

From the north we start with one of the best new wines we have seen in a while. The Battiselle le Battiselle Soave is such a beautiful Soave. This is the second vintage of this to hit our shores and we missed the tiny allocation last time but certainly won't this time. You are in for a treat as we think this is one of best Soave's, if not, best white wine from Italy in some time.

Next up is the La Dama Vini Superiore. A nuanced and pretty style Valpolicella from a modern and thoughtful producer. Also relatively new to the country this see's the skins of the Amarone ferment added to the Valpolicella to add an extra depth and richness that you do not normally see from the Classico versions. 

Last is the king of red wine in Italy and the Mauro Veglio Barolo Gattera. Both the vineyard and the vintage favour this release with so much immediate appeal straight our of the gate. Veglio is turning back the use of oak and we are reaping the benefits for the change in tack. All the generosity is still there of the house style but with even more clarity and verve.

From the south we start with the Petila Greco di Tufo. This is another family estate that has only relatively recently started to bottle under their own label. This come from an elevated plot of old vines and see's some extended ageing and subtle barrel work. The zingy greco grape keeps it liveliness while the extra time in bottle has built and layered the wine.

We would be hard pressed not to include an Etna Rosso in the pack and we are so lucky that our choices here in Aus are so exceptional.  Giuseppe Tornatore spent much of the early 2000s sourcing some of the regions best plots which has proved to be an insightful move with, now some of the most highly sought after vineyards in his holding and what seems like an unstoppable thirst for his wines.

The last wine of the list is a real treat and was such a surprise for us in a recent tasting. This hails from foothills of Mt Vesuvias and in fact the vineyards overlook the famous ruins of Pompei. Unsurprisingly the wine reflects in origins and is an intriguing blend of piedirosso and aglianico that greets you with its smokey and charred fruit overlayed with dried and broody fruits.

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